[u]Recommendation[/u]: A somewhat challenging/entertaining hidden object game in which you travel through time at the behest of ghosts to protect history from meddling.
[u]Critique[/u]: This game has a surprising number of similarities to "Myst:" three gameplay elements that gave me flashbacks to wandering the island of Myst. [b]First[/b], you often don't know what you're supposed to do next, so you wander aimlessly, clicking on various objects. This would be even worse, but for the helpful presence of a "Tasks" list that you can access at any time. While the tasks listed there aren't particularly descriptive, they do help give a [i]little[/i] direction that you absolutely [i]wouldn't[/i] have without them, so you can make rough guesses as to which areas you should be investigating. [b]Second[/b], you can click and interact with items on any screen, much like in [u]Myst[/u]. This is a departure from the standard in hidden object games, where the cursor usually changes to indicate there is something to interact with on the "adventure screens" in the game (as opposed to the hidden object puzzles themselves). The cursor doesn't change here, but you are saved from randomly clicking on everything by the presence of an "Objectives" list that [i]mostly[/i] (not always) lists the item(s) you are trying to find. [b]Third[/b], as in [u]Myst[/u], in every indoor location you can click to rotate your view to look at a different wall and all the objects there. This last feature - unique among all the hidden object games I've played - really appealed to me and increased my enjoyment. But all three of these "Myst-like" features solidified a sense of space and verisimilitude within the game. That sense of place, along with the plot, really makes this game stand out.
The voice acting is pretty good here. The graphics are serviceable (with some exceptions: the living things - particularly animals - look laughably wrong), and the animation is bad. But the actual hidden object scenes are pretty strong, with very little confusion. The plot is pretty good: unusually coherent for a hidden object game. If, in the process of clicking on random things to find what you need, you make a few too many mistakes, the game will hit you with a horrific jump scare (like ghostly claws reaching for you or a screaming face [i]vomiting cockroaches[/i]!!) which seems completely unrelated to anything in the story. Hey, it's a hidden object game - there has to be [i]some[/i] nonsense! In addition, as you enter each new area (a group of locations), a demonic jester appears to taunt you. What does that have to do with anything? Nothing. It has nothing to do with anything, and no attempt to explain this is ever made.
[u]Review[/u]: You're a female tourist. While touring the château de Chenonceau, you [spoiler]are confronted by the ghost of Diane de Poitiers who pleads for help to save history by stopping a plot to kill Henry II. The ghost somehow gives you an actual physical object: the Amulet of Time. Then you wake up in the 16th century with the certain knowledge that you must uncover the details of the plot and expose the traitors to save the King's life...and figure out some way to use the Amulet to return to the present in the process. After stealing some clothes to look like a local, you get on the case. Fairly quickly you discover that the plan is to poison the King. Next you have to figure out how the poison will be delivered, and who the conspirators are. Weirdly, you find out how to foil the plot first (use Diane's favorite bird), which then informs how the King will ingest the poison: through eating an apple on such-and-such a date. Finally, you figure out that a wealthy aristocrat is blackmailing several people to betray the King, including a maid who will serve up the poisoned apples to Diane and Henry.
The game ends with a coda that describes how each of the conspirators were punished: the maid was executed, and the aristocrat paid a fine. Justice is blind. [/spoiler]
