Brink of Consciousness Lonely Hearts Murders Review

Magicindie Softworks has recently created a "sequel" to the popular Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome hidden object game, titled Brink of Consciousness: Lonely Hearts Murders. However, this is more of just another addition to the Brink of Consciousness series than a direct sequel to Dorian Gray Syndrome. In Lonely Hearts Murders, you play Owen Wright, a grief-stricken father who is looking for his missing daughter Olivia. The stage is set in the 1890's London, and there's a serial killer on the loose in the city that is causing much disturbance among the upper classes. The killer only targets young people who are single or have recently underwent a breakup. All of his victims are held alive for 30 days before being killed and put on in a horrifying display somewhere in town. And, of course, Owen's daughter had to just go through a painful breakup. Fearing the worst, Owen calls for the help of his old detective friend Logan Green to help find his daughter and to stop the Lonely Hearts Killer before it's too late.

Unlike the previous installment in the series, Lonely Hearts Murders focuses more on the adventure aspect than hidden object scenes. For me this is a good thing, because I sometimes really hate needing to constantly search through crowded hidden object scenes just to be able to move on with the story. Instead, you'll find most of the items you need either scattered through the streets or in buildings or as rewards from puzzles. Of course there will always be a few hidden object scenes, but the amount is noticeably smaller. Regarding the hidden object scenes though, the scenes have been expertly handled so that they do not feel crowded. It won't at all feel like you're just scrambling around in a trash heap looking for random items. A few items will require further interactions to find in the scene. For example, using a key to unlock a jewelry box in order to find a ring. Most of these interactions are pretty straightforward though. Remember, if you ever get stuck, there's always either the Hint button or scanning your cursor across the scene until it turns into a hand. You'll end up revisiting a few hidden object scenes every now and then but none to the degree that you feel that they have been overused. Though, of course with these hidden object scenes, it's always frustrating when say you need to find a screwdriver, a screwdriver is in the list of hidden objects to find, yet you don't get it as your "reward".


Speaking of the Hint button, the Hint button will not be limited to only the hidden object scenes but will also work outside them. If you are in the wrong scene the Hint will guide you with arrows, telling you to move from one scene to the next. However, unlike the Mystery Trackers series, there will be no dialog box that pops up that will almost tell you exactly what needs to be done.When being directed to another scene, the Hint button will not deplete itself, so you can use it again if you still don't know which scene you're supposed to be in.

The graphics themselves are absolutely stunning with high-quality graphics and nice little details. Sometimes I find myself pausing the game just to admire the scenery.  The color-filtered scenes lend an eerie touch to the overall game. Add that with the game's soundtrack calls for even more suspense. The music fits very well with the game and are not at all overbearing like in other games. Instead they act more as background music so that you don't have to complete the game in silence when there are no cutscenes.


Everything is fully voiced and done extremely well, I might add! All the characters have emotions and it won't at all sound like the voice actors are just reading off a script. All the voice-acting was done just as beautifully, if not better, than Dorian Gray Syndrome. The cutscenes themselves are also fully animated, voiced, and lip-synched. You will also be able to see the movements and responses of other characters in the scenes, which is a very nice touch. This just proves that live-acting is not required in order for good animations. In fact I found the animations to be better than the live-acting in some of the other games I've played. The dialogue however can be a little cliched at times. A few of the cutscenes are actually quite funny, particularly the interactions between Logan and Evans, and these can serve as comic-relief to an otherwise creepy setting.

Map: As in most hidden object games of this nature, a map will be provided. It will show you the various locations and notify you if there are unfilled tasks in certain locations. Unfortunately, the map is not interactive so you will not be able to quickly move from one scene to another. This is just the same as in Dorian Gray Syndrome. Needless to say, the lack of an interactive map will result in much backtracking.

Puzzles: While the game does lack in hidden object scenes, there are a lot of puzzles scattered throughout the game. Some are fairly obvious and simple while others can be much more challenging. For example, in one particular puzzle you'll be asked to guide a ball through a maze using steam. If you ever do find yourself stuck, you can always Skip the puzzle, though the Skip button can take awhile to load. But none of the puzzles are truly worthy of frying your brain.


Journal: Surprisingly, there was no journal/diary to be found in the game. Though not necessary, the journal is always a nice addition so that you'll be able to read further on the thoughts of the main character or in case you didn't understand something. It's also a great place to keep track of any codes or clues you find along the way. But then again, the journals never did really make sense to me since in most of the games I've played it is highly unlikely that the main character would be carrying around a journal with him or her in the first place let alone filling it out. And here I am, playing a hidden object game and complaining about the lack of logic in having a journal.

Difficulty: There are three difficulty levels: Casual, Normal, and Expert. In Casual mode, the game can be fairly easy. However, Expert mode can prove to be more of a challenge/problem. This is because in Expert Mode you are unable to use hints or the map and active zones will not sparkle/are not highlighted.


Regarding the game's suspense, I found it to be much more casual than Dorian Gray Syndrome. I guess maybe it's because you're not constantly being taunted by the enemy or placed into life-threatening situations in the game.Plus the whole thirty days thing just made it feel like you have all the time in the world to save Olivia. I think the game would have been much more suspenseful if the time limit had been shortened to say less than a week or something. While the storyline is very interesting and creepy, it just didn't seem to be convincing enough. I had many questions but some of them were answered satisfactorily in the end.

Nevertheless, Lonely Hearts Murders is an excellent game and Magicindie Softworks has once again outdone itself. It is perhaps the best hidden object/adventure game I have played this year and I really do hope that it will win Best Game of the Year this year. It is a definite addition to any game collection. If you liked Dorian Gray Syndrome then you will definitely like this game as well. I rate this game 5 stars out of 5.

Get the game (Collector's Edition) here! (Link directs you to Big Fish Games website)

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