Not content with filling the Xbox Store with monthly hidden object games, Artifex Mundi are now in the business of remastering their old games too. Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride was one of the first hidden object titles to hit the Xbox (releasing almost seven years ago to the day), and it’s admittedly begun to show its age. That staleness is enough to tempt Artifex into waving its 4K wand.
As someone who has played every single Artifex Mundi hidden object title on the Xbox (something I’m not sure whether we’re proud of or not), there’s something fascinating about returning to one of the games that started it all. In my reviews, I often complain that Artifex Mundi feel like they’re standing still: rarely innovating, and failing to improve their series over time. But with Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride (Xbox Series X|S Edition), I have to eat my words. Artifex Mundi must have improved their games over time, because playing this one is like chewing on an old, ragged sweet that’s well past its sell by date.
Let’s cover the remaster stuff first. Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride (Xbox Series Edition) does undoubtedly look better than its Xbox One counterpart. It’s most evident in the character animations. In neither version are they good (this is one of the early Artifex games, where the characters appear onscreen and animate like uncanny mannequins. Uncannyquins?). But while the original felt like they were smeared in vaseline, with too much motion-blur to make them clear, they are sharper here. That sharpness highlights the flaws in the character art and animation, but it’s great to see the fog clear.
The hidden object scenes looked great in the original, and are greater yet in the Xbox Series Edition. Everything is completely clear. When you can’t spot an item in the tableaux, it’s because Artifex have hidden it too well. There’s a habit of tucking items into shoes and helmets so only a miniscule amount of it shows.
Generally, if you loved this game the first time out, then Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride (Xbox Series Edition) whacks out the Mr Sheen and gives it a thorough, sparkling clean. There are no game additions, no gobsmacking improvements, but there are enough fidelity tweaks to make this worth a second visitation.
If you’re relatively new to the whole hidden object and Artifex thing, though, then this wouldn’t be our first choice. It’s surprisingly flawed, and has none of the smoothness that we have come to expect from their more modern titles.
The Forsaken Bride is a long list of stuff that Artifex just doesn’t do anymore. Take the way it handles locations. There is a sprawling map in Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride (Xbox Series Edition) that allows you to revisit old areas. In fact, you have to revisit a few, as they remain relevant even when you are a dozen screens further on. Keeping twelve-or-so locations at the forefront of our mind, remembering the items that they need, was more than our puny brains could handle. We relied on the map, teleporting to screens that had a helpful ‘!’, denoting something that can be done. But we didn’t want to rely on that map. We wanted to do it ourselves, yet the game was too big for its own good.
Then there are the minigames. There are loads of them here, and they slow everything down to a crawl. They are dense, often difficult, and they can kill any momentum you might have. Plus, they just don’t have the required signs and feedback to make them good puzzles. One has you matching the make-up of your sister, but it’s almost impossible to discern the hue from the little information you have. Another is a chess knight puzzle, as you try to land on every square of the board, but it’s weirdly hard to tell which square has been ticked off the list, and which has not.
We have a sweet-spot for difficulty in Artifex hidden object games. If we finish the game having used a hint anywhere from once to a couple of times, then the game is probably pitched well. In Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride (Xbox Series Edition), we used hints seven or eight times. And that’s mostly because we couldn’t be arsed: the puzzles simply weren’t legible enough, not laying out their rules in a clear manner.
Those hidden object scenes aren’t immune to the same problem. Our least favourite scenes are where you’re given a silhouette of an item, rather than the name of it. It just leaves too much open to interpretation: is the item big or small? The silhouette doesn’t make it clear. What if the item is hugely obscured in the scene? A silhouette isn’t much use if you can only see a third of the item. Again, the hint system becomes too tempting.
Credit should go to the story in Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride (Xbox Series Edition), as it’s got something that has been lost along the way. Modern Artifex games are too protective of the player’s attention spans, so often run a singular plot over the course of the whole game: find the sorcerer; recover the crystals. Here, the plot actually develops. Characters cross and double-cross each other, and revelations appear at a reasonably fast cadence. You don’t see that much in the modern titles, and we miss it.
If you’ve come to this review as a time-worn hidden object player, or you’ve played Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride before, then you can be reassured: this Xbox Series Edition is carefully preserved and updated. The character animations in particular have nowhere to hide, looking crisp in 4K.
But if you’re used to the friction-free experience of a modern title then you might be in for a surprise. Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride’s (Xbox Series Edition) remaster has also preserved the puzzles, and they’re an abstract, messy bunch. They just don’t do a good job of explaining themselves, which can make the hint system tempting. Too tempting.
We take it all back. Artifex Mundi: maybe your games have improved over time, after all.
