If The AI Apocalypse Is Coming, Mirrors Of Deception Is Its Warning
If I were to make a case against gen-AI, I would call Mirrors of Deception: The Silver Peaks Secret to the stands first. Even advocates of AI would play it and admit that, fair play, perhaps it shouldn’t have been used in this way. It sounds like hyperbole, but I absolutely stand by it: Mirrors of Deception: The Silver Peaks Secret uses it in such an abhorrent way that the experience occasionally felt like torture.
I’m still reeling from the fact that I paid £8.39 for the pain. Mirrors of Deception: The Silver Peaks Secret is a hidden object game that Ocean Media must have seen as a social experiment. In their other games, there have been indications that they have used gen-AI to create some of the scenes. There have been clues in the scriptwriting, character art and background art, but nothing you could pinpoint and say “that is 100%, undoubtedly AI”. There’s just enough doubt to give them a pass.
Turn Back, Turn Back, It’s Not Too Late!
Mirrors of Deception: The Silver Peaks Secret is Ocean Media dropping the mask (appropriately, considering the title) and committing wholeheartedly. There is nothing here that looks, sounds or plays like a human made it. Everything, from the character art to the plot, the dialogue, the hidden object scenes and the items themselves, have clear indicators of gen-AI. And before AI bros start furrowing their brows about me equating gen-AI with ‘bad’, this is not sophisticated use of the tooling. It’s all of the worst habits of the movement, wrapped up in a single game.
What this means for the hidden object finding is that there are no backdrops at all. Perhaps the tooling wasn’t quite capable of that. Instead, Mirrors of Deception: The Silver Peaks Secret opts for the ‘mess of stuff on a tabletop’ approach that they have dabbled with in other hidden object compendiums. Instead of searching rooms for items, you are staring into a black void and finding things that are strewn there.
None of the items are real. They are all weird, uncanny constructions that don’t make a jot of sense. There are forks with too many prongs, raspberries with inconsistent berry sizes, and broccolis that look more like brains. And they all share that homogenised art style that AI can’t help but produce when a careless someone is preparing the prompts.
Like Finding Porridge In A Bowl Of Porridge
What’s damning is the effect this has on the player. It’s not a feeling that I’ve encountered before. Basically, if you pile up a lot of AI art in one place, they blend together. The AI slop becomes a slop-blob, and it’s incredibly hard to pick out individual items. I’m no art director, but I would guess that the effect is achieved because everything is textured the same, lit the same, with colours and contrast that has achieved a similar, median state. I found that my eyes would cross like I was staring at a magical eye. I was half-expecting a ‘succumb to AI’ message to appear like an optical illusion from the detritus.
It doesn’t stop there, because Ocean Media and JetDogs Studio lean into the problem, rather than solve it. They absolutely cover the screen in items, rather than thin them out. They want you to be pulling around the items with the A button, uncovering ornaments beneath the rubbish. What this means is that the item you are trying to spot (or match) may not even be immediately visible. It might be at the bottom of the pile. You need to scrabble about to find it.
The game modes exacerbate this even further. There are modes which ‘delete’ items when you find a match. You might find and match two knight chess pieces, and the consequence is that another item has its pair removed. It’s entirely possible that the item you are looking for has been removed from the scene, so you can’t even be sure that it’s there. Mirrors of Deception: The Silver Peaks Secret ensures that there are always enough matches to feasibly complete the level, but you can’t be sure that the item you are looking for is even present.
Stop The Bus, I Want To Get Off
Mirrors of Deception: The Silver Peaks Secret says that there are ten different game modes, but this is being charitable to the point of, haha, deception. The ten modes are all variants of ‘find x of one category of item’ or ‘match pairs/triples of each item’. There are minor rules added on top, but they ostensibly boil down to these two. So the game modes don’t come to the table with any variety.
The effect is alternating waves of pain and numbness. I found myself playing level after level with rising bile, hoping that something would save me. But nope: the same items are in every puzzle. It’s the same ornamental envelopes (?), oddly symmetrical keys, and animal sculptures throughout. I would unlock new chapters of the case, crossing my fingers and toes that something, anything, would change, but it never materialised. I was doomed to wander the halls of a TKMaxx full of AI-generated rubbish.
Even the story, thin as it is, is gruel. The usual pouty, uncanny AI illustrations that we’ve all seen in web adverts are here, regurgitating the same phrases but in different orientations. Yes, we know that there’s been a murder, and yes, everyone is a suspect. And we know it’s all a thin ruse for rummaging in piles of items. But a plot development or twist wouldn’t have gone amiss.
I came away from Mirrors of Deception: The Silver Peaks Secret feeling tired and a little depressed about the state of creative media. I hold onto the tiniest hope that this is a failed experiment: that Ocean Media will look at the sales and/or response and choose another path. But next to that hope is a buzzing cynicism. I have a horrible fear that this is a sign of things to come. And for £8.39 you too can have your very own harbinger of AI doom!
Important Links
Murder Or Motorhomes? Ocean Media Brings Two New Hidden Object Games To Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/murder-or-motorhomes-ocean-media-brings-two-new-hidden-object-games-to-xbox/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/mirrors-of-deception-the-silver-peaks-secret/9nrzf0zr0vcp