Finding Pots & Pets Review (PC)

Last week, it was all about unearthing snails and lettuce from the multi-cultural hallucination of an abstract canvas. This week, it’s about Finding Pots & Pets in the wooded burrow of a whimsical world called—if you can believe it—Bunnyland. Say what you will about hidden object games, but evidently they aren’t overly apprehensive about taking new subjects for a spin in this day and age. Oh, Where’s Waldo doesn’t stand to gain much ground these days; the influx of eccentric object-centric treasure troves has something to do with that, no doubt. Yet, even with so many of these illogical pairings and diluted recreations of cult classic children’s literature to choose from, I still can’t help but feel obliged to hover the magnifying glass over all of them. Pots & Pets? Sure — why not?

Like its ilk, Finding Pots & Pets curates a portion of elusive objects and sentient subjects for you to find over a series of pixel-heavy regions. With a total of nine levels to work through, with each one fostering upwards of two hundred obtainable items to scratch off of your checklist, you could argue that there’s plenty of bang for your buck here. And there is; the inclusion of 3,000 letterbox items is a substantially higher amount than the bog-standard search-and-find title à la 100 Cats series. The question is, does Finding Pots & Pets’ allegiance to quantity over quality do it justice? Let’s open up the book and find out.

If the Paw Fits

Finding Pots & Pets is, first and foremost, therapy for the soul. With little to no unnecessary curveballs for you to clamber over or difficult puzzles to untangle, the game itself more or less allows you the freedom to unwind at your own leisure and tackle things in whatever manner that you desire. There are no time constraints, nor are there any progression-locked secrets to carve through. Instead, Finds Pots & Pets gives you the fundamentals to proceed, and the tools to make gradual progress in a way that feels both refreshing and incredibly rewarding. And, with a useful built-in hint system to assist you, it’s highly unlikely that even the most inexperienced of users can actually get stuck here, too. That’s a lot of great points already, and yet we’ve barely scratched the surface.

Of course, if you’ve played one hidden object game, then chances are you’ve played ‘em all. Structurally, there isn’t a lot here that’s vastly different from your traditional pixel-like puzzler, minus, perhaps, its core focal points and the set pieces that it carefully slots into its world design. And don’t get me wrong, while the setup is still incredibly familiar to most hidden object games, the fact is, Finding Pots & Pets still manages to formulate its own identity as a fun and seamlessly engaging puzzler, with its gleaming locales, character contributions, and short quests attributing towards its overall aesthetic.

More Pots for Your Buck

There is one thing that enhances the quality of the game, and that’s the Challenge mode that unlocks after successfully beating the levels and sifting through the bulk of the journey. I’ll admit, it does remove the easygoing stigma associated with its core gameplay mechanics, what with it relying on prompt action, strung-out combos and timed events to keep things moving. That said, such a secondary option does shake up that tired formula ever so slightly, as does it add a little extra replay value to the base game. That’s something a lot of hidden object games tend to lack: a reason to return to the same world and find something new. It doesn’t revolutionize the medium, but it’s still a neat touch, and something that I’m more than happy to give credit for.

Of course, provided that the art style is both inviting and intriguing, and that the subject isn’t universally hated, it’s pretty difficult to go wrong with a hidden object game, in general. And while Finding Pots & Pets doesn’t do anything majorly special to spruce up the traditional formula aside from its inclusion of a timed Challenge mode, it does at least manage to capture the aforementioned ingredients incredibly well in its own special way. A pixel art style that’s both comprehensible and naturally inviting? Check. A globally recognizable subject that most, if not all people would happily spend an hour or two combing the streets for? Check. Enough of said materials to warrant a loyal fan of the genre’s time and attention? Check, check, and check.

Verdict

If you took a few seconds to scrub the bottom of the of any popular online marketplace, you wouldn’t struggle to upturn a hundred, perhaps even a thousand generic hidden object games with a “unique” subject matter or focal point. In I Commissioned Some Snails, it was snails and lettuce; 100 Forest Cats, it was pixel- perfect feline friends; and in Pots & Pets, it is exactly what it says it is on the tin: pots, and pets. To that end, you sort of know what you’re getting long before the installation is complete: a run-of-the-mill object-finding puzzler with a definitive anchor point and all of the textbook pixel art exhibits to accompany it.

To cut to the chase, if you’re desperate to scratch that post-lettuce itch of yours, as well as have a couple of hours to spare on an otherwise dull evening, then yes, you should give Finding Pots & Pets the same attention as its cousins. It won’t change your life, much less give you something to write home about. But, it’ll at least give you a reason to mindlessly click bunnies for no reason other than to wax your trigger finger for an hour whilst you await that next big arrival. Needless to say, then, that if it’s therapy that you want, then herein lies an ideal treatment that’ll surely give you enough to remediate your problems, if not indefinitely, then for a couple of hours or more, depending on how you navigate the process, as well as how you choose to spend your time after the final object emerges.