The Big Secret of a Small Town

A fun and accessible puzzle game, well worth the price of admission

Really didnt follow the story but didnt mind. Good puzzles except when pixel hunting for tiny pieces made me crazy. Also the final puzzle just wasnt fun. But on the whole I liked the game.

a very boring and buggy HOG that is not worth your time.

pros.
ok gameplay time (a bit more than 3 hours)
ok voice acting

cons
extremely boring
complicated mess
pixel hunting items
low resolution
buggy... sometimes the game runs but all is frozen and you have to alt + tab to desktop and back to "resume"

overall i give it 1/10 for the game +1 for the for the cards = 2/10

avoid it.

High pixel hunting, standard puzzles with very hard difficulty, not a story that gets any curiosity. Only pro would be that it's not a short game.
P.S. Final puzzle was very very bad.

A short puzzle game with some hidden object aspects and a cheesy story set in some magical, steampunk-like world.

The puzzles themselves are ok. Some more than others. There are a few very hard slider puzzles but luckily every one of these are skippable if you'd get fed up with them. There's also some very annoying pixel hunting required to discover items hidden in the environment, sometimes even in very dark places.

What I disliked most about it is that the environments are just an incoherent mess of random thoughts put together without much reasoning behind it and the game is completely void of any type of humor.

Overal, a very bland and forgettable game.

I have no clear idea why I got this game in the first place. I didn't - I don't ever enjoy these kinds of games. As I cruise my collection, there is a chance I might have a similar game in my library. I truly hope I do not. Anyhow, I suspect, because I spent any time on any of these game, it came recommended.

That excuse doesn't really sound good. That is the one I will have to accept, because I won't be circling back to share a more reasonable answer. I just didn't enjoy this game. With it's look or play style.

I wasn't so fond of this HO game. A lot of pixel hunting, and vague directions. Some puzzles don't have a skip option. The last "catch the villain" bit is frustrating.

Worthwhile point and click with mostly above average puzzles. A couple puzzles where annoyingly tedious. Also a couple puzzles border very closely to hidden object. The biggest downside is the resolution is not adjustable so you have to play it in a very small window.

Information / Review English

The Big Secret of a Small Town is a point and click adventure game developed by Flenx.

Gameplay / Story

During a speech to the residents of his city, the mayor is inexplicably kidnapped! Only a brilliant detective like you can bring the missing person back. Your research will take you deep beneath the friendly surface of the city, where a huge, terrifying machine goes about its mysterious tasks ...

Pro

+ gripping detective story in wonderful film sequences
+ beautiful backgrounds
+ Puzzles and hidden objects have a suitable difficulty
+ good soundtrack
+ Trading cards

Contra

- short playing time

Conclusion

The Big Secret of a Small Town offers you an interesting storyline with some puzzles, hidden objects and surprising twists. But I wouldn't buy it for full price and wait for a sale.

Information / Review Deutsch

The Big Secret of a Small Town ist ein Point & Click Abenteuerspiel, welches von Flenx entwickelt wurde.

Gameplay / Geschichte

Während einer Rede an die Bewohner seiner Stadt wird der Bürgermeister auf unerklärliche Weise entführt! Nur ein brillanter Detektiv wie du kann den Vermissten zurückholen. Deine Nachforschungen führen dich tief unter die freundliche Oberfläche der Stadt, wo eine gewaltige, furchteinflößende Maschine ihren geheimnisvollen Aufgaben nachgeht...

Pro

+ packende Detektiv-Geschichte in wundervollen Filmsequenzen
+ schöne Hintergründe
+ Puzzles und Wimmelbilder haben eine passende Schwierigkeit
+ guter Soundtrack
+ Sammelkarten

Kontra

- kurze Spielzeit

Fazit

The Big Secret of a Small Town bietet dir eine interessante Handlung mit einigen Rätseln, Wimmelbildern und überraschenden Wendungen. Ich würde es aber nicht für den vollen Preis kaufen und auf ein Sale warten.

Buy it if you like:
Pixel chasing (hope your screen does not have a dead pixel and the object to find is just there}
Trivial puzzles
The concept of not having any consistence so mixing up everything to make a non story and put different kind of puzzles inside
Decreasing visuals quality over your progress
Having a big object for cursor but you need to click exactly where the mouse pointer should be
Spending money on things staying on the shelf
...

The good thing is, you can skip annoying puzzles. Perfect the first time facing a labyrinth. With that pervert effect which is the more you progress, the more you risk to want to skip puzzles till finally exit the game because of the few of interest it develops.

** BIG SPOILER INCLUDED WHERE INDICATED **
It's ok, definitely dated but the puzzles are challenging. If you can get it for a couple of quid, why not - it will while away a few hours.
**SPOILER**
The final puzzle might take you a year or two, unless you pay particular attention to the one missing square, and the trick you can play there...

Decent puzzle game. Simple but engaging.

