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Developed by Artogon Games, published by BigFish Games

Adventure runs in the family! Join Nelly and Tommy in their quest to retrieve their pirate grandmother`s hidden treasure! Test your skills with challenging puzzles that will take you from strange laboratories to the dangerous depths of the ocean. Play at your own pace with no timers or penalties, just hours of brain-tickling Hidden Object fun.
- BigFish Games

Story: Young Nelly has dreams every night – of her dead grandmother, the great Pirate Charlotte – and all the gold she had amassed. The prospect of recovering the gold – and above all, the alluring adventure of a treasure hunt – drives Nelly and her kid brother Tom out of their homes one morning when their parents are out. Trace their magical journey as they look for their grandmother’s loot with the help of a mad scientist!

Honestly, the story of Treasure Seekers: Vision of Gold is neither meaningful nor impressive. The red headed siblings, Huckleberry Finn-ish Tom and calm, composed Nelly look way too small to go out and do all the things they have to do – even giving them the free reign that heroes and heroines of games must have. And were their parents out on an intergalactic travel or what? If two children can learn about and discover an entire chamber filled with coveted treasure, all in the small interval one morning when their parents are out, I guess it’s time to send special forces to see if they got lost!

Don’t get me wrong, the plot has its high points too. Nelly’s initial dream rightly captures her excitement and longing to meet her grandmother. And in the parting dialogues – when the kids finally have the treasure chest open in front of them – Tom’s childish innocence and selflessness pays a fitting ode to their grandmother’s treasure.

Nelly and Tom Find the Treasure

Gameplay: Treasure Seekers: Visions of Gold is quite a satisfactory game to play, provided you overlook its own minor glitches.

Most of the game is made of purely interactive Hidden Object puzzles – you have to repair some objects in each room and use them as befits to move forward. And here is where the glitch lies – each scene requires you to do some totally unnecessary things to unlock the next room. Totally. With no explanations forwarded as to why using an elaborate contraption to knock a cap off a statue could have any effect on repairing a bridge (it doesn’t).

To be fair, Visions of Gold is one of the hardest games I’ve played in recent times. It’s not something you can play while relaxing in your reclining chair. The accompanying minigames are delectably baffling, not as much in logic as in their sheer complexity.

Dutifully enough, a Hint button and a Skip Puzzle button are provided, but here’s the catch – you can give your dog a nice bath and a massage to boot by the time the Skip Puzzle button will fully charge up. The Hint button is slightly better than that. So you’re forced to play much of the game with your own brains!

Pirate Charlotte

Graphics and Music: Treasure Seekers 1 is better than average when it comes to its graphics. Nothing much to say on this front, because its sequel, Treasure Seekers 2: Enchanted Canvasses, provides some mind blowing visuals that are simply beyond criticism.

Bottomline: Visions of Gold is good and true entertainment packed into an average sized game. For once there is no attempt to create a dark and gloomy atmosphere where there is none – the game is resplendent in the young children’s bubbling innocence and enthusiasm. For once, there is a beautiful and harmless ghost who touches your heart. And for once, a game with an awkwardly misconstructed plot that glitters in its brilliance and makes you come back for more.

Should you play this? Of course!

But more than that, you should check out the newer version – Treasure Seekers 2: Enchanted Canvasses!

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