Mystic Diary 2: Haunted Island

Mystic Diary: Haunted Island
by: Sun Ray Games

Series links: Mystic Diary 1: Lost Brother, Mystic Diary 2: Haunted Island, Mystic Diary 3: Missing Pages

Available:
Big Fish for PC and MAC
iWin



Stop a magician’s ghost and free the trapped souls haunting the Black Woods in Mystic Diary: Haunted Island! Communicate with a trapped ghost, the magician’s very own brother, as he guides you through the manor. Follow Victor’s clues and stop the disturbed Gustav as quickly as you can! Solve cryptic puzzles and put together bizarre machines to unlock the secrets of the house in this incredible Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game!

Click images to enlarge

Mystic Diary: Haunted Island (IHOG/Adventure)

I was hopeful about this game, despite the fact that I didn't enjoy the first Mystic Diary game. Upon entering and playing the first few minutes, I'm still hopeful. I have found that there is some humor in this, which I love.

I played with the tutorial turned off. Starts off with standard IHOG flair - examine hidden object scenes, get an inventory item, repeat. However, there is also an Adventure element to this game where sometimes you need to find items you don't know you're supposed to be looking for. "Hey, what's that?" *click on item* "A gear! I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for gears..."

Goals are hidden and easily brought up by clicking on the... wait for it... Goals button.

Hints are refillable, but charge slowly. Here's something different: During the adventure portion (moving between scenes and such), you can drag and drop an item from your inventory onto the HINT button. It will show you a pop-up image of where the item is meant to be used.

The hidden object scenes in this game are so-so, but I am really enjoying the adventure aspect of the game and the puzzles, so it will be a BUY for me

HINTS regarding zodiac puzzle:

*SPOILER #1*

Spoiler:

*SPOILER #2, Solution hint*

Spoiler:

EDIT:  I truly enjoyed this game despite the "meh" HOS.

Nothing To Get Excited About... But
  

BASED ON COMPLETED GAME

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I had no idea I even had it in my collection, have no idea how it got there, and have just now played it for the first time. This game is pretty old now, so its graphics are a big downer, and don’t make a good first impression. But overall, it is not a bad game.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
As I say, poor graphics, grainy, fuzzy and difficult to make out in HOP scenes. It makes a big impact on an otherwise good game. The music is quite good, pretty. And the ambient sound is good. I know we are now used to voiceovers, but it certainly wasn’t always the norm, and this game dealt with its absence in a unique way. When a ghost appeared, his/her instructions for the next part of the game are inscribed in the diary, and only the diary, so it is an integral part of the game. I like this idea, it is often useless having a diary unless you are playing over several days. Here, it helps with that, but has an even more important role.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
This is the sequel Lost Brother, where Victor (a magician of the conservative stripe) searches for his more eccentric and excitable brother Gustav, who has somehow got himself trapped in a magical book known as the Mystic Diary. Now we are drawn into the search for Gustav, now apparently virtually insane, who has trapped other souls in the diary, along with Victor. There are half a dozen souls to release and each has unique skills to offer you in their own rescue.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is dominated by HOPs, with some interesting but never too difficult puzzles. The HOPs are interactive lists, and are visited twice. They are blurry and lack contrast, but that is its age. They are still doable, it just takes a little eye strain.

There is the diary, which is essential reading, but no map. Which would have helped, seeing it is a large game world, covering a fair whack of locations, and there is a lot of tracking back and forth. Hint is next to useless, particularly near the very end. You must click on an inventory item, and you are shown where it is used. This is worthless if you don’t recognise the scene, because you haven’t reached there yet. And if you don’t have the needed item yet, no hint can help you. And hint takes forever to refill. Go make a cuppa while it refills. Very exasperating.

At the end of the game, you must do a complete tour of all the game’s HOPs in order to collect all you need to defeat the bad guy.

VERDICT
Not a bad game. It did seem to drag a bit from time to time, and it was quite a long game. I will probably play it again, but not for a couple of years.

I Recommend This Game!