The Secret Order 7: Shadow Breach

Information / Review English
The Secret Order 7: Shadow Breach is a hidden object adventure developed by Sunward Games.
Story / Gameplay
The story begins when Sarah comes home and she actually wants to take some time off. The emphasis is on "actually". Since the mysterious dragon clan has uncovered an object from a long forgotten past and now the secret hidden in this relic threatens to devour the world as we know it. As Sarah, you must use your wits and the help of your fellow agents to stop this threat. On your dangerous journey, you meet old friends from other parts of the world. So your task is to solve some puzzles and hidden objects in order to advance in the story. However, you can recognize some puzzles directly from the other well-known parts of the series. On the way we look for hidden collectibles in the beautiful, drawn backgrounds, which is definitely fun.
Pro
+ exciting story
+ partly challenging puzzles
+ Bonus chapter
+ solid graphic style
+ good sound
+ beautiful wallpapers
+ Notebook
+ 3 levels of difficulty
+ Help function
+ Trading cards and achievements
Contra
- short playing time of 3 hours
- You have already seen some puzzles in the other parts
Conclusion
The Secret Order 7: Shadow Breach convinces with an immersive gameplay at the highest level and an exciting story. Clear purchase recommendation for fans of this genre.
Information / Review Deutsch
The Secret Order 7: Shadow Breach ist ein Wimmelbild-Abenteuer, welches von Sunward Games entwickelt wurde.
Geschichte / Gameplay
Die Geschichte beginnt, als Sarah nach Hause kommt und sie sich eigentlich eine Auszeit nehmen möchte. Die Betonung leigt auf "eigentlich". Da der mysteriöse Drachenclan einen Gegenstand aus einer längst vergessenen Vergangenheit freigelegt hat und nun droht das in diesem Relikt verborgene Geheimnis die Welt wie wir sie kennen zu verschlingen. Als Sarah musst du diese Bedrohung mit deinem Verstand und der Hilfe deiner Mitagenten aufhalten. Auf deiner gefährlichen Reise, triffst du alte Bekannte aus den anderen Teilen. Deine Aufgabe besteht also darin, einige Rätsel und Wimmelbilder zu lösen, um in der Geschichte voran zu schreiten. Allerdings erkennt man manche Rätsel direkt wieder von den anderen bekannten Teilen der Serie. Auf dem Weg suchen wir in den schön, gezeichneten Hintergründen versteckte Sammelobjekte was auf jedenfall Spaß macht.
Pro
+ spannende Geschichte
+ teils anspruchsvolle Rätsel
+ Bonuskapitel
+ solider Grafikstil
+ guter Sound
+ schöne Hintergrundbilder
+ Notizbuch
+ 3 Schwierigkeitsgrade
+ Hilfefunktion
+ Sammelkarten und Errungenschaften
Kontra
- kurze Spielzeit von 3 Stunden
- Rätsel hat man schon in den anderen Teilen teils gesehen
Fazit
The Secret Order 7: Shadow Breach überzeugt durch ein immersives Gameplay auf höchstem Niveau und einer spannenden Geschichte. Klare Kaufempfehlung für Fans dieses Genres.

This was a fine game. It was mostly an adventure game of the sort where you need to find a key to open a door or a knife to cut rope, but you are always confined to three or four rooms at a time so there is no backtracking nor any chance of forgetting to take an object with you. There was at least one hidden object puzzle in every set of rooms, and a wide variety of games and puzzles. In addition there were scrolls and morphing objects to collect.
I won't discuss the plot as it was meaningless, both in the general sense of good adventure stories and in any relation to the Secret Order universe; this was clearly some random adventure game shoved into the Secret Order series, however that being said, the story was serviceable: you have to rescue your friend Maggie and defeat an ancient evil by collecting ancient relics, which you do by traveling the world to random places that you visit one at a time, in a linear order, and never revisit again. If you like hidden-object games and puzzles, you will enjoy this for the games anyway; you're not playing some medieval role playing game where the plot matters.
Since you are here for the games and puzzles, I will say that there is a nice variety to them. Usually I blitz through them, but here I had to hit the 'help' button a few times to get instructions. That's allowed: just don't confuse the help button with the hint button. They are right next to each other in the GUI, along with the buttons that warn you if there's a collectible scroll or a morphing object on screen to capture. I didn't like the 'Hungarian Pearls' puzzle because I over-thought it and was switching around colored marbles for an hour before I realized it could actually be reset and solved in 2 or 3 moves. Otherwise, I enjoyed all the puzzles.
There is a bonus chapter after the end credits that includes 4 or 5 more rooms to explore, and these also have a hidden object puzzle or two in them. Speaking of which, the puzzles comes in three varieties: one where you have to search a list of 12 to 15 names for an object. If the name is colored white, you can grab it, if it's blue it's hidden behind another object on the screen. Secondly there is a puzzle where you have silhouettes and need to grab the object that matches the silhouette. Third, there is a hidden object puzzle where you just grab everything on screen and use stuff to manipulate other stuff. If you are playing the game on Steam, you have access to the bonus content which allows you to practice many of the puzzles and games before you do them in the game, whereupon it's easy to blitz through the game itself.
The adventure game part is easy enough. Just click everywhere, grab everything, and it's pretty obvious what goes where as you only ever have 6 or 7 objects at a time. If you're ever stuck in the adventure game part, you just forgot to click on something or pick up something, since regardless of what the object itself is called: relic, amulet, key, pendant, doorknob or charm, 90% of the time it just functions as a key to a box or drawer. So this is more of a scavenger hunt than the sort of adventure where you are building a submarine using a bottle of aspirin, a propeller and a couch.
I played this game on Windows 10 and had no bugs and glitches.

Let's keep this short: this is an Artifex Mundi-published HOG. You know how they work, and you know what to expect both in terms of gameplay and graphics here.
The good news is that this one, like most of the games in this particular series, does not disappoint. The graphics are nice, gameplay is smooth, and most of the puzzles are at least decent and functional (although I'm getting kind of tired of the three-rings-of-beads puzzle that keeps getting used in every single game). No sliding tiles, so that's always good.
There were objects that were reused in this one, which is always a plus (as opposed to using an object and then having to find a second, technically-interchangeable one, which happens all too frequently in HOGs). Voice acting was typically cringy, but of acceptable quality for the genre and budget. I have episode 8 in this series (it appears to be the last one...so far), and I'll likely take the time to play that one as well.
Solid HOG: 7/10. If you like this genre of game, this is a safe one to put on your list.

Great fun game! I had lots of hours of fun with this one and there's still a lot more in it remaining. Since I got this game on a deal I feel it was great value for money.
Pros:
Good sensible puzzles - you can figure it out most of the time
Match Pairs - memory game / Hidden object -choice most of the times
Beautiful locations. Nice fun, magic theme.
Cons:
Cannot make head or tails of the story. Earlier I was angry about it but later I felt good as I played along the puzzles.

Best games Hidden Object. Great. 9/10

Very easy, but solid HOG.