A letter is mailed to you that is pre-dated to the early 1900s even though you are living in today. Apparently, you inherited a mansion that cast a spell on your family back in the day, and only you can save them. You arrive to the dilapidated mansion with a group of friends. Your friends run past you and bust in. But, before you can enter, you are channeled by an ancient shaman; a white wizard. He says only you can save the world from the evil Black Wizard. You are the bearer of the Blue Tear – a blue diamond – and must find the ritual mask and amulet before entering the mansion. You then are given tasks to do to break the curse.
Combined with a look and feel of being in an exotic tropical setting, this first part, 2 hours long, was the most enjoyable part of Blue Tear. The visuals were gorgeous, and the puzzles were clever. I took pause at the cool acoustic guitar music with a Latino flair. This game wasn’t perfect, but based on the first part, I’d give it a solid score – 3/5. A bit on the short side, but once I completed it, I felt like it had a satisfying enough conclusion.
Obviously, though, I forgot all about the goal of the story, because when the first part finished, I was half expecting credits to roll. Instead, the game continued with your character gaining access to the mansion, and it was a disappointment for miles.
The second part started with an obvious reduction in production value (did the producers run out of money or what?). The graphics weren’t as polished. The sound effects and background music were super loud, irritating and unoriginal (can we get that squeaky floor a nail, please?). I pressed on, the story taking an odd turn where you are now chasing down an animated porcelain scary AF doll with screws for hair. Your task now is to find pins to push into a voodoo doll that would break the Black Wizard’s curse. In a confusing story arc, you find your friends amid the junk in the mansion half dead (possessed? I can’t be sure). Thankfully, the visuals improved from the first scene the further into the game I got. Blue Tear is quite a large game (I clocked in over 7 hours and still wasn’t done!), and the gamer explores every square inch of that property, with over 20 different areas to explore and puzzles to solve. And just when you thought you had seen it all, another part opens up to you. WOW, right?
I don’t think, in all my time reviewing hidden object games, that I’ve encountered a game quite as unique in its problems as this game. Blue Tear teeters on “HOLY SHIT!” to literal holy shit. Aside from the disparity in quality throughout the game, Blue Tear CRASHES. It crashes mid-play, losing progress. It crashes every time I log out of the game. It crashes CONSTANTLY. This is a documented issue with users on Steam, yet nothing has been done about it. The game’s recommended operating system is Windows 7 – perhaps it can’t handle Windows 10? In the end I could not finish the game.
And that is where I leave you. Blue Tear had promise in the first part, but because of its problems, I cannot recommend it to anyone. It blows.
1/5
Blue Tear (PC)
Mystery
2015
Caught Me Gaming 