In the new game from Astraware, Hidden Expedition: Titanic, you have been hired by the Hidden Expedition Adventure League to find a special crown made for the Queen that was lost when the Titanic sank. Along the way you will find other lost artifacts that can be preserved for posterity and various gems that you get to keep for yourself.

Unlike many other games, Hidden Expedition: Titanic (HET) is a test of your observational skills rather than your reflexes. As you explore each of the various rooms of the Titanic you are given a list of items you must find (shown at the bottom of the screen). The graphics are very rich in detail and some of the items you are searching for can be very difficult to find because they blend in with the background and other objects lying around the ship.

You begin each dive with a limited supply of air that is consumed while you are looking around for the items on the list (or just enjoying the view as the fish swim by). When you think you’ve found an item from the list, just tap on it with your stylus. If you have correctly identified an item then a small balloon is attached to the object, raising it to the surface for retrieval. However, if you are incorrect, the error will cause you to lose several seconds of your precious air supply.

You start out with access to two sections of the ship: the Deck and the Dining Room. As you find all of the items in these areas, new areas of the ship become available for exploration. If you run out of air before finding all of the items you can make another attempt, but the game remains challenging because on each dive the list of items you are searching for will change. Along the way you are given various interesting facts about the Titanic such as “The top speed of the Titanic was 23 knots (25 miles per hour)”.

Hidden Expedition is different than most of the games for the Treo, but the rich graphics and variability make the game challenging to play and a pleasure to explore.

Pros

• Outstanding graphics

• Available for Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices.
• Can play using the touchscreen or 5-way controller.
• Adjustable brightness for devices with darker screens.

Cons

• The high quality graphics come with a price because the game takes up 6 MB of internal memory with a single .prc file.

Related Links

Buy Hidden Expedition: Titanic

Check out other titles by Astraware on mytreo.net

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Filed under: Software reviews