Timeless: The Forgotten Town
Game Review

Timeless: The Forgotten Town is a hidden object adventure game that tells the story of an accidental hero who is thrust into a mysterious time trap and has to find a way out of the predicament while rescuing other trapped people. This exciting adventure is set in a small picturesque town that is reminiscent of early 20th century Europe; a beautiful town that hides a powerful device that can control the fabric of time!

At the start of the game, you are traveling on a train, on your way home from a well-deserved vacation. Suddenly, the lights start flickering and the other passengers start disappearing. The last thing you see before blacking out is an apparition in a red robe. You wake up on another train, and soon realize that you've been transported somewhere (and somewhen) else. You see another apparition, this one of a young lady asking for your help in rescuing her from a time trap. And so begins your adventure, discovering the cause of these time anomalies, and figuring out how to save yourself and the other trapped people.

The game is a standard hidden object adventure game, and you spend the majority of it navigating through the train and the town imprisoned in time. One thing that really stands out is the pacing and sense of urgency. In most hidden object games, everything feels relaxed and dead as you take your time exploring various static locations. In this game however, you get the feeling that you have to act fast or suffer the consequences (even though it isn't really the case; this isn't a time management game after all).

Graphical animations, screen shakes and sound effects all combine to give a 'live' feel to game events such as runaway trains, collapsing buildings and more. Constant appearances of various characters such as the red-robed apparition causing mischief also adds to the sense of urgency, and makes the game feel less lonely and detached compared to other hidden object games.

Gameplay-wise, Timeless: The Forgotten Town is pretty standard. You explore various locations, with each successive stage accessible once you get past an obstacle, typically a locked box or door. There is also a fair bit of moving back and forth between the locations as the story slowly unfolds. Getting past the obstacles can be as simple as using items that you picked up in your travels, such as a key to open a door, or some hair pins to pick a locked box. Other obstacles are more complicated and require you to complete puzzle minigames. The standard jigsaw, combination, logic and pattern-matching puzzles are all represented, but are presented in fresh new ways. There is even a puzzle that contains a mini-adventure where you need to fight your way up a mountain to fight a dragon!

There are also plenty of hidden object scenes in the game. And thankfuly, the game designers have put in different kinds of hidden object scenes so that we don't get bored with them. There is the standard game where you have to find objects from a list, and another type where you are given silhouettes and need to find the corresponding objects. There is yet another type where you are given a box or drawer full of objects piled on each other, and you need to sift through them and move them around in order to find the objects on your list. Both the puzzles and hidden object scenes are not too challenging, and serve more as entertaining interludes in your adventure.

Timeless: The Forgotten Town is a nice adventure with a charming story, interesting gameplay, good graphics and great overall storytelling. You will love the game if you liked other period adventure games featuring forgotten towns such as Dark Dimensions or the PuppetShow series.

You can get the basic version of the game, or the Collector's Edition which includes exclusive extras such as bonus gameplay, a strategy guide and other media bonuses. Or get the basic version or Collector's Edition of the Mac game.

Related PC Games at Big Fish Games:

Timeless: The Forgotten Town Collector's Edition

Dark Dimensions: City of Fog

PuppetShow: Lost Town

Wiki