Pros:
* Good difficulty
* Puzzles are usually pretty fun and/or inventive

Cons:
* Pixel-hunting galore (even in the dark!)
* Several "find all 5/6/8/10 items!" pixel-hunting.
* A cpl puzzles that are just pointlessly difficult to complete, even once you get the point behind it.
* The hint system is... odd.

DL;DR: If you like puzzles, 7/10 - else, avoid. (my playtime is high because it accidentally ran overnight, my 2nd playthru)

Maybe I'm just blind or stupid, but I got an hour into the game without ever actually figuring out a puzzle on my own. When you've skipped the puzzle, seen the solution, and still thought to yourself 'Good Lord I would never have figured this out and I still have no idea how they got ths solution", maybe the game is too hard.

What I saw of the game is pretty and seems to have interesting lore, but graphics and backstory are not enough to make it worth hitting Hint every time it reloads and skipping every puzzle. Frankly it's frustrating that what could have been a great game is largely unplayable.

This a short and inconsistent point-and-click adventure with various game-with-in-game puzzles ranging in difficulty from easy to frustratingly hard. The final puzzle is especially annoying, as it is random and relies more on patience than clever thinking.

Note that this is not a hidden-object game (unless you count the annoying task of finding items within very small pixel ranges). Also note that while there are in-game achievements, they are not synced with Steam.

The graphics are OK, the script is cute, and the voice acting surprisingly good, but the story is thin and incoherent.

All in all, hard to recommend despite some nice things going for it. Hopefully the developer will learn from the mistakes and make more enjoyable adventures. Great potential here!

Wish I could give this a clear thumbs up but can't, if I could it would be a maybe.

At its core, the game is a solid puzzler with a great set of variety as well as difficulty. Great artwork and serviceable story, I guess.

The problem lies in the hidden objects part. There's far too many so-called "pixel hunts" or objects so small or obscure that you have to slowly trawl the pointer across the screen until you get lucky or just use the hint for a clue. Almost immediately in the beginning you have to find 5 tiny triangular buttons, which are practically microscopic. To me, that's just poor design, not challenge.

Moments like that made me so frustrated that when it came time for the puzzles, I may not have had the patience and skipped them rather than take the time to appreciate them.

Not a bad game, just poor design choices that I hope they learned from for the future.

This is not an Hidden Object Game. There is some resource gathering of objects laying around the scene but not like a hidden object game. This is bacisally a point and click puzzler. And far to many of the puzzles involve random guessing instead of logical planning. The art work and music are good but the game play is not. And the possible good story is tied down by tedius puzzle play. If you get this game in a bundle it might be worth a try but I can not reccomend the game at all.

Nice afternoon-sized puzzle point&click adventure.

This game takes you on a straight story, with tough lock puzzles to solve and items to find to make the locks work in the first place, and cutscenes and bonus art that explains some of the backstory, which is sometimes surprising and very nice.

You find the items in the actual scenes, point&click style, and there are no classic hidden object scenes where you have to find items from a list, so it isn't really a hidden object game. You do find yourself looking for things a lot of the time anyway. But it feels better than most HOGs because the things you are looking for make sense; because you actually interact with things and people to progress; and because the sound design is awesome, giving each location its own atmosphere; it is backed up with an impeccable narrator voice-over. I feel inside the world. The art design is neat, too, and the puzzles are also quite well designed.

The game took me about 4 hours, trying to do it without hints (I failed). It installs DRM-free, which also means it is not integrated with Steam in any way.

If you're looking for a well-designed casual adventure, get this.

This game runs well on my old Windows XP computer.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires. - Marcus Aurelius

When I decided to pop up a random hidden object game for a lazy afternoon, and unknowingly chose to go with The Big Secret of a Small Town, I ended up discovering a tiny masterpiece of a puzzle game accidentally. As the only game of the small Russian developer team, Flenx, this game is probably the most elaborate and notice worthy title in Buka Entertainment's catalogue.

Here, we have a nameless, yet prosperous small town settled beside an industrial complex, led by a witty looking mayor. It is said that the town has a heart, hidden beneath the fair town that would power all the machines and factories which makes this little town so prosperous - all entrusted to our mayor. The mayor is loved by many; him being kind, smart and wise. Yet again, his good qualities don't prevent him being abducted in the middle of a press conference and we are there as the determined detective to find him.

Even though that the gameplay contains little to nothing concerning a story, the story that we have as a baseline for events are basic, yet elegant, and the setting itself is quite marvelous. The whole Steam Punk Theme combined with Gaelic Magic presents a remarkable concept to have a gaming environment within. We are given the opportunity to watch cinematics telling the tale of this little town by clicking on old tapestries as we progress. As the environment itself, all those cinematics are hand drawn beauties taken out of a beloved story book. I should also declare that it was an interesting idea to narrate the background cinematics through the main villain’s point of view. It presents a good level of immersion and story consistency.

As I mentioned before, the display is one of the strong sides of this wondrous little game. Background pictures are well elaborate, the environment design is nearly Daedalic quality. I've seen decent adventure games with worse art than this small puzzle game. The music is also worthy of mentioning, by being the selection of beautifully orchestrated original scores.

