Christmas Adventure: Candy Storm is a relaxing, Christmas-themed casual hidden object puzzle game that’ll take you about two hours to complete. It has little in the way of replay value, but is well-priced for what it is, and so justifies it.
Things I Liked:
- Has achievements.
- Easy to 100% achievements.
- Puzzles are a good challenge without being too extremely hard or easy.
- Relaxing and Christmassy.
- Mis-click penalty, though not aggressive, adds another small challenge.
- Music is relaxing and festive.
Things I Didn’t Like:
- Short.
- Story isn’t as engaging as other hidden object games.
- Graphics don’t look great in 16:9 aspect ratio. Seems to be designed for 4:3.
- Some translation mistakes. Items misnamed.
Gameplay:
Christmas Adventure: Candy Storm is an extremely casual game, such that you can play it with just a mouse. It consists of a handful of scenes that you interact with by clicking on them. Some are hidden object scenes, and you get a list of items to find in a Christmas-themed mess. Others are more interactive and might require you to unlock a door or something.
Occasionally, you’ll be challenged with a puzzle, such as opening a lock, which you do by arranging some items in a certain order, for example. All of these are pretty easy but just in case you can’t beat them, or don’t enjoy them, there’s a skip button to let you carry on with the game.
The game provides a hint feature for times where you’re stuck, since objectives can sometimes be confusing. I appreciated this and used it once or twice. It has a fairly slow recharge speed too, so you can’t rely on it too heavily, which I like as it encourages you to actually try at the game. However, you can’t tell (or at least I couldn’t) how close it was to a full recharge – there was no meter or anything. I wish this had been otherwise, because some items are mis-named and I couldn’t find them as a result, and waiting for the recharge to finish without knowing when it would be was a little on the boring side.
I appreciate that all the achievements are dropped during gameplay as you progress, and are unmissable. When you finish the game, you will have 100% completed the achievements. This was a nice change that I appreciated. For completionists, this game is a dream.
Sound:
Sound design is fine. There’s minimal other noise aside from the game music which is light and pleasingly Christmassy, if a little repetitive at times. Some other actions in the game have corresponding audio too, such as a satisfying indicator tone when you select something in a hidden object scene, a scraping noise when you scrape something, or a clicking noise as you turn a lock, etc. It’s nothing comprehensive but it’s immersive enough and gives the game just that little bit more atmosphere.
Story:
The story is very basic, and revolves around you having to help three old ladies who I believe are all sisters in order to get something you want. They’ll give you odd quests, like always in this genre of game, and you have to go around looking through loads of rubbish and using some of the useful items you find to complete objectives. It’s quite a friendly, festive, and cosy-feeling story, but it’s not in any way emotional or particularly memorable. It’s just there as something to drive/incentivise the gameplay, and that’s fine. I expected nothing more.
Graphics:
The graphics are fine. Cutscenes are clear enough, and the game looks pretty with its set design and the assets sprinkled around. The few characters you meet are animated enough to feel alive, and various lighting in different scenes brings out colder and warmer feelings respectively.
However, it does seem the game was designed for square-shaped screens, presumably of a 4:3 aspect ratio. Playing it in fullscreen on a 16:9 widescreen monitor made the image appear less clear and stretched. Not by any means unplayable, but noticeable. However, no other reviews I’ve seen mention this so it could just be me.
Conclusion:
If you play hidden object games a lot, and know what to expect, I don’t think Christmas Adventure: Candy Storm will disappoint. It is quite short compared to most others, the graphics aren’t as good, and the story is incredibly lackluster, but this isn’t trying to be game of the year. It’s a cheap, fun way to spend a few hours getting into the festive, Christmas spirit. I’d recommend it.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Context: This review was first written for Steam, and posted on the 19th of December, 2020. This website was made years later and old reviews are being posted retro-actively here to get the site up to speed, in case they seem to be posted at an odd time, like this review, being posted a nearly a month after Christmas.