Modern Tales: Age of Invention Review

I quite enjoy the hidden object puzzle adventure scene. In fact, I’ve played a number of games that adapt this concept. I think it’s fair to say that Artifex Mundi is the leading role when it comes to delivering a steady flow of these sorts of experiences, but as with anything that arrives in bulk, there’s good and there’s bad. We’ve seen some stellar games from Artifex over the years, and some games that we’d sooner love to forget. So, with that in mind, where does Artifex’s new Modern Tales: Age of Invention sit in that spectrum?

Sadly, it’s another hit-and-miss puzzler. Whilst the setting is interesting, the game’s drawbacks make it a bit too hard to fully appreciate. We’ll get to that shortly, but for now, let’s step back and go from the top. The scene is set with no time wasted. It’s the year 1900, we’re taken to Paris, and then immediately thrown into the role of Emily Patterson. Emily is the daughter of a proclaimed scientist, and as such, is preparing to showcase her father’s invention at the expo. However, something predictably screws up at the wrong time.

Emily’s father’s invention malfunctions, and in the heat of the chaos, her father is kidnapped by a strange looking individual. The local beat proves to be about as useful as a chocolate fireguard, so Emily puts her wits into motion and sets off to get to the bottom of the mystery. The story spirals out from there, and it soon becomes apparent that there’s much more on the line than that of a kidnap. Who kidnapped Emily’s father? Where has he been taken to? Why exactly was he taken? Where the hell is Liam Neeson when you need him?

These are all questions that the game encourages you to ask, but there’s a big drawback that pulls it all rather flat. The voice acting, the writing, and the animation during scenes are painfully laughable. It’s hard to get truly invested in the game’s story because of this, and by now, you would have expected the game’s developer to push for quality on this front. It’s a shame, really, because underneath these issues sits a setting that’s actually rather interesting when it wants to be. It’s just a shame it’s only captivating in segments.

I found myself drawn to the hideous voice work and shameful writing more often than not, with its daft animation serving as the proverbial cherry on the cake. That in mind, I guess we’ve come to expect this, but that still doesn’t make it okay. Still, sliding that to the side, you’ll be glad to know that the game’s puzzle design is an intelligent as ever. The game’s puzzles often serve the pace, and the pace alone. The crux of play is the same as always; visit this location, solve this puzzle, move onto the next area, and then rinse and repeat.

The gameplay itself, to those of you that are new to this style of play, has you controlling a cursor. You’ll browse your immediate environment in search of clues, items, and puzzles. When you’re done, you’ll click to exit your surroundings to then navigate to the next area. Interacting with puzzles and items in your inventory operates in a similar fashion. It’s a very simple game to sink into, but I would certainly recommend trying out something like Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart if you’re looking for a better place to start.

You’ll move through the game’s gorgeously drawn locations in unity with main progress, meaning that you’ll find that you tend to stick to the same group of locations until you’ve bled them dry of items and puzzles. That’s never really an issue thanks to the game’s visual splendor – each new area a treat to behold. It helps, of course, that the whole ordeal looks vastly interesting throughout. Modern Tales toys with its steampunk/science-fiction theme wonderfully, producing no shortage of intriguing sights to take in at each and every turn.

There’s a decent blend of puzzles present and accounted for. Those of you that have played Artifex’s other works will know what’s coming your way. There’s a lot of hidden object puzzles, but these tend to take a back seat in favor of the game’s more innovative brain teasers. Whether you’re untangling rope, slotting pieces of a picture together, solving combinations, or even matching colors via a rotating grid, there’s always something thought provoking to take to. The puzzle variation and depth is top notch for the most part.

Hell, despite some very clear instructions, even I found myself stumped quite a lot of the time. Mercifully, however, the game comes with a generous hint system to give you some extra aid, and indeed some difficulty choices should you want to relieve (or heighten) pressure. I should point out, however, that the hint system seemed to be a little unresponsive from time to time. On several occasions I found the hint guiding me to the wrong place, or not working whatsoever; telling me it was charging when it clearly wasn’t.

Thankfully that didn’t happen too many times, but it did happen enough for me to want to make a not about it. When you’re not taking on one of the game’s many puzzles, you’ll likely be gathering items for use elsewhere in the game. The ability to merge objects returns once again, meaning that your inventory will fill up with seamlessly useless items that are only usable once combined with a counterpart item. It’s nothing new, but it does do a good job of stretching out the game’s length to some degree. That’s the sum of depth here folks.

You’ll jump into the game, solve puzzles, pick up items for use somewhere within – typically to advance through to new areas – and gradually move to the game’s conclusion. Like I said, if you’ve played even just one Artifex game, you’ll know what awaits. There’s a fair bit of dialogue to get through here too, in fact, I daresay that Modern Tales has more script to it than any Artifex game in recent memory. You’re of course free to skip it if needs be, which I suppose we should be thankful for in the face of the game’s sloppy audio presentation.

Speaking more directly about the game’s visual design, Modern Tales sports a unique aesthetic. The game’s locations are all hand drawn, and house a quite a lot of variation to ensure that repetition is held at bay. I was particularly fond of the presentation found in the hidden object scenes, being that the items that you’re looking for transition remarkably well with the backdrops that they sit against. It truly is a delight. Sadly, I cant commend the soundtrack nor the audio cues, both of which are as flat and as generic as they come.

The game takes roughly five hours to run through, with an extra hour found in the game’s bonus campaign. If you really want to stretch out your playing time, you can do so via working to earn all of the game’s achievements. Most of these will unlock through natural play, however, there’s a few of them that require a perfect run; such as making no mistakes and finding all collectibles. The bottom line is that for its cost, you cant really go wrong, but there’s much better (from Artifex) that you can take to if you haven’t already done so.

Conclusion

If you’ve played any title from Artifex before, you’ll know exactly what to expect here, warts and all. Due to its poor voice work, its shoddy writing, and its laughable animation, it can be hard to get truly invested in the story that Modern Tales: Age of Invention offers. It’s a shame, because underneath these rather frustrating drawbacks sits an interesting setting that’s really only upheld by the game’s intelligent puzzle design and its gorgeous artwork.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox One. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version.