The Treasures of Mystery Island: The Gates of Fate

The Good
This is a hidden object game but it's a style that is new to me, instead of searching for random objects I was often searching for components of, say, a shovel. When I found all the parts the object became either a tool I could use somewhere within the game or a piece that I needed to complete a puzzle. There are plenty of 'standard' hidden object scenes too and in nearly all cases the objects were in plain sight - one of my pet hates about hidden object games is being asked to find an elephant when only the tip of its tail is on display. Here, where an object was not in plain sight it was usually hidden inside a locked drawer or chest and that puzzle had to be solved to complete the scene. I liked the fact that there seemed to be no penalty to clicking a lot while looking for that last piece nor is there any penalty for using the hint function which, by the way, recharges quite quickly.

There are lots of point-and-click type logic puzzles too, redirecting the flow of water, using a stethoscope to crack a safe, balancing scales, repairing electrical circuits and so forth. Plenty to keep me amused. There's a SKIP button for, I think, all puzzles which is useful if you come across one that's just too hard.

Now for this kind of game to work the artwork has to be good and it is. The game plays in both a window and full screen with a choice of resolutions. I tried both and the game the game played flawlessly in both. The hint system works well too but you have to listen to what it is saying, something that took a while for me to catch on to. For example in one scene I had to find a dozen things, I found eleven and I could not find the last one. No problem thinks I, I'll use the hint button because that will show me where the * thing is. Not a bit of it! The hint system said I had to complete another task in the same room. Now, in this room was a locked chest and I was sure that the item I needed to complete this other task was in the chest but I could not open the chest because I only had eleven of the twelve things I needed. It seemed like a 'Catch 22' situation until it dawned on me that by going to another room I could solve the puzzle the hint system was pointing me at, that would allow me to unlock the aforementioned chest where the missing twelfth piece was hidden. There were a few occasions where this device was used and once the lesson had been learned the game became a lot less frustrating.

The music is decent, not the sort of thing I'd want to listen to all day but pleasant enough. There is no voice acting and only a few sound effects but, to be honest, I didn't miss it at all.

The Bad
The game's description starts with "At the end of their first adventures, Lisa and Alex were sent back several decades into the past..." which explains the quite abrupt start to the game - there's a very short cut scene and we're off. I didn't mind that, I just assumed that this is the way the developer's of starting a game. What I didn't like was the ending, I felt the game just seemed to stop pretty much like this spoiler-free paragraph.

The Bottom Line
I started the game yesterday and finished it today, all told around seven to eight hours gameplay. Despite the odd ending I can recommend this game because of it has plenty of puzzles and a decent hint system, if you pay attention to what it says.