Hidden Dogs: In The Dog House review – A howling good time

In a world where cat games dominate Steam, a wholesome mutt has decided to combat that by creating his own dog-themed video game, but to do so, he’s going to need to find and help his friends across a small English countryside overrun by… yes, you’ve guessed it – dogs.

Hidden Dogs: In The Dog House is the debut title by Admiral Egg Games, and it’s a simplistic game that follows Labby, a dog who embarks on a mission to find his friends and recruit them to help create his ideal video game. As a hidden object game, Hidden Dogs doesn’t do much to change the status quo; you explore a total of 15 levels split across four unique regions and scan colourful environments for dogs, bonus items, and a few extra peculiarly shaped dogs hidden by similarly-shaped objects in each level. 

But there are small touches that give Hidden Dogs some unforgettable charm, from the little “woofs” dogs make when found, which I’m certain must have been recorded by the dev team themselves, to the obscure little details in environments that help each location feel lived-in and distinct. Over my playtime with Hidden Dogs, I explored living rooms cluttered with objects, dodgy back alleys with security cameras and deflated balls, castle towers with treasure, and cozy pubs littered with crisp packets and half-finished pints.

The levels are split across four regions of the village, each corresponding to one of the four dogs you need to find and help; the rich Weenie, the lost Shep, the rough Biff, and the older Rolo. You can explore each region in any order, but to unlock regions and new levels within each area, you’ll need keys. Silver keys unlock levels and are earned by finding all dogs within a level while gold keys are earned by finding all bonus objects within a level to unlock regions. This means that you are required to 100% the game in order to finish it, but that’s no problem.

As my first-ever hidden object game, I was a little surprised as to how easy it was to find each dog and object. Some more experienced hidden object game enthusiasts may come away a little disappointed in that, but I didn’t mind it. It’s great for casual gamers, younger generations, and, for me, it became a lovely way to wind down after a busy workday. 

For those who may have issues finding dogs, Admiral Egg Games graciously provides players with a dog whistle that, when blown, displays exclamation marks beside the locations of dogs you haven’t yet found. While the majority of dogs and objects were easy to find, I too had to use the dog whistle a few times to find the last remaining stray dogs. 

Regardless of the difficulty, I enjoyed scouring each of the environments Admiral Egg Games designed, savouring the small details they left, and smiling whenever I found a dog and it let out a “woof” – they’re all very good boys and girls, after all.  

A minimalistic narrative

I didn’t expect anything too heavy when it came to the story in Hidden Dogs, as it all sounded silly and perfect for a short game completed within an hour or two, which Hidden Dogs is. However, I still came away a little disappointed that the story felt a little too light. It’s told through a series of dog houses that you encounter whenever you progress through levels and unlock new regions, and these dog houses trigger short conversations between the silent Labby and his friends.

It’s through these short conversations that you gain an understanding of each dog’s personality and what you need to do to win them around to help you. This is always resolved once you complete all of the levels within each dog’s respective region, and when it happens you’re awarded with another dog house that triggers a final conversation between the pair wherein Labby’s friend agrees to help make the video game. 

These cutscenes were fine, and I appreciate that it may have been hard to find ways to move along the story and offer some narrative, but in some cases I didn’t feel like each dog had a problem that was solved by completing their levels. In Weenie’s case, she wanted me to do something to impress her. By exploring her manor and completing its levels, she supposedly ventured with me and found secrets involving her family that led her to join our development team, but this entire process felt disjointed and removed from my completing of the levels. If Weenie had referenced one of the bonus objects I’d found in her manor — a bone, treasure, anything — it would have tied the levels more naturally to her story.

I felt this through to the game’s ending, when, after finding all dogs and completing the game’s final level, I unlocked a final dog house where Labby spoke with Guide about him being ready to start work on the game with his newfound team, and that was it. My enjoyment of the game remained throughout, but the ending felt like a bit of a whimper. I found myself scrolling around the map, wondering if I’d missed something. I would have liked some sense of finalisation in the ending and would have appreciated a look at the dogs all working together, even if it was as simple as a brief piece of art on screen, just something to acknowledge that this was the end and our work has paid off. 

A pawesome experience

The lack of an earned conclusion and disjointed storytelling did disappoint me a little, but it by no means ruined my experience with the game and its core gameplay – finding the dogs. I enjoyed exploring the village and watching it come alive as I unlocked new regions, and I loved scouring the gorgeously detailed environments for dogs, but I just want more. 

Admiral Egg Games has confirmed that the team are working on more content for Hidden Dogs, so I’m eager to see the new locations we can explore and how they can expand on a stellar debut title. I also hope future updates give the team a chance to expand on the game’s silly but wholesome narrative and give players a satisfying conclusion to a wonderful game. 

Hidden Dogs: In The Dog House is a short but sweet experience that dog lovers and cozy gamers alike will enjoy — unless you’re a hidden object veteran looking for a real challenge… or just prefer cats.

Hidden Dogs: In The Dog House is available now on Steam.

A review copy was provided by Admiral Egg Games for PC.