The Flux Family Secrets: Ripple Effect Review

“A mysterious family has contacted you and holds the secrets of your past! Fix the errors in time in this exciting Hidden Object game and take your rightful place in the Flux family! Explore famous historical sites like Hatshepsut`s tomb, the Wright Brothers` workshop, Benjamin Franklin`s study and many more. Flux Family Secrets: The Ripple Effect has you realign the timeline by finding misplaced objects scattered through time and solving clever puzzles.”
– BigFishGames.com

Here is another well-done satisfactory and fulfilling puzzle game from Skunk Studios that is going to be remembered for a long time.

Story: You play as Jesse, a girl without a past. How far will you go to regain your history? Jesse is revealed to be a member of the Flux family, which has the extraordinary power to travel through time. But Veronica of the same Flux family is looking to distort history with this power! Will Jesse be able to stop it? And what has this to do with her past?

[Note: The narrative is average, but very suitable for a game where you don’t want to bother with the plot. Also, the explanation of the “ripple effect” is balderdash, as you’ll see; but it’s forgivable.]

Puzzles: Why I say this is a fulfilling game is because the puzzles are very intelligent, and there is a pleasure to solving them. Mind, not all can be solved by the average player –  some need to be skipped. But in general, the puzzles are of an incredible variety and somewhere between moderate and tough. And they make sense (yes, even the hidden object ones). You need to collect historical artifacts scattered in pieces in the wrong age, and put them back where they belong. Amelia Earhart, William Shakespeare, Christopher Columbus, Abbey Road Studios, Albert Einstein, Queen Hatshepsut, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Confucius and the Wright Brothers – these are the persons throughout history who’ve lost their prized possessions due to the ripple effect. What I really liked was that each one of them has a separate room and separate music suitable for his/her age. And you get to do their bidding for them – including finding Einstein’s E=mc² equation and Shakespeare’s plays!

Not more than 4 to 5 hours of play is needed to finish this the first time. The second time, well, the puzzles get tougher, the computer opponent becomes more intelligent and the objects are hidden in even more improbable places, so naturally, the time required goes up by a few more hours.

PS: I played through the game the second time, and it actually takes a good 1 hour less. Seems like the games’ not so tough the second time as it demands.

Graphics: The graphics and the special effects are truly awesome. Same goes with the music. Watch out for Confucius’ room, it’s so grandly and designed that you’d have a hard time picking things out!

Bottomline: Truly a puzzle game, this is a very interesting play simply for its variety of mini games. Cool graphics and music create a grand ambience reminiscent of the respective ages. Definitely play this if you’re a fan of the hidden object or puzzle genre. Bonus? There is soon to be a sequel.

Rating:

PS: Are there some easter eggs throughout the game? In Einstein’s room, their was a knife carving on a drawer – “Mozart has the combo.” When you assemble a radio, it also speaks out the same line. Columbus’ table has a writing under the log book, “Beware of Veronica.” So what do you think, easter eggs or reference points for a sequel?

Visit Big Fish Games for more info and the trial version.

Visit Mininova for the full version.