12 years ago, I started a job that required shift work. The long hours were brutal during the quiet periods and were even worse at night. To keep my mind active and alert I would do tasks or play games that would stimulate it. Services such as Game Pass didn’t exist, so the games you were left with were either portable or free, and on a trusty tablet, I’d download free games to take with me, puzzles being one of most common genres. Developer TuttiFrutti Interactive and Publisher Ocean Media have brought Darkarta: A Broken Hearts Quest Collector’s Edition to the Nintendo Switch, a puzzle game just like I used to play all those years ago.

Darkarta: A Broken Hearts Quest Collector’s Edition begins with a cutscene of a woman sacrificing herself. Her sacrifice is to give a man called Anantha immortality. This opening is confusing as there is no context as to what is going on, even more so because the very next scene is three people travelling on a boat. After being attacked by a winged buffalo and its rider, the boat is sunk and you awaken on a beach. It is here you find out you are playing as Mary, the mother of Sophia and wife of James.

A mysterious man on the beach helps you catch up with the story, explaining that Sophia has been kidnapped. Her soul is so pure that the winged buffalo rider plans on using it in a ritual to make the elixir of life. Mary now adventures out to save her daughter from this fate while unravelling the mystery of the past leading to present events.

The story is interesting enough, but it certainly isn’t going to blow your socks off. These adventure puzzle games are more about relaxing while keeping your brain active, and I have played many games with worse stories, or no story at all.

I am surprised that these games still exist; I thought they would have been phased out or updated to keep up with modern technology. Gameplay is very linear; you move from scene to scene clicking on the environment, collecting items and solving puzzles, unlocking more scenes and stories, and doing it all over again. The Nintendo Switch allows you to play with the controls or the touch screen, so long as you’re not playing in the docked mode, making it a bit of a double-edged sword. You might have a larger screen, making it easier to find all the environmental items, but lining up the little cursor to click on them can be annoying. On the other hand, having access to the touch screen is great, but now the scene is tiny, making finding those smaller items more difficult.

Overall, the experience can be tailored so those frustrating moments can be quelled quickly. There are three difficulty options and a custom option if those aren’t to your liking. Casual gives you a skip and hint function that recharges quickly, and zones of interest will sparkle to help you find them more easily. Advanced has a slow recharge on the skip and hint function, but zones of interest will still be highlighted. Expert recharges the skip and hint function very slowly, and zones of interest are no longer brought to your attention. Those familiar with this type of game will recognise the design, and you will either love it, hate it, wonder why the genre hasn’t evolved, or get nostalgic.

Whatever that feeling might be, it remains as you take in the graphics. The scenes are highly detailed illustrations, a very common trope for these environmental item-hunting puzzle games, and the animations are janky when they are not part of the environmental scene. As the illustrations come to life, they become jerky, like a paper cutout being moved around on a popsicle stick, or warped and distorted to portray lifelike movement.

Voice acting for this genre has always been more miss than hit, and Darkarta: A Broken Hearts Quest Collector’s Edition is no different. It’s bad, but it’s not terrible, and some voices don’t match what is visually represented, at least not in my opinion. Worst of all, though, are certain lines of voice cut in on scenes that don’t match, the most egregious for me was a line about a cat giving Mary a heart attack. Music and ambient noise are exceptional, which is yet another common trope for the genre. Combined, they make for the perfect chill-out gaming session as you click away at the environment and solve puzzles.

Darkarta: A Broken Hearts Quest Collector’s Edition is a game from 12 years ago in the modern age. If you enjoy playing these games and would like to play them again, Darkarta: A Broken Hearts Quest Collector’s Edition is certainly one of the better ones, however, if what I have said doesn’t interest you, or you were hoping the genre had evolved, you will likely find it boring.

Written by: Ashley Barnett-Cosgrove