Artifact Seekers

Review by eFreeware

Hidden-object games have a rhythm problem. You either get a plot that keeps you scrolling through dialogue, or a stack of search scenes with nothing tying them together. Artifact Seekers tries to solve that by borrowing the structure of a reality competition: you are not just finding objects, you are doing it in front of an audience that is supposedly judging every move.

The game comes from FIVE-BN GAMES, and it is free to install on Android. The premise is a televised treasure hunt, and the fantasy of fame runs through it: proving yourself worthy of viewer affection, chasing the top spot among the other contestants, living under the spotlight for a full season.

That framing is the hook. What I find interesting is not the hidden-object hunting itself, which is familiar ground, but the idea of wrapping it in a competition where stars function as a score. It gives the searching a purpose beyond clearing the screen.

A game show you play instead of watch

The setup is simple to explain and, I would guess, easy to slip into. You are a contestant on a show called Artifact Seekers, and the season is structured as a run of episodes. Each episode opens a new world to explore, and within those worlds you are collecting local curiosities, talking to helpers and working through the quest goals laid out for you.

The developer describes carefully designed locations and beautiful soundtracks, and that combination is doing a lot of work here. In this genre, the scenery is the product. If the rooms are cluttered in an interesting way and the music holds the mood, the searching feels like exploration rather than busywork. If they are not, no amount of competition framing will save it.

What appeals to me about the premise is that it gives the hidden-object loop a narrative excuse. You are not a detective or an heir sorting through a haunted mansion; you are a contestant who needs to look competent on camera. It is a small shift, but it changes the tone from mystery to performance, and that is a rarer flavor in this category.

How an episode actually plays out

The loop is easy to follow even without having played it. You choose a pair of characters to go after the goal together, then work through the puzzles and mini-games that stand between you and the quest objectives. The developer says the game rewards thinking outside the box and a bit of ingenuity, which suggests the puzzles are meant to be solved rather than brute-forced by tapping everything on screen.

Dozens of puzzles and mini-games are promised across the season, and that variety matters more than it might sound. A hidden-object game lives or dies on whether the next screen feels different from the last, and mixing search scenes with other puzzle types is the standard way to break up the rhythm. The pair selection adds a second layer, since choosing your two characters suggests at least some thought about how you want to approach a given episode.

Collecting stars is the through-line. You earn them by solving, and they tie into your standing among the other players. That is the closest thing to a progression system here: not a skill tree or an inventory, but a number that reflects how well you are doing in the eyes of the audience.

What pulls you into the next episode

The competition angle is what the developer is selling hardest. The pitch is that you are striving for excellence, trying to take the top spot among the other players, and earning the affection of viewers who are watching your run. Whether that lands depends on how much you care about a scoreboard, but it is a clean motivator: there is always a number to push higher.

The other draw is the episodic structure. Each new episode brings a new world, and with it a fresh set of curiosities to find. That is a format built for players who like a game they can return to in chunks rather than one long narrative push. You finish an episode, you have seen a new place, and the next one is waiting.

I would expect the characters and helpers to carry more weight than the app lets on. It mentions unforgettable characters and complicated quests, and in a game show setting, the people around you are part of the appeal: the ones who guide you, the ones you are competing against. That social texture is what separates a competition premise from a plain puzzle collection.

Free to start, ads and purchases included

Artifact Seekers is free to download and it contains ads. It also offers in-app purchases.

The game is rated for Everyone, which fits the premise: a televised treasure hunt with puzzles rather than anything heavier. It has been installed over a million times and holds a 4.2 average from more than 13,000 ratings, with around 400 written reviews. For a title released in October 2024, that is a healthy amount of feedback to draw on.

A competition puzzle game for casual sessions

If you like hidden-object scenes and want them dressed up with a scoreboard and a bit of showbiz, this is the version of that idea the developer has built. The mix of search puzzles, mini-games and episode-based worlds is a sensible package for short sessions, and the competition framing gives it a spine that pure object-hunting often lacks.

The caveats are the usual ones for a free casual game: ads are present, purchases are offered, and the depth of the puzzle design is something you will judge for yourself once you are in it. The 4.2 average suggests most players find it worth their time, though that is an aggregate, not a promise.

I would point this at players who enjoy a puzzle they can dip into without a long commitment, and who get something out of chasing a rank rather than following a story. It is a free download, so the cost of finding out whether the show is for you is mostly your time.

What's new in version 1.15.10173.255.6215

- Fixed some bugs