A creative, fun and upbeat romp through a maze of hidden delights. Labyrinth City is just a sheer joy to play and thoroughly entertaining throughout.
Type: Single-player
Genre: Hidden Object
Developer: Darjeeling
Publisher: Pixmain
Release date: 22 June, 2021
Intro
Mr. X has stolen the rare and valuable maze stone from the city museum and fled with it. The artefact has magical powers and can mysteriously transform everything around it into a labyrinth.
Pierre, and his friend Carmen, has been hired to track down Mr. X, his arch enemy and nemesis, and bring the stone back to safety before the whole world turns into a maze.
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective is adapted from the bestselling children’s book series and based on “The Search for the Stolen Maze Stone”.
It is a path finder game where you have to direct Pierre through a devious maze full of surprises, in pursuit of the evil Mr. X.
🕹️Gameplay🕹️
Labyrinth City is a pathfinder and object locator game with some very light puzzle elements. There is no specific detective work involved. This is not a detective game. There are also hardly any puzzles. This is not a puzzle game either. It is wholly a comical maze game.
You direct Pierre through a maze of ladders, paths, platforms and buildings on the hunt for various characters who will ultimately direct you to the thief’s whereabouts.
There are lots of collectibles to find in each maze including four chests, three stars and four pages of Mr. X’s notebook. There is also a special prize awarded for finding and completing a mini game or puzzle. Chests and stars are concealed throughout the maze, usually in bizarre spots, and the pages can be hidden almost anywhere, including inside objects or delivered by the mailman, if you can find him.
The mini games and puzzles are very easy to complete. The challenge is in finding them. They are certainly not designed to test your mental attributes but are usually very amusing to participate in.
Whilst chasing his illusive arch enemy, Pierre will travel through ten hand drawn mazes full of bustling scenes of everyday life containing different characters and objects.
A lot of these characters and objects can be interacted with, resulting in hilarious outcomes. There are a ton of Easter eggs and references to popular culture.
Some of these characters will aid you on your quest. For example, finding a wizard will magically reveal a directional arrow to help you navigate, and other objects may divulge useful information also.
There are usually four of five characters to find in each maze before you catch up with Mr. X. After finding each character, the maze may change slightly, blocking certain paths but opening others. Certain characters will block your path on purpose and force you into taking detours, whilst other times these same characters will let you pass in one direction but not the other.
Occasionally, there are timed puzzles where you press buttons or switches to open up an entrance and have to find a path through before the time lapses and the opening closes.
Pierre can enter some buildings and passageways which might relocate him in some unexpected places, usually the location of stars or chests.
At the end of each maze, when you catch up to Mr. X, a cut scene is initiated which takes you into the next maze.
There are forty-one achievements to obtain and they are all meaningful and very enjoyable to chase. The game should take around nine or ten hours to complete to one hundred percent.
📺Graphics📺
I loved the colourful hand drawn artwork. It looks amazing, and characters are surprisingly well animated and drawn for their size. The backgrounds and the mazes look attractive and the characters within them are always high spirited. Cut scenes are bursting with energy and drama. They’re so much fun to watch.
🎵Sound🎵
The music is so addictively charming and upbeat. It doesn’t over burden gameplay. It just plays merrily along in the background whilst you tap your foot. The special effects noises are superb and add an extra dimension to proceedings, and the voice acting in the cut scenes is delightfully tongue in cheek and exaggerated.
🤔Overall Impressions🤔
I loved The Maze Detective so much that I am incredibly sad it is over.
It is just so much fun. It constantly entertains and surprises, and I was chuckling continually throughout the whole game.
The developers have created a very well-balanced game and a faithful representation of the books, with scenes and mazes brought to life and transferred to screen straight from the publications.
Opera City, where the game is set, is incredibly vibrant with so many interesting things happening wherever you look. I just wanted to investigate everything, and if you do you will be rewarded. I thought the humor was very reminiscent of The Lego games. Not one joke fell flat, and I couldn’t wait to interact with people and objects just to see what would happen.
The hand drawn art looks incredible with its colorful environments and lively characters performing all manner of shenanigans. The sound effects and music inject further atmosphere into the game with its jaunty tunes, crowd reaction noises and special effect sounds.
The cut scenes after every maze are so entertaining and outrageous, with an overzealous narrator hamming it up beautifully. It is just wonderful, and keeps that high intensity fun moving by linking the story and the mazes together. It never feels like you are just trying to escape a maze, rather you are on a continual hunt through ten environments within the city. The mazes are well designed and can be quite challenging if you want to bag all of the collectibles.
If you enjoy hidden object games and achievement hunting, this game will be a perfect fit. Missed achievements can be mopped up after the game with a level select which keeps your progress.
I think it is an exaggeration to describe this as a puzzle game. There are very light puzzle elements but they are quite scarce and rather repetitive. Don’t buy the game if you are after a challenging puzzle experience.
The mazes are cleverly designed with so many nice touches scattered throughout. Finding Mr X on each maze isn’t difficult but it’s not easy either, especially if you want to gather all the objects.
🍳Verdict⚖
I was so impressed with Labyrinth City. It is one of those games that provides endless entertainment and feels fabulously happy and buoyant. I enjoyed every moment of it.
It was such an uplifting and delightful experience.
When it had finished, I wanted to see if there were any more games in the series so I could purchase them immediately.
If you like hidden object games or any path finding games then I urge you to check this out now!
A must buy for fans of the genre.
