16 Best Hidden Object Games on PC

There is a big interest in hidden object games. From the massive line of books that pins readers to scout out an image to now video games. These games are also pretty relaxing as you scour over the image Looking for a particular object. Likewise, these video games have also made things a bit more interesting with a storyline to progress through. While some titles may have some additional mechanics, the base game remains the same. Players simply have to find the hidden object.

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#16 A Castle Full of Cats

Platform: PC
Release Date: November 9, 2022

So, you want to know more about A Castle Full of Cats? It’s a game about a castle that happens to be full of cats, and you need to find them all.

Are you satisfied now? Oh, you’re not? Fine! We’ll talk about it more. The game is technically more than that, as there’s a deep structure within the castle that the cats are hidden in. You’ll go back and forth as you unlock new castle areas to roam in.

Oh, and there are 500+ cats to find, so you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks like a cat. Do you think you can find them all?

#15 A Little to the Left

Platform: PC Switch
Release Date: November 8, 2022

Some of you might wonder why there is such a love for hidden items and certain “calming” puzzle titles like A Little to the Left. The answer is that while people love to solve puzzles, sometimes they want to do it without the stress of figuring it out on a time limit or with all sorts of pressure.

For example, in this game, you’ll go around and reorganize items that a cat messed up. You’ll have fun simply moving around the items and seeing how you can better organize them or put them back in their place. Plus, you’ll get a new puzzle every day to solve.

#14 Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery

Platforms: Switch, PS4, Android, iOS, PC, Mac
Release Date: July 2021
Genre: Adventure

Hidden objects games can be incredibly relaxing and offer gameplay facets that you simply cannot find in any other genre. Behind the Frame offers players an interactive game where you take on the role of an aspiring artist who is set on opening up an art gallery soon. There are plenty of things to interact with in your surroundings that reveal different tasks and secrets. As you progress, you’ll soon find that your paintings have more meaning to them than you could have ever imagined with puzzles that will have you returning to experience them again and again. Not only are the objects cleverly asked of you, you will also experience a breathtaking art and animation style.

#13 Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective

Platforms: Switch, Android, iOS, PC, Linux, Mac
Release Date: June 2021
Genre: Adventure

Mr. X has broken into the Opera City Museum and stolen the Maze Stone, a powerful artifact that turns everything around it into a labyrinth.With every world that you walk into a maze, you will need to solve intricate puzzles and find hidden objects in order to escape and progress to the next world. The game is based on the original children’s book with much of the art being taken directly from there. The visuals are absolutely beautiful and the narration fuels the gameplay with that much more fun and immersion. You’ll definitely feel like new life has been breathed into the puzzle genre with this title.

#12 Milo and the Magpies

Platforms: Android, PC, Mac
Release Date: January 2021
Genre: Adventure

Milo and the Magpies is a point-and-click adventure but what makes this so different from the others like that on this list, everything you see on screen was hand drawn. From the sceneries to the characters, each asset was painstakingly either hand painted or drawn to fit the aesthetic of the game. You play the role of a cat named Milo who is trying to find his way home after being harassed by several magpies. You will travel through backyards and experience dialogues that you’d normally only ever see if you were there yourself or just happened to be casually sauntering by; like a cat would. There are plenty of things that you can interact with that will ultimately help Milo get home safely.

#11 100 hidden frogs

Platforms: PC
Release Date: November 2021
Genre: Adventure

The name of the game very much implies what it is that you will be doing. There are 100 frogs to be found on a cartoon landscape and as you find them, a counter on the bottom of the page goes down and the frog is highlighted in green. It’s a lot like filling in a coloring book so you can spend hours on this without even realizing it. There is also a night mode if you’d like to play without fear that the white of the background will burn into your eyeballs. The game does require a lot of patience but the rewards are endless once you finally have the entire page highlighted with little green frogs.

#10 Cozy Grove

Platform : iPhone, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series 
Release Date : February 11, 2021
Genre : Simulation 

Cozy Grove is a game that acts a bit like Animal Crossing both in terms of gameplay and visuals. Here in this title players are taking the role of a spirit scout that visits a forested area with plenty of spirits in need of help. It’s your job to complete the various objectives and bring back a vibrancy of this area. However, to do so, players will need to venture around and speak with different spirits that inhabit the area. The more you help these characters out the stronger the friendship bond you’ll make with them.

These characters will have certain items or objectives to complete in which case you’ll need to search the island for the specific items or the necessary material to craft up the item. While visually this game is a bit like the aesthetic of an Animal Crossing game, there is another component that makes this gameplay quite a bit like the popular Nintendo simulation exclusive. In Cozy Grove, time progresses in real-time which the developers encourage players to log into the game daily to complete different challenges.

#9 Witch It

Platform : PC, Xbox One 
Release Date : 31 May 2017
Genre : Indie game, Shooter Video Game 

The prop hunt in various video games is always a fun treat to play with friends and on the PC you can pick up Witch It. This game came out in 2020 from developers Barrel Roll Games and it’s just a new fantasy take on the prop hunt game mode. Played online with friends, players are either a witch or a hunter. As you can probably guess from the titles alone, the witches are players that can freely transform into different objects around the map. Meanwhile, hunters will be the players actively seeking out the witches and taking them down.

With a time limit counting down the round, witches are forced into quickly hiding or running away as a prop when spotted. They’ll also be able to swap into another prop to throw players off if spotted. From there the hunters just have to find all the props before time runs out. There are several collectibles to unlock and even a level editor so that players can create their unique level design full of props for new game matches.

