Chronicles of Mystery - The Legend of the Sacred Treasure

This is the first review I've ever written. Usually, even if I don't like a game, I'll keep quiet but this one really p***es me off. By default, the game runs at full screen. The problem with this is that the in-game screen actually extends beyond the edges of what I can actually see on my monitor. In other titles in the franchise, there were in-game options to change the resolution and, in turn, fix this. Here, no such options exist. It renders the game unplayable.

There's no start button and everything is timed. No hints either. Hidden object games should be relaxing. this one is not

Thumbs down! This game is the third in the Chronicles of Mystery series, but it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the first two games. Hidden object scenes were added and the main character is somebody different. All three games have been disappointing though. The first two games were stand-alone adventures, but this game and the fourth game are connected. Perhaps they were originally meant to be one game, but were arbitrarily split into two games by the developers. That would explain why there’s no real resolution at the end of this game. This game was released in 2010 and there is a problem running it under Windows 10. Clicking on items does not work in hidden object scenes. In the forums, downloading dgVoodoo was suggested as a possible fix, so I gave it a try. It helps, but it might be flagged by anti-virus protection. A big drawback in this game was that the hidden object scenes were timed. If you don’t find all the hidden objects before the timer runs out, then you have to start all over. I’m not a big fan of timed puzzles in general. I don’t need to see them in hidden object games. Another big drawback was the frustrating mini-games. The built-in walkthrough was no help. It just said to solve the puzzles, but no explanation was provided whatsoever. Three mini-games in particular could have used an actual explanation: the fishing puzzle, the tile fragment puzzle, and the fireplace stones puzzle. The fishing puzzle was some kind of timing puzzle, but no instructions were provided. The tile fragment puzzle was a jigsaw puzzle. Ordinarily I like jigsaws, but the tile fragments did not fit together properly and it seemed like some pieces were missing. The fireplace stones have to be pushed in a certain sequence, but there is no indication what the right sequence is. Fortunately, some puzzles can be skipped if you collect enough coins, so I ended up skipping these puzzles. After I finished this game, I saw a comment that said that the jigsaw pieces were double-sided and that some pieces had to be flipped over to solve the puzzle. This might be true, but there is no mention of this in the jigsaw puzzle itself, and I’m not going to replay this game just to see for myself. It was bad enough getting through it once.

One of the worst HOGs I've had the misfortune of playing. Rife with objects that make no sense, objects that exist multiple times in a scene but of course only one is accepted, time limits, objects that cannot even be distinguished even after a clue, etc.

Unplayable as items in HOG scenes aren't recognised when clicked on with a mouse and it isn't possible to skip them.

This game made me angry at how ridiculous it was. It's not that it was so difficult (though the developers probably congratulated themselves thinking they had a real pisser of a challenging game). The problem is they don't tell you how to do any of the puzzles and don't even give you clues at any point in the game. Unless you're a chemist, you won't know how half the early "puzzles" work. We are expected to know our way around a chemistry lab including knowing how to use various lab equipment and machinery. I hated chemistry in high school and hate it in this game. The developers forgot that it's not about getting every little scientific detail correct. Then you have the HO parts which once again are someone's photograph of a busy room taken from too far away so you can''t tell what anything is. Or you are expected to place items over their shadow on a table, but the shadows are often far too light to see. Then there are certain items that make no sense whatsoever which may be a translation issue or more likely the dumb developers again finding obscure cultural artifacts to try to teach us something. Nobody cares about learning anything if they're losing points in a game through no fault of their own! On top of all that, you have items in the HO which are completely ridiculous. I just had one that told me to find a line in a sea of items. A line? Considering anything with straight edges has a line, what did City Interactive expect from us? Another time they asked us to find a hammer and I counted 4 hammers on the screen. There are a lot of those. They find real photographs of things and use them to design the game. That doesn't work for HO puzzles! Players don't consider it a challenging game if you don't give them the tools to be able to complete the puzzles! Some players really don't like it when they lose points and are penalized again and again because of decisions made by dumbass developers. They don't consider this a fun or educational game. They consider it a ripoff and a FAILURE. People are paying MONEY to play a GAME which is supposed to be FUN and ENJOYABLE. Across the board, this game got awful reviews and wasn't even reviewed professionally by the major gaming websites. It's not surprising because it's really not even worth their time. I'm upset that I spent any money at all on this. I like HO games and I like adventure games. But you don't just throw people into the deep end of the pool without ever having showed them so much as a doggy paddle. It's infuriating what these developers did here. It's a ripoff and the idea that they never addressed this and never even tried to fix it in the next game shows they do not give a flying fig about anything but what THEY think a game should be. Some loser shut-in of a programmer probably had a chemistry set as a kid and thought it would make for a good game segment. The game doesn't even make sense half the time. The character development is ridiculous and grossly phony. You have a busy scientist who can't even raise her eyes when she hears of a murder of a colleague because she's got to get her work done for an important event, but then asks a total stranger without any scientific expertise to analyze lab samples and heat test tubes! You had one job City Interactive! Make a game that won't make your customers feel ripped off. You just couldn't do it.

Yet another game from City Interactive which cannot be played. The HOG games are broken. I click and I click and I click on the object required... and nothing happens except it freezes. The game doesn't recognise when I find the objects so I do not recognise this as a playable game.

This is a terrible HoG, I bought it as part of the bundle. The first two are point and click adventures and they're pretty alright, but this one is just awful. The HO scenes are boring and what you need to find is often unclear(for example "shoes" when there's four different pairs on screen) and the minigames are some of the worst I've played.

[h1]Bore, bore, bore (and not using a drill)[/h1] This game is a hidden object game and opposed to the first two parts of the series which were simple point and click adventures, it is pretty boring. Some of the scenes are timed, which require you to start over, given the game was created 2010, but then again, even at that time HOGs with time-pressure-method were out already. The graphics are a bit grainy, and the Hogs aren't too tough, even the meager riddles are so soft, you think you sink into a fluffed up bale of cotton. Storywise, yes, it's not a total failure, but hey, the story isn't told well either. Which gives the next point of criticism... only some scenes possess a pretty small part of "Voiceacting" - if you want to call it this way. It sounded more like someone bored, pretty much messed up his own texts. Well, anyway, this game isn't recommendable, given it's age and the topic. There are a ton of hidden object games, doing a better job at this. [h1]Sorry, No Recommendation on this Game![/h1]

Okay ... I was enjoying it while it lasted (believe it or not). However, it was short and had problems - some serious and some not so serious. Good parts: I did NOT have problems with clicking on HOG scenes like so many people have. I really enjoyed the fact they did not opt for the cheesy voice acting and allowed you to just click through the dialog. Finally I liked the rather chill music that was playing. Bad parts: a few of the objects were practically invisible and not in a good way. Not explaining game play basics even when using the tutorial. Very bad part: had to skip 2 minigames - in one the pieces of a puzzle had gotten put together incorrectly and I was stuck. And a fishing puzzle that I could not figure out how to do or it just didn't work, not sure which. Generally the minigames did not have enough (or any instruction) or a reset button - both of which are really needed. Comments: the hidden object scenes had a time limit but it was pretty generous. Using a hint for the occasional invisible object is not a bad idea especially toward the end of the time limit. There was no map or ability to see where to go most of the time - but the areas were very small so it wasn't a problem. In the hidden object scenes look for gold coins - that allows you to skip future minigames. As with many games especially hidden object games I wish I could give it a "meh" recommendation. It is not worth the current $4.99 non-sale price.