Vermillion Watch is a Hidden Object Game series by Eipix Entertainment, distributed by Big Fish Games.
The games in the series are:
- Vermillion Watch: Moorgate Accord
- Vermillion Watch: Fleshbound
- Vermillion Watch: Order Zero
- Vermillion Watch: In Blood
- Vermillion Watch: London Howling
- Vermillion Watch: Parisian Pursuit
The year is 1895. Decades before, the Vermillion Watch had fought to protect England. After unspecified events in 1875, the Watch and the criminal groups of London had established a truce, known as the Moorgate Accord, and the Watch went largely inactive. But now, that truce has been broken.
Ernest Hawkes, your uncle (and, unknown to you until the start of the first game, a member of the Watch) called you to London, but before he can give the promised explanations he's killed by a massive creature. The game series follows your adventures as a member of the reactivated Vermillion Watch.
These games include examples of:
- Arc Villain: The Red Queen is the villain for the first few games.
- Auction of Evil: Fleshbound has an underground auction house that sells frozen bodies to the highest bidder.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Dr. Frankenstein refuses to be rescued, choosing to die than have to face the Red Queen.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Agnes Moreau in London Howling.
- Bounty Hunter: Order Zero sets up a rivalry between the (British) Watch and the (American) OZ, a team of bounty hunters that prefers to go for "kill" rather than "capture". This causes conflict when the player character sees a clue that OZ's current target is linked to the Red Queen and blocks Dorothy from shooting her so she can be questioned.
- Clock Tampering: You need to do this to get into the zoo in Order Zero.
- Cool Boat: There are two in Order Zero.
- Cool Train: Dracul has one, with a baggage room, a drink bar, a secret resting place and a place to hold an important prisoner.
- Featureless Protagonist: All that's ever seen of the player character is gloved hands.
- Find the Cure!: What you have to do in London Howling.
- Frankenstein Monster: Maria Shelley is a unique case.
- Great White Hunter: Alan Quartermaine in London Howling, but on a darker level.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: Phileas, after the events of In Blood, has been unwillingly turning into a werewolf.
- Killed Off for Real: The Red Queen gets killed by the life-draining machine she wanted to use to restore her face after her last escape.
- Landmarking the Hidden Base: The Inferno Prison (from Moorgate Accord) is underneath London Bridge, with the entrance hidden in one of the support pillars.
- Legacy Character: You. You're playing as the nephew of Ernest Hawkes, and take over his role as an investigator for the Watch almost seamlessly.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Frankenstein, obviously.
- Magic Antidote: Albeit temporary and limited supply, generously given by Dr. Moreau.
- Not Quite Dead: The Red Queen encounters a submarine mine at point-blank range at the end of Order Zero, but manages to come back for In Blood.
- Oh, Crap!: The Red Queen gives that face when she sees a submarine mine near her at the end of Order Zero.
- When Phileas realizes he's changing into a werewolf, he reacts with horror as he urges you to run.
- Old, Dark House: London Howling has Greystone Manor, where it's not only abandoned and partly sunk in the middle of a marsh, but wolves also prowl around the land for intruders.
- Parental Abandonment: Your parents were killed when you were young, and you were raised by your Uncle Ernest.
- Previously on…: The second through fifth games all start with a "previously on" video montage from the prior games.
- Proud Beauty: Carmilla takes great pride in her looks.
- Proud Elite: The Triumvirate could be this.
- Public Domain Character: Several other characters in the games fall under this trope, including Phileas Fogg and Henry Jekyll.
- Recorded Spliced Conversation: One puzzle in In Blood involves doing this with a wax cylinder recording of one of the game's villains.
- Scary Scarecrows: Some of these jump-scare you in the cemetery in Fleshbound. They're not the supernatural type, though, they were set up to keep people from noticing that the cemetery isn't as abandoned as it's supposed to be.
- Shout-Out: Plenty throughout the series.
- Maria Shelley in Fleshbound. Sound familiar?
- Edgar Price bears an uncanny resemblance to Edgar Allan Poe.
- The Triumvirate - Varney, Carmilla and Dracul. Three guesses about their origins...
- Though not stated outright, the circumstances of John's childhood sound similar to Mowgli's in The Jungle Book.
- Story Branching: In each game, you have three locations to investigate and the game lets you pick the order. It doesn't make any difference to the outcome, though.
- Taking the Bullet: Near the end of In Blood, Phileas jumps in front of you to protect you from Varney's wolves, and gets clawed as a result. (This sets up the events of the next game.)
- Train Escape: You have to escape a train after completing your objective occasionally.
- Victorian London: The setting for most of the games.
- Was It All a Lie?: While no words are given, John goes through this when you present him evidence of his true identity as the Greystone heir.
- Would Hurt a Child: John was rendered mute when Quartermaine attacked him, believing him an animal.
