A Robotic Hidden Object Game that is Otherwise Comprehensive
I’m convinced that, if you collected together everyone who has ever said “keep politics out of our games!”, then Motorhome: Traveling America Collector’s Edition would be the game that they would make. It’s the most white, normie, capitalist-coded game I think I’ve ever played, and it is as accidentally political as you could possibly imagine.
If Motorhome: Traveling America Collector’s Edition was one of its own hidden objects, it would be a white picket fence. The family in the game seem to have been cut out from an AI-created clothes catalogue. They are far too attractive to own a Winnebago, and they’re travelling to locations where there isn’t a single POC. Once there, they talk like the travel board for the US government. Did you know that the Grand Canyon is 277 miles long and must not be missed on any visit to America? Why, thank you, twelve-year old girl who talks like Jeff from Jet2 Holidays.
Now That’s What I Call Middle America
Everybody you meet has got pearly white teeth and looks like they should have Shutterstock watermarks on them, or are about to film a Bodyform advert. The closest that the family ever comes to hardship is helping a geriatric couple who have broken down. It’s America portrayed as ski holidays, Yosemite camping and diners with the Stars and Stripes flying.
Motorhome: Traveling America Collector’s Edition is so square that it develops an odd charm. Nothing looks real. It’s the world of Demolition Man or Westworld. Tilt your head one way and it’s psychotic.
Now that we’ve got that off our chest (we don’t have all that much against the US, it’s just this is a very specific weirdo ideal of the place) we can get to the actual game. Because Motorhome: Traveling America Collector’s Edition is a hidden object game, and it’s actually pretty good. It gives us cognitive dissonance to look at these goofy images yet play some well-thought hidden object scenes.
Depth and Variety by the Caravan-Load
The game has really nailed both depth and variety. On the depth front, Motorhome: Traveling America Collector’s Edition has a bucket of levels, including an entire bonus episode. There’s no push to replay these scenes over and over: as long as you find all the extra stuff in each scene, you can consider it done.
And there’s plenty of extra stuff. Not only are you finding a list of items, every scene has a dapper raccoon in a coat to find, a camera, and two items that you have to recognise from their visuals rather than words (located in a circle in the bottom-left of the scene). These are all optional and separate from the mandatory stuff.
Motorhome: Traveling America Collector’s Edition is packed with suitcases full of variety. Even in the hidden object levels, you can’t quite be sure what you will need to do. Some levels have silhouettes of items to find, others have lots of a single item (shells, birds), and the best ones have riddles that point to a particular item.
Every level has shimmering locations that, when clicked, expand to become scenes-within-scenes. They only sparkle when something on the list can be found there, so it’s an extra clue to where that hot air balloon or ski bag might be (even the items are extra super-duper normie).
Time for Some Pipe Puzzles?
Complete enough levels and you might unlock minigames. They’re eminently skippable (as are the hidden object scenes – there are welcoming and generous Hint and Skip functions here), but they’re half-decent examples of puzzles that you have played from other games. There’s draughts, sudoku, moving block puzzles: all the usuals are there.
It’s probably the most fully featured hidden object game that I have played, purely in terms of the finding aspect. It understands completely that players of hidden object games want to be playing hidden object puzzles, and that approach tends to be a rare one. There’s no grind, precious little story (unless you count the little girl cosplaying as the US tourist board) and very few obstacles to just spotting stuff, Where’s Wally style.
The downside is the one we’ve already mentioned. There’s something eerie about the scenes that you’re rummaging in. That’s eerie in the sense that they never, ever feel slightly close to real (they feel like collage scrapbooks more than photos) and they come across as the US imagined by someone who has never left their suburban home. Doing some Googling, Motorhome: Traveling America Collector’s Edition is made by Avi Games who call Armenia their home, so maybe it’s just a case of a games studio regurgitating a second-hand America.
Well-made, but Slightly Weird
If I could choose a recent Xbox hidden object game to play, I would pick Chronicles of Albian 3 over this. That game is grindier, sure, and it hasn’t got the variety or depth of hidden object puzzles that this has. I just can’t get past the dead-eyed, negative-personality of Motorhome: Traveling America Collector’s Edition. It’s a black mark on an otherwise very well-made hidden object game.
Important Links
Travel And Puzzle In Motorhome: Traveling America – https://www.thexboxhub.com/travel-and-puzzle-in-motorhome-traveling-america/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/motorhome-traveling-america-collectors-edition/9NRTBMTXZLT6/0010
