Black Rainbow Year Published: 2014 Publisher: Libredia Entertainment Developer: Cateia Games Cateia Games is a developer known for making hidden object games without any actual hidden object scenes, and that's what the nonsensically-titled Black Rainbow is - seriously, there is no "Black Rainbow" in the game and the title seems to be two words vaguely related to colors randomly thrown together. The world was a different place in 2014 when it was originally published, but some aspects of it would've been embarrassing even then, and it wouldn't have been considered good then, either, when much better, more advanced HOG's had already bested it. Totem Pole, quicksand, and whatever else can possibly tell you that, yes, you're in the jungle. The opening cinema depicts a group of tribal warriors in an undetermined location in the Amazon jungle about to perform a human sacrifice when it's interrupted by a meteor shower. The scene cuts to you, a woman named Helen, who is either living or vacationing nearby. Helen grabs a few things and takes off in an airplane to escape the meteors when it promptly crashes in the jungle, near the tribal warriors' temple. Through a series of events Helen learns she is a "Chosen One" who is meant to save the world from the Dark Ones, who come from the Dark Ether, put people under Dark Spells, and are led by the Dark Lord. Yeah, this game loves using the word "dark" to describe things a lot. Even without having seen the game, you can probably already imagine the problem here. Black Rainbow isn't just a "White Savior" story, it's the type where every dark-skinned character wields spears and is wearing little more than a loincloth, and their leaders are all much more conservatively-clothed white people. (The game's developers should've image searched "Amazon indigenous people" because the tribe in this game looks more African.) One thing all these characters have in common, though, is that they're rather inanimate and unconvincing, and voiced by people who are clearly not professional voice actors. (The less said about the creepy Merman character, the better.) Aside from the back of a troll and a silhouette near the end, you never actually confront or even see the Dark Ones, and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I'll admit this is pretty, but it's the best of what's here. For the game itself...I get that some people don't like picking through lists of random objects when most are irrelevant, but somehow HOG's always seem too short without them. Black Rainbow doesn't replace them with anything, effectively making the game beatable in 1.5 hours or less. Even the puzzles don't make up for them because they are all so easy, most will be finished before the Skip button has a chance to fully charge. Graphically, the jungle area that Helen's plane crash-lands in is so gorgeous, that I was almost willing to forgive the atrocious story (almost). But there are only about three screens of that before it devolves into rather boring and mundane caves, all of which look like early 2000's CG renders. What manner of unholy creepypasta is this?? There is no reason to play Black Rainbow in 2021 or beyond. Even if you aren't particularly bothered by "White Savior" narratives, Melissa K. and the Heart of Gold is 100x the game this one is, and if you hate hidden object scenes, many of Artifex Mundi's titles give you the option to play a mini-game instead. Leave this one in the jungles of antiquity where it belongs. SCORE: 1.5/5