Artogon Games entertained us in 2008 and 2010 with its Crystal Portal series and this year, the Russian company's back to take us on another mysterious ride in Shiver: Vanishing Hitchhiker. Building on a timeless ghost story, the game is an exercise in restraint; slow-moving, atmospheric and very spooky.
For those sad souls who've never had the privilege of telling ghost stories around a camp fire, the story of vanishing hitchhiker goes something like this. You're driving down a deserted road at night (sometimes it's raining, sometimes not) when you spot a young girl walking by the side of the road. You stop and offer her a ride and she gets in, sitting quietly by your side and not saying much. Just as you reach a particular destination (it could be a house or a graveyard or any other significant location), you turn to let her out and discover she's vanished into thin air.
Vanishing Hitchhiker offers its own version of the story, putting you in the shoes of a late-night traveler who finds himself giving a ride to a strange girl and then following her to the town of Gordon Creek. There you discover creepy things are afoot. The town appears long-abandoned and as you move through its empty streets and dilapidated buildings, you start to uncover a fifty year old mystery involving frightening psycho-therapy, ancient spirits and murder.
The game is mostly silent, relying on subtle sound effects and isolated bits of eerie music like Mozart's Lacrimosa. There's no voiceover and all of your observations are conveyed via text only. This makes for a tense, suspenseful experience as you rummage through burned out buildings looking for the lost girl.
While there's nothing especially innovative about this hidden object adventure, it's still very well constructed. Puzzles aren't particularly challenging but are interconnected well and the game's 3D and photographic artwork is expertly done. Anyone who's played more than a few games in the genre will guess the game's secret early on but it's still fun to work toward that conclusion.
All told, Shiver: Vanishing Hitchhiker isn't the best hidden object adventure you've ever played, but it's certainly a solid entertainment value that's well worth it's $6.99 asking price.
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