7 Roses – A Darkness Rises

7 Roses – A Darkness Rises is neither a good game nor a bad game; it’s… average at best. Its problem lies in the fact that despite it being released only a few years ago, it’s extremely old-fashioned, both in concept and in graphics, and especially unsuited for widescreen / newer resolutions (it runs in a 4:3 window at 1020×768 resolution and changing to full screen results in it messing up your whole desktop).

Maybe newer games made me lazy, but I really struggled with the lack of a map used for fast travelling. While more recent releases try to restrict the range of puzzles over 2-3 adjacent locations, in 7 Roses – A Darkness Rises there’s a lot of back & forth required between scenes that are at the opposite sides of the map. Additionally, the locations are placed to some extent in a labyrinthine way, so it’s easy to get lost searching for the right path. The lack of a map also means no indicators for the actions available, but on the positive side, a hint system exists.

The puzzles haven’t changed much over the years – if you played other HOGs, you’ll be in your element while playing 7 Roses – A Darkness Rises as well. The journal doesn’t focus much on tracking the story or your progress, but instead it serves as a notebook where the main character writes down newly found puzzle clues. These have to be accessed directly from the journal when solving the puzzles, since there’s no indication otherwise on the screen.

There are a few cutscenes but they’re unsurprisingly low-quality and they don’t have voice-overs. There are no collectibles either and no bonus chapter. The game features a mix of hidden object scenes with lists of items and fragmented objects – although those belonging to the latter category are encountered more often than the others. Both types are quite easy to solve, requiring only a few steps.

Overall, it’s a passable game that succeeds in entertaining you only mildly for around 2h. It works fine, it plays without issues but it’s simply very outdated for this modern age. I’d say it’s worth picking up with a discount, if you’re a HOG collector, but otherwise there are plenty of other games in the same price range that are worth your attention more than 7 Roses – A Darkness Rises.