Games.com Diary: Drawn: the Painted Tower

Big Fish Games is the developer behind some of our most popular game series, from the Diner Dash time management games to the Mystery Case Files hidden object games, but lately they've taken their development in a new direction: adventure games.

Drawn: the Painted Tower, which debuted earlier this month, has been one of our biggest addictions this past week. The game, very much reminiscent of the popular point-and-click adventure genre of the 90s, features beautifully detailed art, a great Tim Burton-esque storyline and original puzzles -- we were surprised to find how drawn in (no pun intended) we became to the plight of a missing girl with ability to bring her art to life.

'Drawn' takes many cues from the hidden object genre we're seen as of late -- we spent much of the game searching around scenes for items and progressing through areas to find items for use in other areas. Pretty standard stuff.

But the way the storyline ties into the gameplay is where 'Drawn' shines. The paintings that we explore are works of art created by the very missing girl we're trying to find and protect -- her magical abilities have made her a target for would-be evildoers (naturally!). They're peppered with interactive characters that animate and react depending on your actions -- Big Fish did a great job in making us feel like we had an impact on the game world. It evolved and changed as we progressed in the game.

The puzzles themselves are varied and impressive in their own right. In addition to some predictable jigsaw puzzles, we found ourselves using the mouse to draw in our own objects, rotating mirrors to shine sunlight on a plant and solving word riddles. We even transported objects (drawn on pieces of paper) to and from different paintings to use them. Yeah, it's good.

This was one of the first downloadable games that we wanted to buy even before the demo hour was up -- 'Drawn' pulled us in quickly and unexpectedly. Give it a try (download the demo here) and come back to let us know what you thought of it!