The first level where you are required to drag the clutter pile with the mouse to separate the items in order to make matches DOES NOT WORK. I cannot click & drag; clicking only activates the object (makes it hop up and down to show it is selected.) I tried both left-clicking and right-clicking. The only way I could get through this level was to use a bunch of hints to clear the larger objects, and match the tiny tips of objects that were in view.

Agreed - this is very similar to Dream Walker from a short bit ago. I have enjoyed playing that one - and I'm sure this one.

In Dream Walker and in this one, I've had it where the matching item was not visible - buried under objects. Restarting the level was needed.

I like these games because I don't have to think. It's a game. I play them when I have something else on my mind that I need to think through, or when I have a few minutes to kill. I enjoy them. I get tired of the hidden object games where I have to go to a location, backtrack to another, find another and round and round. My only complaint with the Catch the Witch group - different from the Clutter (Puzzles by Joe) group is that they are glitchy. Mouse clicks often times do not work or they are off and pick a different item. This particular one was better that way than some of the others.

Anyway, thanks for the game. I'm glad to have it.

Spirit of the Ancient Forest is less like a typical Hidden Object Game and more again of the clutter-style hidden object scenes matching if you like that. Although most of the puzzles are these find in a clutter type games, there are also the occasional jigsaw puzzles or slider type puzzles available as well. It is indeed similar to the Dream Walker game given away recently on Feb 5, 2023 and many others such as Clutter VI Leigh's Story Sept 18, 2021 and Hiddenverse: Tale of Ariadna Jan 23, 2022. These jigsaw type puzzles which can be skipped will earn you an extra hint to use in the clutter puzzles which can be helpful, and the hint feature will recharge faster when you click on the crystals, located within each clutter puzzle. If you don't use a hint, you will receive extra points, and you get points for any remaining time you may have. The storyline progresses between levels a bit at a time. Keep in mind there are also 91 levels and so a bit long to see all the variety and issues that may turn up without a full playthrough.

If you've never played Clutter games like this one, you must remove matching pairs of items, triple matches or sometimes variations in some of the games such as one object in color and its match without color in a heaping pile of junk (clutter). For example in level 2 you have to match 20 matching pairs of items from the screen cluttered items but cant move the items around.

In options, you can choose between 3 different modes of difficulty, Very Casual with no time limits, Casual with just enough time (well, not always) or Hard which gives you 20% less time than casual typically. This game is similar in part to Namariel Legends: Iron Lord. In that one, the game is primarily a point & click adventure with puzzles which some may prefer. It appears they first offer a hidden/object adventure game and then take parts like the characters, storyline and objects and make a different "clutter" style game. Overall the gameplay enjoyment will mostly depend here on your enjoyment of doing many clutter puzzles. Rating: C+

I'd say this game fairly closely resembles the series of fourteen Clutter games from Puzzles by Joe ("the original Un-Hidden Object game"), with its "big untidy pile" object matching, arrange-the=vertical-strips, and just-plain-jigsaw levels.

A new "story" panel appears after each puzzle, which makes a somewhat "tacked-on" attempt to provide a "plot" to tie the puzzles together. If you've played a HOG from Wondershare, which likewise alternates apparently unrelated (left over from other games?) HOG screens with a "story/progression" panel, you'll understand.

To Rufus, I'm happy enough playing "clutter" levels, but then I did enjoy the one PBJ Clutter game I played (Clutter VI: Leigh's Story), which has a LOT more "clutter" levels than today's GGOTD: but did have a half-decent plot about Leigh, a gamer girl (playing Clutter, obviously!) to keep one hooked.

So, that's my tuppence-worth: hope it helps you decide whether or not you'd like today's GGOTD!

To my recollection, We've been given a game away before maybe within the last 4 weeks or so which had the same format of gameplay where the game starts off as a puzzle and transitions to a story and the next scene is a match the like hidden objects.

It's not really a hidden object game it's more arcade like with variety for other challenges to be solved. At first I thought this game would frustrate people who play these games but the good news is that there is a super relaxed mode for those who want to try and get into the mood to play this game for quite a long time.

In my opinion this game is not for everyone - it's simply for those who want to break from the normal tradition of hidden object games but at the end of the day you may find a premium HO game more enjoyable to play which don't subject you to a nonsense of different puzzles.

I find in particular the find-matching-items-in-a-big-pile puzzles get extremely tiresome after the 3rd or 4th round. There are way to many of these puzzles in this collection.