I’m not going to say vampires have been done to death (they’ve been done to death), but, I will admit I felt a touch of disappointment when I downloaded Fallen: The Flowers of Evil only to discover the supernatural cause of the city’s quarantine and mysterious flower growth was, you guessed it, a vampire.

For just a minute there, I thought it was going to be some awesome other-worldly gardener type, spreading evil one plant at a time. Then I see the girl with the bite mark on her neck, and BAM! It was all downhill from there.

When I feel disappointment coming on, I usually try to give myself a little pep talk, especially when it happens so soon into the game. “Liz,” I say, “Don’t be so harsh. You may still really like it!” And, sometimes, I can pull a game into positive thinking, and sometimes I’m playing Fallen: The Flowers of Evil.

This game just didn’t groove with me. Yes, the design on the world was quite pretty, but after that, I’m just out of nice things to say. I didn’t like the plot, I didn’t like the vaguely cartoony character design, and I felt supremely grateful there was only the one animated scene at the very beginning. There’s no two ways about it: for me, this was a flop.

Let’s begin with one of my biggest dislikes: games that give you access to the whole darn map right at the beginning. Instead of making me wander around the entire dumb town, I’d much rather just finish the house (and maybe the alley outside) and then move on to the courtyard or the church or the docks or whatever.

Having them all open, even with a teleportation map, just leaves me so much to try to remember. Where was that pile of leaves again? And which area had the statue with the bracelet? And I’ve forgotten where that crow went, but I’ve got its food.

It’s too much, and for me it adds a lot of stress and kills the fun. I don’t want to have to check my inventory every time I enter a new place to see if I’ve got what’s needed from three screens ago; I just want to know what I’ve got is going to be used before I move on too far.

Give me clear, concise chapters or give me…well, a different game. No wonder the house has so many freaking locks; I’d have run out screaming a lot sooner if I didn’t have to pause to figure out all those crazy keys!

You know what else sucks about having access to the entire map? All the randomly appearing hidden object areas, that’s what.

Hidden object scenes appear all over the place and many (many, many) of the times in the same places I’ve already done a hidden object scene. So I never knew if I was just missing something in an area, and that’s why I couldn’t go on, or if another hidden object area had popped up in some room I haven’t been to in 10 minutes and THAT’S why I was stuck. Let me tell you, I burned a hole in that hint button; its directions are the only way I made any progress at ALL (and even then it was slow and laborious). 

And here’s another thing that kept tripping me up: homonyms. I’ve never noticed them in hidden object lists before (I’m sure I will from now on), but there were a couple in Fallen: The Flowers of Evil, and it really drove me crazy. Like asking me to collect a bow. Well, do you mean the bow you put in your hair or bow you shoot? Or the one you play a violin with?

Being in a little girl’s room, you’d assume hair bow, right? You’d be wrong; we’re talking about a bow like you’d use to shoot an arrow. And another thing: asking me to find a “horn” when I’ve already fixed a mural with an angel and a demon on it; you’re going to have to be more specific: do you want a horn you can play or one that goes on a critter’s/demon’s head? (It was the head one in this case). Made me wish I was this guy.

There’s a lot about Fallen: The Flowers of Evil that grinds my gears, but I’m big enough to admit it’s just because I don’t particularly care for this style of hidden object game. I can totally see how it could be someone’s cup of tea, as long as they’re looking for a memory challenge and don’t mind wading through a mass amount of clutter and aimless flitting about.

I know from personal experience there are indeed people out there who love just this kind of game, and who would delight in all the parts of Fallen: The Flowers of Evil that I don’t care for (and who also wouldn’t care at all about the parts that drove me bonkers). That’s why I can say I don’t care for it, but I can’t say I don’t recommend it. I see how this could be a great game for some people; it’s just not for me.