Haunted

Haunted is an adventure game settled in the 19th century. The story starts of in Victorian London where the street kid Mary gets abducted by evil professor Ashcroft and her henchman Ethan. Actually Mary is following a call of her sister's spirit, whose disappearance and presumed death she feels responsible for. Her escape develops into a race for her sister's soul. On her way through London, the Scottish Highlands, and even Transylvania she gathers a fellowship of ghosts that assist her with individual special abilities.

Here's an overview of the Ghosts and their skills in order of appearance:

• Pirate Oscar: The small restless wannabe pirate calls himself Oscar the Dreadful though most spirits just know him as Oscar the Miserable. He can touch extremely hot or electrified items. He can also be charged by electricity.
• Scottish folk hero William Wallace: This hulk of a ghost is still on the prowl to slaughter detested Englishmen whenever possible. He is extremely strong but can only operate things that are actually dead or were touched by the death before.
• Chinese philosopher Confucius: The self-important know-it-all is bound to a container like a genie to a bottle. He can take any state of aggregation and alter his shape.
• Pope Boniface VIII: The grumpy pontiff is seeking redemption for mistakes during his lifetime. He can translate any language or read any writing.
• Ghost Wolf: The poor beast has a perfect sense of smell. He will not accept any orders but lets Mary take over his body because she rescued him from a non-dead existence as hideous Werman.
• Mermaid Goldie: She is the spirit of a goldfish that gets incinerated during Mary's trip. She can hover through the air, which is a very rare ability reserved for innocent souls only.

The gameplay is almost identical to all DECK 13 adventures like the Ankh games, Jack Keane or Black Sails. A single mouse click will trigger the appropriate action on the selected hot spot. Haunted features a typical inventory too. To use the special abilities of a ghost the player selects its icon and can then try to interact as usual. There is an optional puzzle help provided by Oscar, who will hint on what to do next.

The puzzles focus on item combination mostly, enriched by the need to employ the ghosts' special abilities in certain situations. While the main course of action is rather linear the game features an optional side quest that can be continued at different stages of the game. Haunted is featured completely in realtime 3D graphics. The perspectives range from fixed point and angle to dynamically moving and rotating ones.