When does a hidden object game not feel like one? When it’s got an absolutely bananas concept wrapped around it, that’s when! I Eat Paintings When Guards Aren’t Looking has a very British/Australian humour to it, as we play as a perverted art muncher, gobbling up paintings. This indie title is a weird and wonderful game that is entertaining as long as you play by its rules.
Each painting is beautifully scanned in great detail into the game, letting the player zoom in and move around the painting closely. Instead of directly telling you what to find, each item is a wordplay riddle instead. They are structured in hint tiers, too, meaning you can choose to reveal more hints progressively over time. An example of how hints are structured would be “It’s Used?! Gimme!” with the phrase “MMM lipstick and sauce, and perhaps a bit of sinus”. If that doesn’t help, after a few misclicks, you can choose to real with quadrant of the painting the item is in. If that doesn’t help, you can choose to reveal the item itself, leaving you with only the task of spotting it. Usually, that’s quite easy, but towards the end of the game, when paintings are large, that can still be a task. Each item is structured with hints like this, and the word play is exquisite! I tried my best to stick to just the prompts first, as it’s a riddle solver just as much as it is a hidden object game.
As you find objects, you’ll literally rip them out of the painting and eat them. Each of the 15 paintings also has a hidden cat, a bit like a hidden Mickey, inside them. Almost all the Steam achievements are tied to the cat finding, so good luck with that! For the rest of the objects, you can also use the reveal buttons to zoom in on specific areas of the painting, too, although I didn’t find this particularly helpful in my playthrough. As you search, fancy baroque harpsichord and chamber music play along, adding to the quirky nature of the humour. Then, when a painting is completed, all your items are shown mixing in your stomach as you attempt to give it an insufferable perfume-like descriptor. It makes no sense, and the post-game credits scene where a true crime podcast calls your perverted painting needs out is a great pastiche of those types of podcasts, too.
Makes no sense, yet that’s the point, sums up my thoughts on I Eat Paintings When Guards Aren’t Looking. It was a little shorter than I’d have liked, and the temptation to spam the extra hints and fly through the game requires self-control. If you try to unpick the riddles properly and take time to bask in the craziness of the game, you’ll be in for one of the more unique experiences of 2026. Stupidly fun.
Higher Plain Games is part of the Higher Plain Network. If you like what I do, please consider supporting me via Patreon for as little as $1/£1 a month. There are additional perks for supporting me, such as behind-the-scenes content and downloads. You can also share the website or use the affiliate buy now links on reviews. Buying credit from CD Keys using my affiliate link means I get a couple of pence per sale. All your support will enable me to produce better content, more often. Thank you.
