Love and Death: Bitten (PC)

Do you want to play a game starring a broody, hunky vampire?

Answer: Yes.

Then Love and Death: Bitten is the perfect game for you.

Love and Death: Bitten stars Damon, a hunky vampire. He’s not an evil vampire, though. No, he’s just under the spell of Celeste, the vampire queen, who is keeping him hostage as her love slave. If only there was someone who could help save him…

Enter Victoria, a sassy and gorgeous young woman who lives with her controlling uncle. She sees Damon lurking on the rooftops one night and decides to chase after the mysterious, hunky stranger. She finds her way to his castle, where the two of them exchange witty banter in which she makes it clear she will never, ever fall in love with a scumbag vampire like him. Two days later, of course, she is madly in love with his Broody Hunkiness, who is tragically unable to be with her, due to the whole vampire issue. Together, the two of them search for the magic potion that will break the witch’s spell and turn him back into a human.

Fortunately, the witch is not exactly the intellectual type, and she keeps the potion in plain sight. In Damon’s room. That is basically the worst hiding spot ever, and it is protected by security so flimsy that a three-year-old could get past it. So, naturally, it takes our heroes over half the game to get to the potion.

In case you can’t tell, this game has a pretty good adventure game plot. It’s not too complicated, and it’s not too deep, but it entertains well enough. It’s also a rather decent adventure game with easy-to-figure-out puzzles like “find a way to light the candles.” The game is peppered with logic-based puzzles, which guard the various locked doors. Yes, all in all, I’d rate this game as a solid, decent adventure game.

…The problem is that this is a hidden object game.

OK, so maybe “problem” isn’t the right word to use, but still. I enjoyed the adventure game side of Love and Death: Bitten. The hidden object game side? Not so much. There always seemed to be three or four items on every single screen that I couldn’t find, which becomes decidedly un-fun after a while. Eventually, my strategy devolved into “use the hint button to find everything,” because the hint button can give out a hint every thirty seconds. It’s a bad sign when I’m not willing to even try to find the hidden objects in a hidden object game.

The other big problem with the game is its ending, which you can unlock by finding 100 of the 150 or so golden leaves scattered throughout the game. The idea of an unlockable ending is kind of iffy, but because it was unlockable, I assumed it would be long and fancy. Well, it wasn’t. It was one picture long, with one sentence of dialogue. That makes it the shortest cutscene of the game. Throw in the fact that it gives off a blatant sequel set-up vibe, and you’re stuck with what could be the worst ending possible.

The game runs at 1024 by 768, which is pretty big for a PC game. Also, the gossipy pixies/fairies (as pictured above) are hilarious. I looked forward to all their scenes with great excitement, and I was visibly disappointed near the end of the game, where they could have had a scene, but didn’t. Instead, they just floated around the screen without saying anything. What fun is that?

To sum up, this is a solid adventure game, trapped inside a not-so-solid hidden object game. It comes from the same publisher as Emerald City Confidential, and if I gave that game bonus points for not being Wicked, I have to give this game bonus points for not being Twilight. The vampires in this game are legitimate vampires, meaning they have fangs, suck blood and turn into bats, instead of having magical glitter powers. Glitter powers? Seriously? That’s a pixie power. Just ask Tinkerbell.