Treasure Masters, Inc. Review

Written by: Keri Kunaschk Published: July 6, 2008 "Gordon Jones had just lost his grandfather and inherited his family treasure hunting business when news of a sunken ship, one that holds an amazing artifact within its barnacle-encrusted belly, reached his ears. Soon after, a mysterious stranger appeared offering to buy his company. Join Gordon on a thrilling seek-and-find adventure across the globe and become caught up in a breathtaking race to unearth the artifact." That's just a small sampling of the story for Treasure Masters, Inc., an entertaining and challenging hidden object game from Casa Games and Alawar Entertainment. Treasure Masters isn't your typical "find all of the objects on the screen" game. There are also tasks you must complete in order to either find an object or gain entry to an area. For example, depending on where your mouse cursor is, it might change to 1) a magnifying glass, to allow you to look closer at something; 2) a hand, to perform an action such as opening a door; or 3) an open suitcase, if it's necessary to use an item from your inventory. In one scene, you need to obtain a key that's at the bottom of a fishbowl, but there's a piranha swimming in the bowl. First, you need to find a net to remove the fish; then you can get to the key. In order to see the net, you need to turn on a light. Once the net is placed in your inventory, you can pick it up, scoop up the fish and grab the key. What do you do next? In the same room, there's a safe. Once you figure out the combination (another puzzle) and gain entry, you can use the key to open a drawer, where additional items are hidden. That's just one example of what it takes to complete a single chapter of this adventure. In each chapter, you need to polish off two or three locations in order to move to the next chapter. It's necessary to move back and forth between the locations to complete tasks or find objects to be used. When you click on the map, you'll see how many items are left to find, how many puzzles remain to be solved and how many tasks you still need to complete (which is nice). Also, each location contains several hidden coins. Find all you can, as three coins buys you a hint. Treasure Masters offers a timed and untimed option, and I’d suggest playing untimed the first time around. While the scenes are very well done, some objects are difficult to find. Also, not only can you turn the music and sound up and down, you can also turn it off. I like to turn the sound up but the music down or off, so this is a nice option. Treasure Masters is a very well done hidden object game with 48 levels, 10 mini-games and lots of puzzles. It’s quite challenging and will keep you entertained for hours. You can also revisit and replay chapters. I tried this out and noticed that my lists of items changed slightly, so the replayability of Treasures Masters is good. I really like this game for its challenge and variety. I highly suggest downloading the 60-minute demo and trying it out. Scoring (out of five stars): Graphics: Ease of use: Gameplay: Challenge: Sound effects: Music: Final analysis: Click here to download the free trial version of Treasure Masters, Inc..