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Aww, she’s taking a nap. She must be our little friend for this game. Hey, maybe it’s
about playing with toys. Time to wake u—oh, what the f*ck?!
Just released to the App Store, this game is definitely not about playing with toys.
It’s called Redrum: Dead Diary...and what a name like that, I mean, who knew? It’s
a new hidden-object game from G5 Entertainment, and while it’s lacking in some areas, the
atmosphere and the gruesomeness certainly makes it unique.
Redrum tells the story of Rose, the little girl who was too busy being possessed by demons
or whatever to share her toys. Little b*tch. I don’t even feel bad that she sees dead
people everywhere and that her parents unknowingly sent to an evil doctor who now performs evil
experiments on her.
Alright, maybe I feel a little bad.
So the story is really the main attraction in Redrum. It’s really dark and twisted,
more than we usually see from this genre. And it’s told exclusively through notes
and emails from the parents and the doctor and even Rose herself. That’s awesome.
The problem is...I mean, it’s not done all that well.
See, Redrum is definitely compelling, but it’s often compelling in spite of itself.
The presentation is so barebones and so rudimentary, your imagination ends up filling the holes
left by the game. And that’s fine, if not for how big those holes are. The point is,
Redrum has a cool story and an interesting way to tell it...but the execution just falls
short of the concept.
But the real bummer is that the gameplay also falls short. The hidden-object scenes never
seem to go beyond standard, and the weird thing is...they seem to be there only to progress
the story. There’s no scoring, no penalty for missing taps...it’s nice that the game
realizes its story is its strong point, but the gameplay could be better, too.
Actually, the best part of the gameplay are these minigame scenes. You get a picture split
into these puzzle pieces, and you have to tap the picture where the pieces match. It’s
a unique take on things, and it’s actually one the highlights of the game.
Hidden object games are usually pretty dramatic. This one is something different. For that
alone, Redrum is worth a mention. And if it were a bit sharper with its presentation and
execution, it’d be worth a lot more. As it is, it’s recommended for fans of the
genre looking for something new...and maybe exorcists.