[u]Recommendation[/u]: An unintentionally funny hidden object game that features both the best cut scenes (FMV!) and the worst 3D animation in the whole Artifex Mundi catalog.
[u]Critique[/u]: One of the first positive things you notice about this game is the full motion video used in the introductory cut scenes. Then you notice that the team has inserted horrible CGI into the video (when the protagonist slides the amulet out of the envelope and it's a glowing 2D computer graphic, we howled with laughter and derision).
The game is set in Scotland, but none of the voice actors even attempt a Scotch accent, and [spoiler]a key character is a red-winged blackbird[/spoiler], a species native to North America. The bird appears in some cut scenes (the ones in-game are mostly 3D renders), and the animation is so hilariously bad we took video of it, so that we can watch it again for a laugh when we're feeling down.
The story is not extraordinarily weird - it's just the normal amount of nonsense you expect in an Artifex Mundi game. There's ghosts, a talking bird, demons, and a slew of typical puzzles. The puzzles are good, but more than any other hidden object game I've played in recent memory, this one is baffling as to what you are supposed to do next in multiple places. So I got stuck a couple of times while playing on Expert.
There are two categories of items that you are trying to find for achievements unrelated to the main story: hidden scrolls and secret notes. In addition, there are two "secret" achievements that require you to interact with items in the game world that are not needed to advance the story: [spoiler]flopping fishes and a Newton's cradle.[/spoiler]
In general, I much prefer FMV to the creepy deepfake animation that we get in a lot of Artifex Mundi games, but here - particularly in the mid-game cut scenes - it leaves a lot to be desired. Scenes where other characters talk to you, providing important information about the backstory and what's gong on now, are zoomed in on their eyes, so we don't see that the actors are not speaking English. This is really disconcerting, scene after scene of expressive eyes and a nose moving up and down as the actor speaks.
The game provides a lot of smiles in addition to that frustration, though, and I recommend it for those who have played other hidden object games and already love the genre. I would not recommend it as a game for a newbie.
[u]Review[/u]: You get a letter from a professor, who has spent his lifetime researching the Philosopher's Stone. This letter contains a magic stone and a request for you to come visit him at his offices. [spoiler]On arriving at the offices, you find them ransacked and no trace of the professor anywhere. Investigating the trashed rooms, you are able to open a specially-locked cabinet which contains a magic camcorder...I mean, medallion. Using the magic stone with this medallion instigates a playback of a magic hologram from the professor, in which he tells you that the fate of the world depends on you taking the medallion to the island of the Order of the Rose, Cannon Rock. There is a jumbled series of FMV videos that are meant to depict your research to find the location and a travel montage getting there, but it takes less than a minute and the next time you can play, you are on Cannon Rock, a desolate island in the North Sea off the northeast coast of Scotland. There you find that an emergency has been declared sometime in the past, leading to most of the population evacuating, most of the vegetation on the island has died, and ships have been wrecking on the shore of the island ever since. All of the island's infrastructure has been sabotaged, so naturally you go around repairing and unlocking everything. Rebuilding a motor enables you to pull back a tarp, revealing an injured red-winged blackbird, which revives and starts talking to you with terrible voiceover and truly goofy 3D animation: "Oh! You! Seek! the! Stone! I! Will! Help! You!" Then it flies away and you are left on your own to repair a cash register, interact with a grumpy fisherman/hermit (also FMV) and open a door whose lock is made up of eyeballs that follow the cursor wherever it goes (a lovely effect).
As you proceed across the island, you come across residents who didn't leave. Each one has a problem that you can help with, and when you do, part of the medallion you found in the professor's office gets unlocked. In the end, after unlocking all of it, you arrive at a dark fortress, where the talking bird reveals that he's been working for the Grand Master of the Order of the Rose all along...and then you find that the Grand Master is none other than your disappeared mentor, the professor! This is the culmination of years of work, finding and grooming you to be the "one of pure heart" that is required to handle the medallion. The medallion is the key to unlocking the Philosopher's Stone, which he craves for ultimate power. Instead of giving it to him, you complete a planetarium display, which somehow vaporizes the Grand Master. Then you wander the island, unlocking further weird locks, to enter the deep chamber and find the Philosopher's Stone! A mummy comes to life and congratulates you, bidding you to use the Stone's power to restore the island. Then you are treated to a slideshow with voiceover narration describing how you do just that.
Before you row off into the sunset, though, you do a bonus chapter involving fixing the lighthouse.
[/spoiler]
