Secret Exit [Game Review]

Secret Exit is an addictive puzzle/platform game in which you must reach the hidden door in each level. This is a really, think-outside-the-box type of game, that reminds me a lot of Bart Bonte's games, such as Full Moon or Me and the Key, each consisting of the addictive flavor of uniqueness and originality, much like Secret Exit. In Secret Exit your goal is to reach a door, which in each level is hidden and can only be found by completing a small task or puzzle. As addictive as this game is it contains no story-line what-so-ever, yet, strange enough I never questioned that throughout the whole entire time I spent playing the game!

This a pretty smooth flowing game, with practically no stops due to difficulties. I guess the difficulty of this game can be addressed by your ability to come up with a unique answers to each riddle, it's all based on your capability to imagine the situation on a different level as something as you'd usually take it. Often the level comes down to one word in the riddle, which will inevitably be the decision between winning and losing! The levels overall, are extremely simple, and are practically impossible to kill yourself throughout the game, actually to be exact it is impossible to loose in any way!

The overall game is actually very easy, though it can come with some tough puzzles! In a way Secret Exit reminds me of Take Something Literally. Mainly because there are unique task that your must complete that you wouldn't see in the average game. In one instance you must visit another site or reset your clock on your computer to a different time! I would actually say this game has any sort of difficulty ramp, of course there's the first couple of levels to ease you into the game, but then it goes flat and really doesn't supply you with a challenge near the end of the game.

Secret Exit is a very retro styled game. All of the graphics and music create a very retro scene. A game that I could compare this to would have to be (though I've only played the game for five minutes) MegaMan. The background and such is pretty basic, the only thing that concerned me throughout the game were the pipes in the background, they seem so much like they're in with the whole platform idea, but since there part of the background it creates an unrealistic effect in the game. In my opinion, if I were to work on it a bit I would of faded out the pipes, but heck, it isn't my game what am I to say, eh?

Most music in games drive me to insanity, by the time I've listened to it 10-50 times straight, but even as I write this I'm listening to the music (music review 101, always listen to the music, during the review!). The music has this mystery tune to it, and is easy to imagine in a detective scene or just for casual listening.

The controls overall were very simple to master. Have you ever played Super Mario? Practically the same controls. The Arrow keys control everything that happens in the game, except for a couple of stages (I won't tell you!) and the menu. The controls are very simple in my opinion, though for some of the left handed people out there, that stick with the WASD keys, I'm sorry to say that there is no option for that! That is a major downfall to the game for me, because I know that when I play games that only allow movement through the WASD keys, I flip a bit, (through after playing Spewer for 1000 hours straight I finally got the hang of it). Anyways, you won't have a problem with the controls, unless you use the WASD keys!

Secret Exit in my opinion has just the same amount of re-playability as another maze game on the internet. There are several ways to hook in a gamer, those being achievements, upgrades, etc. I think that if those ideas had been incorporated this would have been a more successful game, and the review would not have been finished by now, nor would I even be considering writing a review for it yet, but here I am done! Once you beat the game I see no reason to turn back and complete it. A game that fully utilized achievements and badges was Fragger, you know, it keeped you playing, but this game is flat!

Overall, I thought the game was addictive to the end. The controls are simple enough to keep, non-computer addicts interested. The game maintains simple graphics along with music that fits the scene well. The only downfall is that there is about zero re-playability, which would keep an avid gamer like me from coming back and possibly rating higher. My overall rating would have to come down to 3-3.5, somewhere around there!

Walk-through: