There's been lots of crossover between console games and TV these days (witness the CSI games or the Food Network's Wii game, Cook or be Cooked) so it's no surprise that casual games would get into the act as well. Till now, there have been a lot of TV game shows adapted to online games but not very many other genres have made the cut. This month, Namco Networks in partnership with public television station WGBH and BBC TV brings us Antiques Roadshow, the game.
Players take on the role of Julia, a young woman apparently unemployed, who at game start is inspired by her favorite TV show to look for work at a nearby antique store. It's there she meets store owner Charlie Hinton, who sends her on a scavenger hunt of sorts, for a rare item he's found pictured in a photo fragment. It turns out Julia's a natural at antiqueing and soon she's finding beautiful items for Mr. Hinton's shop -- and is caught up in a historical mystery.
Many hidden object games these days are employing more adventure game elements--more situational and traditional puzzles. Antiques Roadshow by contrast, is heavy on the hidden object gameplay and light on the adventure but mixes things up now and then by having you play restoration mini-games. You might be asked to polish a statue, sew a torn sleeve or glue a crack in a musical instrument. All of these actions up the value of the items by thousands of dollars and that's a big part of the fun. As you're looking for items, an onscreen meter tracks the dollar value of the items you find and it's very satisfying to hear the "cha-ching" every time you find something new. The height of this is when you get to take your haul to the actual Antiques Roadshow.
Periodically, Julia takes a breather from jetting across the country following different leads to present an item at the Roadshow. The sequence starts just like the PBS TV show (graphics, old-timey music and everything) and then Julia is shown presenting an item to an expert who assesses the value of it. This part of the game will really appeal to fans of the show, since you get to learn a little bit of history about the item and then the (usually astronomical) value of it.
The story thread holding the various antique hunt sequences together is a mystery involving fragments of a torn photo. The fragments are hidden in various antique items around the country and reveal a secret message that Julia becomes determined to decipher. The hidden object play and this storyline make for some good fun even if you're not an Antiques Roadshow fan. In fact, the only complaint gamers might have of the game is that it might have been nice to avoid revisiting locations so many times by having a wider variety of them.
Overall, Antiques Roadshow is a solid hidden object game. And at $9.99 it's a good entertainment value, especially since it contains about a third more content that your average hidden object title. Look for it on the Namco Networks website.
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