Sophia the Traveler Review (PC & Switch)

If you, like me, spent a good portion of your childhood flicking through the pages of a Where’s Wally book, then you’ll no doubt be able to recognize just about every aspect that makes up Sophia the Traveler. Like a lot of interactive search-and-find art pieces of its kind, the game mostly revolves around the act of, well, searching and—if you can believe it—finding various objects and other key landmarks that flesh out one of several vibrant and diverse landscapes. It’s easy on the mind, that much is obvious, and it doesn’t take a ludicrous amount of effort to decipher, even though, on several occasions, certain levels do make it slightly difficult to spot valuable pieces of data. But that’s all part of the journey, and if Sophia the Traveler is anything at all — it’s a journey.

Granted, it didn’t take me a huge amount of time to shovel through the watery haunts of Venice; it helped, too, that I had already traveled to the famed City of Water a few short years back. But then, when I did go and visit the backstreets of Venice, I can’t say that I was on the lookout for Sophia, a prolific tourist who made it an objective to sneak into the darkest crags and crevices of its surroundings to play a good old-fashioned game of hide-and-seek with the general public. That, unsurprisingly, was a pastime that I failed to comprehend at the time of my visit. Just as well, then, that the developer behind Sophia the Traveler made it possible.

So, is it a trip that’s worth taking? Well, if you are fresh off the transcript of another search-and-find game, and aren’t entirely sure which dock to lay your paws on next, then be sure to read on.

Where Art Thou, Sophia?

Sophia the Traveler unfolds in a similar fashion as a lot of search-and-find books: it generates a series of flip book-type scenarios for you to explore, and a copious amount of items to scrub through and scratch off of a relatively diverse checklist. It’s a simple yet effective gameplay loop that isn’t the least bit taxing on the brain, though it can also take a good bit of detective work to make certain elements break out of their shells. But that isn’t too much of a pain in the neck; its idyllic art style and Venetian architecture have something to do with that, for sure.

Of course, if you’re new to this particular quarter of the sphere, then there’s a good chance that you’ll struggle to comprehend several of the themes that compliment the art piece. To put it simply, you have multiple exterior and interior locations to comb over—areas that feature typical Venetian landmarks and citizens going about their daily routines—and a vast array of items on a docket that hide themselves in one of several logical locations. It’s your role, as the overseer in this world, to highlight the objects on the screen and gradually whittle down the to-do list. And that’s it.

On one hand, Sophia the Traveler does have its fair share of oversized domains, few of which require a sharp eye to knuckle in on, but on the other hand, the vast majority of these locales aren’t overly difficult to navigate. As it turns out, there is a useful hint system that allows you to bypass a lot of the strain and jump straight to the heart of the object in question. What’s more, as these hints don’t disappear after extended periods of use, it means that you can, technically, glide through it.

Venetian Paradise

Sophia the Traveler is a very, very good-looking game, and it does manage to take full advantage of its hand-drawn art style by incorporating a lot of lifelike characters and logical concepts. Its musical score, too, is perfectly balanced and ambient enough to extract a lot of endorphins from your soul—a feature that thankfully remains throughout the entirety of the journey. Suffice it to say that, as far a cozy games travel, this is an absolute credit to the genre, and a must-have for those in dire need of a few short hours away from the hustle and bustle of a slightly more demanding experience.

What makes Sophia the Traveler all the more inviting is its clever use of interactive installations—a simple yet elegant design that allows you manipulate certain items, such as lights switches and other important objects that find themselves sprawled out across the page. It isn’t a huge thing, nor is it an innovation that we’ve barely seen come to fruition before, but it does manage to elevate what would otherwise be a static image to an entirely new, living, breathing portrait that’s hearty and fun. And that’s a major plus, because, quite literally, there’s a whole lot of gazing and gawping to do.

As far as general set pieces go, Sophia the Traveler invites you to uncover a generous selection of areas, including quaint homes that are oozing with Easter eggs and hidden secrets, sky-high museums that boast multiple layers and rooms, and cityscapes that stretch far and wide and cover a huge amount of land. It isn’t quite Venice in its entirety, but it definitely picks off a huge chunk of it and, through the power of highly intricate art styles, transforms whatever it has in its palette to make certain portions pop.

Room to Nitpick

While Sophia the Traveler isn’t the toughest game in the world, it does generate the odd curveball for you to overcome; for example, it doesn’t allow you to pinpoint areas that you’ve already explored, which means that you need to manually analyze certain set pieces and keep track of your progress. Like a lot of search-and-find games, though, I did find that by simply gliding from one corner to the next and working in a standard zig-zag formation, that I was able to locate a good eighty perfect of the objects without having to take a second look. All in all, I was able to sweep an enormous collection of the items on the checklist beneath the rug in a little under an hour—a milestone that probably would’ve taken a lot longer should the game not have coughed up a generous selection of zooming tools to alleviate the burden.

When all’s said and done, there isn’t a lot to complain about here, as the game is, more or less, a product that sports all of the same stripes that you’d come to expect from any close alternative. On a difficultly level, it hits somewhere between five and six; it’s a little tricky in parts, and it does make the occasional effort to burrow some smaller details into darker corners or behind some form of virtual smokescreen. But again, it isn’t the least bit unbearably complex, and it’s mainly thanks to its suite of effective tools and limitless hints that make it possible to complete just about every chapter in a short and timely manner.

Verdict

Sophia the Traveler is an excellent anchor point for those in search of a good old-fashioned search-and-find game that doesn’t require a whole lot of forward planning to make short work of its puzzles. It’s a good-looking game, too, which speaks volumes for its creator who, to my best knowledge, must have spent a proportionate amount of time glossing over the finer details of the famed City of Water to make several of its iconic landmarks come across as beating hearts on a page in a flip book. Again, it isn’t the most technical of search-and-find games out there, but it does provide enough of a sturdy challenge to get the cogs in motion and the eyes scanning for an hour or two. And when all’s said and done, that’s precisely what fans of the genre are looking for — literally.

If you’re something of an avid fan of the likes of Cats Hidden in Georgia or, for old time’s sake, Where’s Wally, then Sophia the Traveler is sure to give you enough lighter fuel to rekindle several of those core memories. It’s an easy one to work through, and so, if you’re looking to introduce a younger player to the genre, or a beginner-friendly puzzler that emulates all of the same components as a bog-standard point-and-click game, then you ought to give this wholesome creation by Memo Gogo a slither of tender love and care.