Columbus: Ghost of the Mystery Stone

Columbus: Ghost of the Mystery Stone
by: Vogat Interactive

Available at:
Big Fish



After crashing his ship, and being tossed overboard, Columbus sees a beautiful apparition reaching out to him. Waking up on a mysterious island, Columbus begins to explore his surroundings and stumbles upon ancient treasures and perplexing puzzles. Find important items that will help you move on in Columbus: Ghost of the Mystery Stone, a fun Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game.

• Gorgeous gameplay
  
• Incredible artwork
  
• Explore an island!
  

Click images to enlarge

Columbus: Ghost of the Mystery Stone (IHOG/Adventure/FROG)

There is a 'Play More' button on the main screen that will show you other games by the developer, along with links to demo/buy them.

You can choose Casual or Advanced mode (I chose Advanced), after which
you go to a SKIPPABLE cut scene (no voice over). This intro intrigued me, for it was not what I was expecting, so I recommend watching it the first time you play.

After coming out of the intro, you must pick up your diary. Inside this journal is an even more detailed account of what you've experienced so far, and I love being able to have the story a big part of the game... and also appreciate being able to choose how intensive I want the story to be!

A word of caution about the journal - it does contain hints!

HINTS are available, refilling after a moderate amount of time (though this will be faster on Casual Mode).

There is a click penalty, but you have to click pretty wildly for it to show up. Try it just for laughs, it's like your cursor is drunk

On the OPTIONS screen music and sound are separately adjustable, and there are buttons for "hardware cursor" (custom cursor) and full-screen.

The music is not irritating, I even turned it up a bit so I could hear it.

I like the hidden object scenes. They are naturally cluttered without being "junk-piley" or overwhelming, and the things in odd places look like they belong there. You can leave the screen and come back later if you wish. On my first scene I was momentarily thrown off by the item "Whirlygig", but I imagine it's a time-appropriate description of the item(?)

Okay, I take it back... in some of the hidden object scenes there are items that are decidedly out-of-place, but this did not ruin the gameplay for me.

Eventually you will start going back and forth between a list of hidden objects to find and finding fragmented objects.

I think I've asserted before that I am not a big fan of FROGs, but there are exceptions - I do not mind them in this game.

Mini-games are sparse (I saw three during my demo) and doable, but there is a "Retry" and a "Solve" button if you need them.

Overall, the game feels like an IHOG version of Destination: Treasure Island (which is a straight adventure), but with a kind of mystical feel and without the sense "aloneness" that I felt with DTIsland. A definite buy for me

Restarted last week, and finished game today (September 17, 2012)

This really is a solid IHOG-lite, and I don't know why it didn't get more attention when it was released.

I was pleasantly surprised that the anticipated ending was not the actual end of the game.  There is a short wrap-up chapter afterward.  A very pleasant game

A Nice Surprise
    

BASED ON COMPLETED GAME

I bought this game as a DD without trial and almost immediately regretted it. As well as having the low definition graphics you’d expect from an older game (2010), the first half hour dragged by and the tedium was so bad I had to stop. So coming back to it now determined to finish it no matter how awful it was, I got a nice surprise. I quite enjoyed myself, and found that after a while I didn’t even register the poor graphics and it certainly didn’t interfere with the game play.

This game is almost purely HO. Each ‘task’ (explore the island, open the treasure chest) involves a series of HO searches over a few locations. The style may vary from list, multiples, fragments, silhouettes, or combinations of them. There are sometimes mini-puzzles, all simple, to play as well. Having achieved your objective, you move on in a logical progression – logical in the context of the game, that is. The adventure is very light, and the HOs are both numerous and repeated, so it is quite a long game.

Part of what I enjoyed about this one was that it was truly an adventure, no dark and menacing presences. I’m a fan of games like that, but even I appreciate a break now and then.

Next time it’s a DD, or you’re one game short on your punchcard, you could do worse. Just hang in there past the early stages.

I recommend this game!