Alright. [i]Mystery Stories: Mountains of Madness[/i] is done and dusted. It's been a while since I read [i]At the Mountains of Madness[/i], but it was always my favorite [i]H.P. Lovecraft[/i] story, so I was curious to see how [i]Cerasus[/i] treated the source material here. And actually, they did a pretty good job of using the source material as a solid canvas but giving the story their own spin. Which I did like. In point of fact, without getting into spoilers, I think they offered a cool take on things.
As a hidden object game, I think this also did a good job of not being too obtuse, both with item placement for the actual hidden object screens, and in general with the progression puzzles. Outside of the final puzzle, which I thought was reasonably challenging, everything felt just challenging enough to make you think a little bit, but not so much that you ever think you're really going to get stumped. In other words, it's pretty easy, but not so easy that it gets boring. And there is a decent variety of puzzles, which was nice to see.
The graphics in this one are classic modern era HOG fare. But of course, with a Lovecraftian twist. It's a nice-looking game, and while you can definitely tell it was made for mobile devices first, it still looks pretty decent on PC. Not too minimalistic or anything and utilizing a full color palette. The audio is more in the mysterious vibes vein. Which again, is fairly well par for the course.
There's not really much more to add. I'll just reiterate that I enjoyed the approach they took as to why the Elder Ones were there, what they were up to, and why they acted the way they did. It actually made a lot of sense and might be worth investigating that chain of thought further by other devs or writers in the future. Perhaps there is already some media that covers the lore through this lens, but I haven't seen it yet.
I spent $2.09 on this game, and it took me roughly two and a half hours to complete, taking my time to enjoy the set pieces. The game doesn't recognize Steam's screenshot options, so none are available here; and all cheevos are in game rather than Steam cheevos, which makes sense, but also makes them kinda pointless. This is really a one and done game with zero replay value, so there probably wasn't any value in adding the mobile game cheevos, lol.
Anyway, I had fun with the game, and it earns those two bucks for sure. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon. It's worth a look on sale. $5.99 retail though? Don't do that. You will probably regret spending six bucks on this game.
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