Buy Mysteries of the Past: Shadow of the Daemon Collector's Edition

Well ... 10 bucks for this? I finished it in 2 hours. Even with the bonus chapter. So, no. Nice graphics is not enough sometimes..

This is a hard review, one of those situations where I wish there was a "meh" option rather than yes or no.

If you're a fan of the HO genre and, like me, you run low on this type of game to play when you're in the mood, it's certainly not terrible and worth a shot. However, I would exhaust the other options in your library first, and i would HIGHLY suggest waiting for a big sale as $9.99 seems far too much for what you get here.

The plot is pretty standard, nothing unique. The dialogue is horrid and the voice acting is even worse. It's simply not well written (or possibly not well translated, in this case). For instance, the dialogue from the little boy in the story sounds like nothing that a kid that age would say in a real conversation; for me, it was a little jarring.

Puzzles are your basic minigames that you find in this sort of games, nothing that stands out overly much.

Hidden object scenes are not bad and some have multiple parts which I enjoyed; for instance, picking up objects in the first stage and then placing them back into the scene during the next stage (essentially "cleaning up" the scene). My only complaint would be that some of the situations weren't intuitive where you had to complete a series of steps to get the items. That premise isn't unique, but some of the sequencing didn't make sense, as in "why would I ever even think to do that?" situations. Other than that, and some oddly named objects as another reviewer mentioned (likely translation issues), the HO scenes are pretty well done.

TL;DR: worth it if you can get it on sale and have exhausted the rest of your library, just don't expect anything above-and-beyond the ordinary.

In Mysteries of the Past: Shadow of the Daemon Collector's Edition, you play a paranormal detective who has been summoned to a hotel to investigate some spooky occurrences. However, a bad situation takes a turn for the worse when you find out a father and son have been kidnapped and dark magic is at play! It’s your job to rescue the pair and also defeat the evil entity once and for all using keen detective skills as you play through puzzles and a plethora of hidden object scenes.

The story starts off simply: You’ve been asked to look around the hotel but then discover two of the guests are missing, leading you into a world of magic. There aren’t many twists to the story, though -it’s rather predictable. The dialogue is not the best and there are some translation errors, however it’s all passable. I was left with a few questions, like why were you even summoned to the hotel? All you did was get in the way and ruin the villain's plan. What happened to your car, did it stop working or something? Why didn’t the villain just kill you? They had multiple chances to do so. I know we must suspend disbelief at times when dealing with fiction but loose ends really annoy me.

In terms of gameplay the game runs well, it’s point and click so you have to use your mouse to perform actions. You click on an object to interact with it, add it to your inventory or whatever needs to be done. The game has plenty of mini games of different styles, some easy and some hard, so I did like the mix there. The hidden object scenes were fun, the game offers a bit of variety where this is concerned. There is the classic list of items you have to find in a scene, there are also some where you have to collect scatter objects and arrange them in a room. However some are different but not as needed, like one where you’re given four different colored locks and have to find the not-very well-hidden keys for them. I did enjoy the attempt at re-imagining hidden object scenes.

The art in this game is lovely, the hidden object scenes are well done and most items aren’t too hard to find if you have bad eyes. The character models are good, the scenery is well-done and thematically appropriate. The game is also fully voice-acted, for better or worse. I didn’t mind the main character’s voice or acting much, it would never win an Oscar but it worked here. The other characters, however, are all pretty weak in the voice-acting department. The way most lines were read felt stiff. There was even a grammatical error in the text and the main character read the sentence word for word, highlighting the error even more. I won’t even start on how stereotypical the Shaman’s character and voice acting was. Music in the game is good, helps keep you in the game’s atmosphere.

Over all, Mysteries of the Past: Shadow of the Daemon Collector's Edition is a middle-of-the-road hidden object game. It functions well and accomplishes its purpose as a game, however it’s not really a must-have. It’s often the little things that stick out and make you ask “Why?”, like having to find a chisel three separate times when I could have just kept the first one. Also, I’m not sure how much of a “collector’s edition” this is. In terms of extras all you get is concept art and the bonus chapter is really just the conclusion of the story, like you won’t get the full story or ending at all if you don’t do the bonus chapter, which makes no sense. Currently the game has no Steam achievements or trading cards so if you want this game purely for the sake of wanting I recommend waiting to pick it up on sale.

Mysteries of the Past has almost everything a good hidden object game needs: great hidden object scenes, a variety of scenery, and a storyline that serves as an actual driving force for the game.

Blue Brained Games has an ambitious motto on their home page, but their debut game, Mysteries of the Past: Shadow of the Daemon, can warrant some self-confidence.

On the surface, Mysteries of the Past is a generic HOG: we play as a paranormal investigator hired to find a missing family in a wood resort, only to find the trails of a mystical conspiracy orchestrated by a demon worshipper. Contrary to most HOGs though, our heroine narrates a lot, which is a surprisingly good trick to keep the player interested in the otherwise fairly standard plot.

Another good choice was to mix in several hidden object scene types; they aren’t difficult, but their variety adds a lot to the fun factor. This stands in a sad contrast with every other gameplay elements, which are mediocre at best. Luckily, their blandness isn’t too distracting, so the end result is still an enjoyable HOG.

I've played worse. I've completed worse. -_-

The story is trite, the VO is awful, and the gameplay is hackneyed. But you can say all those things about most P&C/HO games! If you're on the fence about this genre, skip it. If you're a fan of games like this in general, it's probably worth the price. Maybe. Definitely if it's on sale.

Honestly, the only really objectionable part of this game is the very few instances when I felt like there was a translation issue. (Like using the word "file" when what you're looking for is more of a binder.) That said, I suspect it would be less of an issue if you play on easy or normal difficulty.

Wow. A rare HOG that out-paces quite a few of the Artifex Mundi games. If you like most of the Artifex Mundi games, you'll like this too. Clever puzzles, coherent story line, decent voice acting. Linear game play, yeah, but it's all put teogether well; you never wind up with the knife you can't use when a box cutter is expected situation that gets frustrating in some HOG games. I also liked that the HOG objects were often unique (I was happy to be asked for an air filter when many other HOGs assume the target audience doesn't know what one is, oy), or several interesting, interactive layers to them. Nicely done.

Meh. It is OK for a HOG, but it is a bit clunky in terms of puzzle mechanics, and the acting is TERRible. I never use hints in HO scenes or puzzles (I do play a lot of HOGs), but with this one, I had to just to figure out what I needed to do. It is trying for different kinds of puzzles, and I do appreciate that, but mostly this is a miss. If you are itching for a HOG and this is the only option, then hey, if it's on sale, go for it. Otherwise, I would move on. FYI, if the game is not properly full-screening for you, you should still be able to select options and then switch off the full screen mode. Your screen will flicker a bit, but for me, it all came back in just fine.