Victorian Mysteries: The Yellow Room (IHOG)
A woman is brutally attacked in a room with barred windows and whose only door was locked from the inside.
Options include separate sliders for Music and Sound, Full-screen, Widescreen and Custom Cursor. Choice of Casual or Expert Mode.
NOTE: My profile got corrupted either when I had a power surge whilst playing, or when I tried to play in offline mode afterwards, so this review is not based upon the completed game.Story:
Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, who is also the author of
The Phantom of the Opera,
The Yellow Room is a tale revolving around an attack upon an inventor's daughter. We are the photographer for our reporter/investigator friend, out to solve the mystery of who attacked this woman. How did the assault take place when the door was dead-bolted from the inside, and the only other exit was a barred window? We must piece together the evidence to find our answer!
Our
Journal is wonderful and absolutely chock-full of of extra story, but it's also a bit unwieldy. We have tabs for Characters, Evidence and Story: When you're in the Story tab, there are 5 chapters, and you'll have to click on the chapter you'd like to look at before you can read anything. The other tabs are similar, with an extra step you'll have to take before you can view things. There is SO much information in here, a story-lover's dream!
You can access your
Task List either by looking at something in the journal, or simply by clicking on the Tasks book in the bottom right corner of the interface.
The story progresses through cutscenes, articles we find, eavesdropping and interactions with other characters. You have dialogue choices, and of course to get the full story you'll want to select them in order (top to bottom), but if you've played before and remember how it goes (or are just impatient), simply select the bottom choice to proceed.
Gameplay:
The main focus of this game is the story, but it has a nice balance of adventuring, hidden objects and puzzles.
Clicking on the
MAP will give you an overview, and you need to click on the area you'd like to see (ie. The Train Station or The Chateau). Once you are viewing the area you want to see, there are color-coded indicators: HO Scene, Evidence, Investigate, You Are Here and Completed. There is no insta-transport available.
The to-ing and fro-ing is kept to small areas, for the most part, but there are times where you'll need to backtrack quite a bit.
There are
NO HINTS in the adventure portion of the game unless you count the markers on the map that show active areas, and even then it's easy to miss things. I got stuck for a long while, simply because I didn't notice there was a clock off to the side that I could zoom in on. *face palm*
Here is a handy
walkthrough for those who need it!
Hidden Object Scenes are mostly your standard to-find lists, but every now and then there will be an interactive item. HINTS for the HOS will need to charge each time you enter a scene.
Sights and Sounds:
This is an older game (2012), so the graphics won't blow you away, but they portray the environment beautifully.
Voiceovers are all done with a French accent, but whether or not they sound authentic, I couldn't tell you... I don't know anyone from France! ;)
The SFX can be annoying, but the music is beautifully dramatic (where called for).
Verdict:
This is an excellent game for those who enjoy sleuthing, and especially for those who love a lot of story. I definitely return to
The Yellow Room one day, and until then, happy gaming, all!
