Last year, I played Hidden Through Time a hidden objects game available on Steam. Hidden Through Time was one of my favorite games I played in 2020. Steam had recommended to me Wind Peaks another hidden objects game centered around kids heading off to summer camp. The premise of Wind Peaks sounded promising, but I found myself comparing Wind Peaks to Hidden Through Time. When I did the comparison, Wind Peaks was nowhere near as good as Hidden Through Time.

Wind Peaks included a story with cut scenes in between each map. The story can be quickly summarized as kids heading off to summer camp in search of buried treasure. The treasure is buried somewhere within the camp and collecting these objects will aid in their search. I’m not sure why a story was introduced because I’m not sure if any of the kids were given names? I’m not sure what the significance is of the buried treasure? It’s mostly thrown into the game to make it memorable from other hidden objects games. I did like the overall aesthetic of Wind Peaks. The summer camp theme gave off a cozy, relaxing feel to the game.

I made it clear Wind Peaks is not on the same level as Hidden Through Time. One example of this is the hint system. To get a hint in Wind Peaks, you would click on the object. A countdown would begin and if the object wasn’t found in that time, the object was revealed on the map. That’s not a hint system. The game forced me to struggle throughout the map and then finally revealed the object instead of providing a hint. In Hidden Through Time, a hint is included above the object, so I could still find the object on my own without it being given away.

Additionally, I felt the maps in Wind Peaks were a bit too big. I couldn’t zoom out to view the map as a whole, so it took forever to visually scan the map looking for objects. I wished either the maps would have been smaller or the zoom function would have allowed me to view the whole map. I also can’t stand using “WASD” instead of the arrow keys. The arrow keys make sense, I’m not sure why I couldn’t have used them to move around the map.

Wind Peaks was an enjoyable, cozy, cabin hidden objects game. The gameplay in my opinion could have been better, but it didn’t take away from the experience. The way Wind Peaks ended left open the potential of new maps being added to the game. I would play through the new maps in Wind Peaks although I hope the hint system is overhauled. Hidden object games are a nice distraction from the console games I’m currently playing through. I would rate Wind Peaks a 6.5 / 10.