The Babysitter plays much like The Hookman. It is a Hidden Object Adventure, but there are no lists. Instead, you find things as you need them...no finding extraneous objects, which is nice. It is just as creepy as The Hookman, but without the jump-in-your-seat scares. Frankly, the story could have used a bit of fleshing out.

I don't know whether it was just me, but none of the cutscenes played for me, including meeting the parents, finding the twins, and all of the videos. I missed them all. Nor is it a computer issue on my end. Also, I presume there was one at the end, which I also missed. That took a lot away from the game, as I missed out on quite a bit of story line.

Finding the required items was definitely a challenge, as there were always a lot of places to look, and the items were well-hidden. Using the items was reminiscent of an Adventure Game. The lack of hand-holding was a breath of fresh air.

Subsequent to the end of the main game, you unlock Dr. Haken's notebook by completing nine Hidden Object scenes, each in under five minutes. I did have to repeat several of these. Once again, the lack of cutscenes led to confusion regarding the story line. Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable game, and a fitting sequel to The Hookman.

I hesitate to criticize, because I'm unable to create such games. However, the graphics were poorly Photoshopped (the doors looked "pasted" on the walls rather than filling openings, the same items were in every room, and the perspective was mostly off). There was a lot of text between scenes, mostly in extremely poor English. As to gameplay, at times one item was so completely behind another that it was impossible to find without using a hint. I wouldn't recommend this game, but I would recommend that the creator refine his skills before releasing another.

I didn't mind or have trouble with the mini-games, except for one of the ones where you have to connect the roads. There's a bug, as it's impossible to complete; you have to skip it. I thought the overall story was decent, and the graphics had kind of a comic book creepy feel to them.