If you’ve always wanted to see the world, or just love to discover new places without having to leave your home, AVI Games has got you cover with their latest game. The seventh entry in AVI’s Big Adventure: Trip to Europe series has just been released on Steam.

In this game, you’ll follow a lovable family of four on their European vacation. This newest expedition will take you on a tour of several beautiful countries and landmarks around Europe. Together with your family, you’ll discover some prime touristic destinations. There’s so much to see. In Switzerland, you’ll visit the breathtaking Staubbach Waterfall, and from there you’ll see the fantastic Mykonos island, a Maltese fishing village, the sophisticated street of Paris, the marvellous Trevi fountain and so much more.

Big Adventure: Trip to Europe 7 is a classic hidden object game. Each HOG scene brings us to a different European location. You first get introduced to the city in which the scene takes place in a short synopsis. I really enjoyed reading those little blurbs, some of the information was new to me and quite interesting. It made me feel like I was truly part of the adventure. Afterwards you’ll see a list of items to find at this stage. There are also mini-games consist of light puzzles with varying degrees of difficulty that take place between the levels. The puzzles are quite diverse, so there’s not much repetition. There are match-2 with mahjong type tiles, variations on a labyrinth kind of puzzle, swap tiles, find the way, and others.

Every scene has a friendly raccoon and a stamp hidden in addition to the list of items to hunt for. Each stamp you collect gets added to your stamp book, which you can consult at any point during the game. Furthermore there are souvenirs that you can buy to add to your display. To gather these keepsakes, all you have to do is play the game. The more points you collect, the more money you get to spend on these collectibles. You’ll end up with a souvenir for each visited country. Additionally, this collector’s edition is packed with tons of extras. It has 10 extra levels, lots of bonus puzzles, wallpapers and even a music player to listen to the 20 music tracks that are included.

You might think the game will be repetitive, but it’s not entirely the case. Given the fact that the basic mechanics of hidden object games are fairly simple, it could have gotten boring fast, but the developer has found some interesting ways to mix it up. The way they have achieved this is by modifying the basic items list. Certain scenes have silhouettes instead of written words, some have image, rebus puzzles, and even pattern (instead of have the word cat, there’s an image of his fur’s pattern.) There are also times where there will be objects in a list and you’ll need to place these at the right spot. It adds some challenge and variety to the game, which helped to keep me entertained throughout. Another great aspect of the game is that there’s no time limit, so you can do the scene as quick or as slow as you wish.

This game is an interesting example of the hidden object game genre that I would recommend. I’ve played many that end up becoming extremely repetitive given the basic mechanics of the game. This is not the case with Big Adventure: Trip to Europe series. The developer found some very clever methods to keep it fresh. There’s a fair amount of variety in the game itself and the extras. I played the game until the end, and I didn’t got bored with it.

Like most game in this genre, Big Adventure: Trip to Europe 7 is fairly simple and honestly I think this simplicity is part of what makes them good. There are no crazy mechanics or cinematic cut scenes, but what’s there is well implemented. The developer didn’t try to reinvent the genre, they simply added some variation here and there which makes it stand out from all the other generic hidden object games.

Whether you’re new to the Big Adventure series or a returning player, if you’re a HOG enthusiast, you won’t regret picking up this seventh instalment. Big Adventure: Trip to Europe 7 was a fun and relaxing way for me to spend the five hours it took me to finish. The scenes and puzzles were challenging enough for me. Whether you’re an experience player or a beginner, you’ll enjoy them too. If like me you like puzzles and brainteaser, you should definitely give this game a try. You’ll want to keep playing until the end to see where to next!

Positives

• A lot of variety in the hidden objects scenes
• Challenging mini-games
• The Collector’s Edition has tons of perks

Negatives

• No Achievements
• Expert players might find the hidden objects scene easy