The hit Echoes of the Past hidden object adventure game series returns with the second installment Echoes of the Past: The Castle of Shadows. A boring trip to the museum turns into a thrilling adventure as ghosts from the past ask for your help to reassemble a mysterious artifact whose only surviving piece is its stand. Travel back in time to solve intricate puzzles and find the missing pieces of the artifact. Use it to free a kingdom from an evil curse and defeat a powerful witch!

Castle of Shadows follows on the heels of Royal House of Stone, the first game in the Echoes of the Past hidden object adventure game series. The first game was a hit and famous for fantastic graphics and gameplay, and Castle of Shadows continues the same great tradition. Superb medieval artwork, intricate puzzles and a good story combine to deliver a great entertainment package.

Castle of Shadows starts with you visiting a museum to view historical artifacts. As you are looking at an amulet stand, the picture of a noblewoman nearby comes to life! The apparition tells you that the amulet once belonged to a royal family and protected the family and their land from harm. However, a powerful witch was able to destroy the amulet, scattering its pieces across the land. With the amulet gone, the witch defeated the royal family and placed a curse over their land.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to travel back to the time the amulet was destroyed and try to reassemble its pieces. Actually, you have no choice in the matter, since the ghost immediately teleports you right into a medieval chapel without even asking (How rude!). With your path laid out before you, you set out to find all the amulet pieces and use them to defeat the witch and lift the curse.

The gameplay in Castle of Shadows is primarily a scene-by-scene adventure format. You travel from location to location, solving puzzles and finding items to complete quests. You are able to select a game mode that affects the style of the game quite substantially. If you choose the casual mode, the game will act like a standard interactive hidden object game where you are provided with ample hints and highlighted areas on screen to let you know what your next action should be. If you choose the difficult mode, you don’t get those highlighted areas to tell you what to do next. The entire game becomes one big puzzle where you need to figure out how to solve the current quest you are on. This is like the hugely popular game Myst from the 90′s.

The game is not linear in that you are shepherded from one scene to the next. You are able to access many connected locations from the start, and will need to move back and forth between locations in order to find the right items to solve puzzles in the correct order. For example, you might be trying to gain access to the tavern, but you might not find the keys until you explore the town a bit more and find them by the river.

The puzzles in the game are pretty seamless and well-integrated into the adventure. You don’t get transported to a minigame screen and given a set of instructions on how to play the game. Instead, you will just happen onto a puzzle area and must figure out what you need to do in order to solve it. Sometimes the clues are visible on the puzzle screen itself, but other clues can only be found 4 or 5 locations away. And if you are playing in difficult mode, you might not even realize that what you are looking at is actually a puzzle clue. As you can conclude from this, the difficulty in this game is higher than in other similar hidden object games.

However, good game mechanics and puzzles alone aren’t sufficient to create a great game. Thankfully, this game also has a great story that will suck you in. You get to explore the dark and gritty streets of a medieval town and meet mysterious characters. In addition, the artwork in the game is gorgeous and captures the medieval atmosphere perfectly. Everything in the game looks crisp and detailed, and hidden objects are blended seamless into the scenes. The soundtrack and voice-acting are also pretty good.

The first Echoes of the Past game was famous for having great art and gameplay, and Castle of Shadows improves on an already-impressive standard. Definitely a game bound to entertain for hours and worth playing. The basic version of the game is not yet available, but you can get the Collector’s Edition which includes exclusive extras such as a bonus adventure, an integrated strategy guide, concept art and more!

Rating: 4.5/5.0

You can read more about Echoes of the Past: The Castle of Shadows at http://www.hidden-puzzles.com/eotp-castle-of-shadows.html

By: Steven H. Ng

About the Author:

The award-winning Mystery Case Files hidden object adventure game series is back with their latest installment Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull. Travel to the Louisiana bayou and help find a man who mysteriously disappeared from a creepy mansion. The locals are afraid, claiming that this was caused by the ghost of a pirate trying to protect his treasure. Solve the mysteries surrounding the pirate’s curse and find the missing man in this thrilling game.

The Mystery Case Files series has long been considered one of the leaders in the hidden object game genre, producing games that introduced innovative concepts into the genre. 13th Skull is no different, as the beautiful and intricate artwork and puzzles are now accompanied by live action filmed shots that truly create an immersive experience. Quests and missions have also received a lot of attention from the developers, moving this series slowly but surely into the realm of roleplaying adventure games.

Hot off the supernatural Ravenhearst and Dire Grove cases, the Master Detective (that’s you!) has been called in to solve a missing person’s case in the Louisiana bayou. A young family has recently moved into an old mansion by the swamps, and the husband has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The locals claim that he was the victim of a pirate’s curse, and refuse to go near the mansion. So it is up to you to solve this mystery and bring the missing man back to his family.

Like the recent games in the Mystery Case Files series, 13th Skull is a hidden object adventure game. You roam around the Louisiana bayou mansion and its neighboring village while searching for clues and objects that will help you solve the mystery. Various characters in the game will also ask you to locate lost or hidden items in order to gain their cooperation. Along the way, you will face numerous puzzles to be solved and hidden object scenes to be scrutinized.

The hidden object scenes embody the theme and atmosphere of the game very well, with gorgeous artwork that capture the feel of the Louisiana bayou. The scenes also don’t feel as cluttered as those in some other games, since the various items hidden in this game all relate to the game and atmosphere, and aren’t random things thrown in to fill a scene. These scenes are generally of an average to above average difficulty level. The puzzles and minigames have also been designed very well, and fit nicely into this supernatural detective mystery. You have plenty of logic and spatial puzzles that present a decent challenge, with the clues for solving some of these puzzles found in places where you least expect them.

As expected in a Mystery Case Files game, the artwork and music here are top-notch. The art is of a beautiful pseudo-realistic style that brings the world to life. The artists have also managed to capture the dark and foreboding nature of the Louisiana swampland with rich, dark and slightly supernatural tones. The sound effects are also excellent. A good musical score, spooky ambient sound effects and convincing voice work all combine to create a realistic setting.

One thing that makes 13th Skull stand out from the crowd is its usage of live action shots to tell the story. Instead of seeing cut scenes with cartoon panels or animation, you are treated to entire scenes acted out by real people (And thankfully the acting is pretty decent!). In addition, anytime you need to interact with a character in the game, you’ll be greeted with real actors, with every bit of interaction acted and voiced out in full. Some people may feel that live action shots seem out of place in a hidden object game, but I personally feel that seeing real people adds to the realism and urgency of the adventure, and further draws you into this rich world.

There is a bit more ‘adventure’ in the game as well. You get to interact with the various characters in the game, asking them about their opinions and what they know about the mystery. You will get dialog options that you can ask the characters, and more options will appear as you progress further in the game or complete ‘quests’ for the characters. As mentioned above, all these interactions are fully acted and voiced. And similar to the typical role-playing game, these characters have an exclamation mark above their heads if they have ‘quests’ or more information for you.

Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull is a worthy sequel in a game series that is known as one of the pioneers in the hidden object game genre. The gameplay, story, art and music work beautifully together to create an immersive environment for you to explore. You will love this game if you liked the Mystery Case Files game series or other hidden object adventure games. The basic version of the game is not out yet, but you can get the Collector’s Edition of the PC game which includes exclusive content such as bonus gameplay, a built-in strategy guide, an exclusive soundtrack and more.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

You can read more about Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull at http://www.hidden-puzzles.com/mystery-case-files-13th-skull.html

By: Steven H. Ng

About the Author: