Endless Fables: The Minotaur’s Curse

Developer: Sunward Games | Publisher: Artifex Mundi | Release Date: 2016 | Genre: Casual / Adventure / Hidden Object | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Everyone familiar with Greek mythology will know about the Minotaur’s defeat at the hands of the hero Theseus. Of course, Theseus had some assistance from Ariadne, Minos’ daughter who had fallen in love with the Athenian. Endless Fables: The Minotaur’s Curse opens with the heroine, Pamela Cavendish, discovering that the Minotaur might not be as defeated as everyone thought. Instead, its soul survived and is now in danger of being revived by a secret sect. There is only way to prevent this from happening and that is if a descendant of Ariadne puts a stop to this. As luck would have it, Pamela is not just an anthropologist, but just happens to be the “chosen one” as well.

Endless Fables: The Minotaur’s Curse is a hidden object puzzle adventure developed by the same team behind the successful Secret Order series. The adventure begins in Paris, but Pamela soon finds herself visiting more exotic locations, ancient temples, murky shores and in an effort to thwart the return of the Minotaur. Along the way she’ll also encounter a couple of other familiar faces from Greek mythology, such as Medusa and the Sirens. In total, there are close to 48 locations to explore, all of them featuring the trademark Sunward Games attention to detail. Some of the cut-scenes look somewhat pixilated when viewed in full-screen on a high definition display, but the in-game visuals look great throughout.

There is more to the game than simply gawking at the pretty visuals, though, as Pamela must also solve 17 hidden object scenes along with 34 mini games. The hidden object scenes are rather easy and shouldn’t tax anyone too much, but they do feature some variety. From word lists to silhouettes or simply scenes where you are told how many interactions are left to get to the item you really need, these scenes are quite enjoyable. Players who desire more of a challenge can aim for the achievements, which includes finishing hidden object scenes under a certain amount of seconds without making use of any hints. The game also features a Mahjong alternative to the hidden object scenes for players who are not too fond of these scenes. The minigames are also quite varied and while many of them will be very familiar to fans of the genre, there are a couple of unique ones. Finally, the game features plenty of morphing objects, hidden butterflies, hidden bugs and hidden flowers for eagle-eyed players to collect. All of these are purely optional, but there are Steam achievements associated with finding all of them and doing so adds a nice additional challenge. It also forces you to pay closer attention to the locations instead of rushing through them.

Even with all the extra objects to find, The Minotaur’s Curse isn’t a very long game and can be completed in one or two sittings. Thankfully, the game features very little in the way of backtracking, so it doesn’t feel like the story is drawn out intentionally. As a descendant of Ariadne, Pamela is able to wield an artifact known as the Thread of Ariadne. Initially, it can only be used to melt golden objects, but two additional powers are unlocked over the course of the adventure. It is usually fairly obvious when and where to use these powers, but the game also features a recharging hint system to assist anyone who becomes stuck trying to figure out where to go or what to do. After completing the main story, players also gain access to a bonus adventure that involves freeing Pegasus from an evil Cyclops in order to escape the island. While the bonus adventure isn’t very long, it is a welcome addition to the story and completing it is required if you want to get all the achievements.

Overall, The Minotaur’s Curse is a fairly straightforward hidden object game that should be appealing to fans of the genre or anyone interested in Greek mythology. Visually, the game looks good and it doesn’t fare too bad when it comes to the audio either. None of the tunes really stand out as exceptional, but they make for nice background music while you go about exploring and solving puzzles. The voice acting is pretty standard for the genre and the interface will be familiar to anyone who has ever played a hidden object game before. Newcomers to the genre will quickly be brought up to speed thanks to the optional tutorial at the start of the game. The only gripe we had with the interface is a strange quirk that prevented us from clicking on an item in the inventory until we have moved the cursor out of the inventory space and back in again. This was slightly annoying, but not exactly game breaking.

While The Minotaur’s Curse is unmistakably a Sunward Games title and shares a lot of similarities with their Secret Order series, it is an enjoyable enough game in its own right. It is not particularly groundbreaking or innovative, but checks all the right boxes in terms of what fans expect from a hidden object puzzle adventure. If you are looking for something slow and relaxing to while away a lazy afternoon you can do far worse than this game.