#8 The Room Series

If you enjoy seeking out items and solving puzzles, a game series that you might find fun, in general, is The Room. There are currently four installments available for the franchise and each offers a wide range of different contraptions and areas full of puzzles to solve or items to uncover. Now this game does lend itself more to the puzzle aspect, but there are plenty of instances where you’re actively searching areas to find objects or solutions.

Some have even compared this game to an escape room where it’s very atmospheric and you’re constantly moving things around and trying to get a new point of view to uncover something hidden away. Furthermore, these games don’t take very long to complete as you’re looking at a few hours at most to complete them.

#7 Hidden Folks

Platform : PC, Linux 
Release Date : February 15, 2017 
Genre : Puzzle, Hidden Object 

If you’re after something more traditional like the Where’s Waldo books where you’re simply looking through a photo in search of a particular character then Hidden Folks is the game for you. It’s exactly like those old charming picture books where we have a large animated overview of a location. With a simple design and lacking any vibrant colors, players are simply searching for specific items or characters.

What you might find amusing is the sounds that go with this game as everything you click is made vocally by the development team. You can’t get much more of a relaxing game than this as you sit back, search the map, click to cut down bushes, open doors, and blinds in hopes of finding that missing character or item in the wild.

#6 Hidden Through Time

Platform : Android, iPhone, PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 
Release Date : March 12, 2020 
Genre : Adventure 

Going off of the Hidden Folks video game installment we have another title that acts very similar and that’s Hidden Through Time. It’s the same concept where we have a large busy animated map and a slew of different characters or objects to find within the area. You’ll again open up doors among other objects to see what’s hidden inside. However, what’s different between Hidden Through Time and Hidden Folks is the visuals.

Here in this game, you’ll have vibrant colorfully designed levels and the levels themselves will be based on different periods. Furthermore, this game offers a level creator mode with the different tools to make up your unique levels and hidden object goals for players to search for. This ultimately opens up the game with more levels to complete long after you finish the game levels crafted up by the development team. Likewise, those of you who wish to get crafty can also make up your unique levels to share with other players around the world.

#5 Grim Legends Series

Grim Legends is another series of games that you might find some interest in if you’re after hidden object games. There are storylines within these games to keep the game progressing while the bulk of the gameplay is centered around puzzle-solving and finding items. You’ll interact with the world and attempt to figure out how to get through different obstacles as you use various items.

If successful with combining an item or interacting with the in-game world you’ll see a cutscene play that will change up the scenery just a bit to offer something new. All in all, it’s a game that offers a bit of a nostalgia trip to those of you who enjoyed the earlier adventure-type PC games from the 1990s. All you need to do is search around the scene while pointing and clicking on the various items.

#4 Rusty Lake Hotel

Platform : Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS 
Release Date : 14 December 2015 
Genre : Indie game, point-and-click adventure, Adventure 

Rusty Lake Hotel is a bit of a dark hidden object point-and-click adventure game. In this title, we’re invited to a resort area known as the Rusty Lake Hotel where the group of patrons will travel in not only for a relaxing time out but to also partake in the delicious dinners. You’re in charge of finding the different ingredients for these dinners. With the world in control of animals, you’ll soon find out that the guests will make up the ingredients of certain dishes. Here you will need to interact with the in-game world in search of optional ingredients and will solve a slew of puzzles to get the precious meat from your guest.

I won’t spoil anything here for you, but each guest has a certain puzzle element to them to figure out how to best handle them when the time comes for their meat. This is a relatively short game to get through as it comes to about two hours in length but you’re also going to find that this title is also rather inexpensive for just $1.99 through Steam’s digital marketplace.

#3 When The Past was Around

Platform : PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 
Release Date : September 22, 2020 
Genre : Adventure, Puzzle, Point-and-Click 

When The Past Was Around is another hidden object point-and-click game that you might some enjoyment out of. This title doesn’t give players anything in terms of a narrative and instead, you’ll have to interpret what is going on on your own during the scenes. With that said, the developers have made note that this title is based around a young woman named Eda who is finding her way through a journey of fulfilling dreams, hopes, heartbreak, and love.

The title is what you’d expect from a point-and-click game where you’ll be given a level to freely click on different objects to interact with or to find a hidden item in the area. Meanwhile, there are plenty of puzzles to solve along the way. Fortunately, there is an in-game help button that will highlight the items you can interact with so if you’re ever stuck on just what to do then the game does provide some type of means to help players out.

#2 Enigmatis Series

One last series to make mention of is Enigmatis which you might find a few titles well worth picking up. For instance, I’ll cover the first installment with Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek. This game is centered around a small town that was just hit by a massive storm turning most things into a pile of chaos. However, you soon realize the town you’re exploring is part of some unusual supernatural mystery with evil just looking to spring out and cause terror.

Players here are exploring the town in hopes of uncovering the mystery and just like the previous titles in this list, you’ll not only have a few puzzles or riddles to get through but a ton of items to scout out. These are story-driven games with a ton of hidden objects to uncover and a series we think you should check out.

#1 Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden

Platform : PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC 
Release Date : October 20, 2017 
Genre : Adventure 

Lastly, another game we think you might want to check into if you haven’t already is Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden. This title looks quite a bit like the setting from BioShock as you’re entering a city deep below the ocean. Within the game, we’re following a young woman seeking her significant other when he vanishes from a deep dive. As you venture down to his last known locations, you come across Eden, a city built underwater although what’s left here is nothing but evil.

This is another point-and-click adventure game but with plenty of hidden object moments throughout. As you search for objects there will be a variety of puzzles to complete as well with the story bringing out some twists and turns along the way. Similar to other titles on this list, you’ll also find Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden is another game that won’t take players very long to finish off as you’re looking at just about three hours in total to complete the main storyline.