Haunting Mysteries: The Island of Lost Souls

Haunting Mysteries: The Island of Lost Souls
by Fuzzy Bug Interactive - May, 2012

Available at:
Alawar as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
Big Fish for PC as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
GameHouse as Premium Edition
iWin Premium Edition / Standard Edition



Free the trapped souls and reunite a love long lost in Haunting Mysteries: The Island of Lost Souls! Trapped on a seemingly deserted Island after a malevolent force brings down your plane, you must discover what brought you to the Island and how you can escape its hold.  Help the Island’s former inhabitants as you make your way across the Island.  Search stunning Hidden Object scenes and solve mind-bending puzzles as you uncover the truth in Haunting Mysteries: The Island of Lost Souls.

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Amazing Concept Art
  
• Wallpapers and Screensavers
  
• Musical Soundtrack
  

For the Standard Edition:

• Strategy Guide
  
• Blog Walkthrough (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
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Haunting Mysteries: The Island of Lost Souls (IHOG)

I have to mention the contrast presented as you load the game.  Here we have a dark and serious story, which starts out with the super-cute logo of Fuzzy Bug Interactive.  Wha... ?  Hahaha

There are separate sliders for Music and Sound, a custom cursor option, and two modes of play -- Casual and Expert -- and the tutorial is option on both.  The game automatically adjusted for wide-screen, and looked great that way.

The game tracks your time, so it's easy to see how long it takes to complete the game... not to mention trying to beat your own "score"!

The HINT refills at different rates, depending on which mode you choose.  Using a hint during the adventure portion will tell you nothing   -- just that you should look elsewhere.

The game started off with back-to-back HOS, which didn't bode well for me, since I really enjoy the adventure elements of these games, but there was a good reason to have two so close together, and afterwards, the adventure and HOS balanced out very nicely.

HOS are just your basic lists, but there is occasionally some very light interaction (like opening a box to find more items.)  Items that need an extra step are listed in yellow.  These scenes are a bit junky, and there are no too-dark areas. but some of the items are really too well-hidden!.  These scenes repeat once each (except the first two,) and the lists are randomized.

I went with Expert mode, and there is a rapid misclick penalty.  There are no sparkles on this mode except to indicate HO scenes.

There is NO journal.  The story progresses through interaction with other characters and the occasional letter or diary you may find.  There is also no MAP, though I don't feel the game really needed one.

There are sometimes no instructions for the mini-games (remember that I'm playing on Expert,) but I was able to figure them all out without any troubles.

Your inventory scrolls left and right, though you can't see the arrow unless you mouse-over your task bar.  There's (what I consider) a glitch with the inventory, in that when an item is used, the other inventory items do not move over to take its place, so you may have three empty slots that you can see, but still have a second "page" of items that you need to scroll over to see.  Right-clicking does not return an item to your inventory -- you have to place it there manually.

There are 32 achievements in the main game, even in the standard edition of the game

CE Content:

• Bonus Chapter
  
• Integrated Strategy Guide (stays open to where you leave it)
  
• Achievements (24 "secret awards")
  
• 9 Music tracks (no save button   )
  
• 9 Concept Art
  
• 6 Wallpapers
  
• Mini Games (6 jigsaws, plus one HOS that they decided not to use in the game)
  
• 3 Screen Savers
  

Bonus Chapter

The bonus chapter takes place at least several years before the main game, and I didn't find it as interesting.

The main game took me three and a half hours and the bonus took ~ 1 hour, 25 minutes for a total of just under 5 hours (not including the bonus jigsaws and HOS, which I didn't play.)

I missed eight of the main achievements and nine of the bonus achievements. *shrugs*

This is not a difficult game, even in Expert mode.  I found it relaxing, with a decent story and fun gameplay.  I do enjoy a challenge on my HO scenes, but a few items on each scene were TOO hard to find.  I really don't think the game can be completed without using the hint button, and by the time I hit the bonus chapter, I was a little irritated by the too-well-hidden items.

In the end, I have to say that I enjoyed the game.  Worth the CE price?  Absolutely not, but if you get a great deal (like 1/2 price CE's,) then I'd recommend it. 

I have the SE version of this game, and seem to remember liking it much more than I expected - that's why I need reviews for my own use, I don't remember anything else about the game! I will dig up this game's review and see how my opinion compares to yours, genki. (Well done, btw)

I remember now... Isn't it fun, that we focused on totally different things for this game - mind you, you had the CE, and I the SE, to work from. And I played the easiest level.

Good Game, Excellent Value

  

BASED ON COMPLETED GAME

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I liked the intro to this one. After being downed by a freak storm, your first objective is to escape the plane before it sinks, and get to land. It is exciting and well done. When you reach landfall, you find yourself on an uncharted island, apparently abandoned, except by mournful ghosts! Helping these lost souls becomes the motivation for the game.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The graphics are clear and cut scenes are done well, perhaps a little rough when compared with the kinds of art we see now. And there is not much in the way of eye candy, the scenes are kinda dull.

A really nice touch was the voices. Throughout the game, we do not have a voice, only our “thought bar”. So for a while it looks as though there will be no voiceovers. However, upon meeting our first ghost, we find they do have voices – very enchanting Scottish voices to be precise. There are also some lengthy periods of silence, depending on how long it takes you to do stuff.

MAKING PROGRESS
HO scenes dominate the gameplay in this one. I found the HOs a tad more challenging than most, and part of that is the rough graphics, and partly because the cursor is pretty finicky, but it is also because the objects are well hidden. HOs are interactive list, with some lists being challenging to complete because they include many multiples of one item. Not too many puzzles, and I didn’t have trouble with most of them. Hint is pretty useless outside HO scenes, there is no journal and no map, so there is that element of greater challenge.

BLING!
I say excellent value because, with this game, you get many of the features of Collectors’ Edition without the price tag. There are 40 morphing collectibles (cleverly hidden), 32 secret awards, and a game timer. (It took me exactly 4 hours to play)

FAMOUS LAST WORDS
This game is interesting and involving. The characters are very appealing. If not overwhelming, it at least promises a pleasant afternoon’s distraction.

I Recommend This Game!

Oh my!  So the awards, *including* the secret ones, are in the SE?  All but one of the secret awards was gained during the CE... maybe that's why they included them -- to entice you to buy the CE! lol~