About the gameplay... It is a successful hybrid of a HOG and a decent enough adventure game. We have HOG environment design, yet no actual HOG scenes. Items to be collected via P&C progress, are hard to notice so that might be counted as a HOG. The really shining part of the game are its puzzles though. No run-on-the mill selection that you've seen for the 100th time, no hand holding, no mediocre solution. These are decent brain teasers that would take actual thinking and even time invested. Puzzles are mostly skippable if you are more interested with the story, yet I'd recommend sparing the time to actually solve them to fully appreciate the game content.

The game has no Steam achievements, yet an achievement system within the game which is already fitting to integrate into Steam achievements. The whole experience should take 7-8 hours if you are to actually solve puzzles, 2-3 if you are a skipper. As the last word, this is a more than decent little puzzle game you may appreciate if you are bored of tedious excuses of puzzles in most HOGs.

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Wonderful puzzle game, well actually it is a brain teaser game. Brain teasers are puzzles that look immensely complicated but in reality have remarkably simple solutions. Think Medusa's Knot. Or the old logic brain teaser of how to get an object from the center of a rug without stepping on the rug.

Storyline: The Mayor of the Small Town has been kidnapped. It is your job (as a detective) to find him and bring him back. Simple enough. (The opening sequence is actually narrated by the villian and the only one who speaks in the entire game.) Oh yes and while looking for the mayor and chasing after the villian, one learns the secret of the small town.

Gameplay: Simple point and click game focused on the brain teaser and puzzle elements. A note about the point and click find items and inventory. The find items in many cases are small or very small so search carefully when looking for things like buttons or puzzle pieces. Some are found in odd places like a footprint or in the smaller puzzle boxes. (HINT: If a box opens, such as the alchemy puzzle, and remains able to be opened the player is missing something in the box. The smaller boxes close permenantly when everything in that box is found and finished.) The inventory exists simply to hold items long enough to collect all the pieces for the puzzle presently being worked on. It is a collect and use in that area inventory. There are few hold over items from area to area. There are 8 areas total the detective traverses through each with a main puzzle to solve before the player can move on. Once an area is completed the player can not go back and the play is limited in scope to just a few places so no map is needed. Advice: Look closely at everything and do not ignore anything hanging. Clues and directions are found in these places.

Now about the puzzles: They range in difficulty from easy to extremely hard (and patience testing in a case or two.) Fortunately, there is a no penalty skip button for when the player gets frustrated or simply does not want to be bothered. All the puzzles are logic based, the more obscure ones get dialogue with highlighted words to give the players clues about what to do, and most are actually brain teasers. Plus if the player looks at all the little drawings and posters everywhere, these drawings are clues (One poster is even labelled CLUE) if not the actual solution to the puzzle. (The tangram puzzle comes to mind in that regard. The solution is actually shown on a piece of paper.) There are clues everywhere to finding the solutions to the puzzles. Again search an area carefully for all items and all those little places that are hiding items.

Puzzles include sliders, assembly, straight logic, rotaters, and mazes? (that is all I can think of to call them - those puzzles a player needs to connect something from point A to point B).

For those who want an extra challenge (and to complete an in-game achievement or two) look for all the extra cutscenes (usually found on tapestries) and the Flenx logo, a stylized elephant. (For some reason when the game was translated the stylized elephant logo got called a "bishop". It evens sounds like an elephant when clicked on. Simply shakes head.)

And lastly some words about the end game. It is a puzzle like all the others but with no skip option. The point is to zap the villian with an electrical charge. (He deserves it since he nearly kills the player earlier in the game.) Now there is a trick to this puzzle or the player will be endlessly chasing the villian about. (Many reviews state this chasing as a frustration and there are discussions about how to catch him.) Trick spoiler: I will tell you, the reader/player, this since the hint button does not do more then point out the "trick" area without explanation. Plus the villian can be defeated in 15 moves, so the achievement claims. The trick is a DIAGONAL move which can only occur between the two blue squares in the bottom right corner of the floor. This changes the rhythmn from one of simply following to one of actively pursuing. (In other words, from being a move behind to being a move ahead.) Good luck with catching villian, remember it is still a logic puzzle.

Overall, I recommend this game. A well thought puzzle, brain teaser, logic game that makes one think but not so hard that it makes one mad or frustrated playing. It leaves the player with a satisfied feeling and for me, after chasing that villian for far longer then I care to admit, I actually cheered when I caught him. (Of course, that was after discovering the "trick".)

If you have Windows 10, you will be dealing with crashing during the story cutscenes, and the game has no way to replay the main story cutscenes as an autosave is performed just before the cutscene starts. There is no-where on the web where these cutscenes are posted so that you can actually watch them all when your game crashes.

Support pages for the product refer to the Russian game makers site, but there is no support for this game on the site, even when translated.

This is in the US under Big Fish Games, but the site has nothing about game crashes.

Also, the tag this should have had as a Hidden Objects game was missing, but the actual puzzle part of the game makes up for the lameness of the hidden objects part of it.