Surface 7: Alone in the Mist is a fabulous entry into the long-standing Surface franchise. The game is as close to complete as it gets. Fans will be thrilled, and newcomers entertained. This is a hidden object game everyone should play.
Story
You start Surface 7: Alone in the Mist waking up on the day of your 16th birthday, but something is wrong. You experienced a terrifying nightmare the night before featuring a grim-looking girl you didn’t recognize. Your parents are nowhere to be found. After speaking with one of your friends, you discover all the adults have gone missing, and it is your mission to find out why.
While Surface 7’s storyline might be its weakest link, it is hardly a deal breaker. Using beautiful cutscenes, newspaper clippings, and notes, you learn about the history of your family and town in an engaging and emotionally-connected way. Alone in the Mist doesn’t add much to the hidden object game genre in terms of story-telling elements, but it does a perfectly fine job.
You walk out of your house to find your hometown left in ruin. As you move through the game, you are constantly teased with evil-looking images of the girl from your nightmare. She turns out to be Allie Rice, a new child at the local orphanage, and everything going wrong in the town seems to be connected with her.
Gameplay
While it is always hard to innovate the standard HOG formula, Surface 7 does a good job of keeping things interesting. The game is refreshingly non-linear, keeping every environment relevant throughout the storyline, and forcing you to think on your toes. You will need to retrace your steps regularly, and use your brain. No click-mashing here.
The mini-games are also spot on. While many of them are simple remakes of the standard puzzles you find in other hidden object games, Surface 7: Alone in the Mist manages to keep things fresh and puts interesting twists on all of them. Once again, these mini-games will force you to think on your toes, instead of making you feel like you have played them in a hundred HOGs before.
Graphics
Surface 7: Alone in the Mist features stunning visuals that hit the mark in almost every way a game like this can. The artwork is sufficiently creepy and dark – busted up cop cars look thrashed and broken, while abandoned cafes look dusty and grey – the games visuals do a perfect job of setting the mood and making you feel like you are really there. The game is set in a deserted town, and it feels like it.
Surface 7 mixes up its aesthetic as well. Instead of washing every environment with the same dark and dreary colors, the game fuses a wide range of bright, colorful, dark, dim, and spine-chilling environments together. No two scenes look the same, and no two feel the same either. The locations visually change with every advance you make, giving the game a true sense of progression.
The graphics are not perfect, however. Some of the animations look a bit clunky and awkward. Several of the cutscenes try to meld 3D and 2D graphics together – sometimes it works, and other times not. There are a few moments when Surface 7 will introduce photos from the real world, which only serve to remove you from the experience and inspire a bit of confusion.
These are all minor misdemeanors, however. In general, the game’s visuals are fantastically creepy, and you will love them.
Sound
This is where Surface 7: Alone in the Mist really steps away from the competition. Hidden object games often follow eerie themes designed to frighten you, and almost all of them fail miserably to be scary. Surface 7 succeeds where all of them have faltered.
The game’s musical scores are superb, and set the tone exactly as music should. Whooshing detuned violins introduce shocking moments like a Hollywood blockbuster, and tense staccato strings will put goose bumps on your neck, as any good horror flick should.
While the sound effects in Surface 7 are nothing outside of the standard clicks, bumps, cracks, and ambient drones you would hear in any HOG, the music is on another level. This game will actually make you scared, something almost no other hidden object game has accomplished.
Conclusion
Surface 7: Alone in the Mist is one of the best hidden object games you will play. While a slightly drab storyline and a few awkward visual elements prevent it from a perfect score, on the whole, the game is as polished and refined as any HOG out there.
Fans and newcomers to the Surface series will have a hard time turning the game off. The music is invigorating, the gameplay is challenging, and the visuals hit the mark.
Whether you are new to hidden object games, or a seasoned pro, Surface 7 is a stunning piece of art that you have to try.