User Reviews (1 - 11 of 20)

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Crummy game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: January 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

It's one thing to have timed puzzles, it's another thing to have entire sequences timed. The thing I like about adventure games is being able to explore locations and items in a deliberate manner. I don't want to have to race around clicking on every item or using all my inventory items randomly in hopes that I can get a sequence done before time runs out and Holmes is killed off. The game doesn't even let you know how much time you're being alloted to finish before time runs out. Add all that to the poor graphics and lousy interface.

Mystery of the Purchase

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: March 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This may be an interesting game, but the screens are so dark that detail is impossible to see. I have run this on 2 XP machines, one with a flat-panel display and one with a CRT. Both screens are much too dark at even the correspponding maximum brightness settings. That, coupled with a very hyperactive mouse speed [also not controllable] render the game virtually [really] unplayable. I recommend "SAVE YOUR MONEY!"

Awful

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: May 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game was terrible - really bad. The graphics were decent and the puzzles had interesting concepts behind them, but the way that you had to solve them made no sense. There were many objects that you had to find to proceed in the game that you literally could not see; the only way to find them was to run the cursor along every square inch of every screen in the area and look to see if the cursor changed to pick-up mode in order to find what you need. This game was much more frustrating than fun... a big disappointment.

Wonderful Potential - Terrible Reality

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: September 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

As a lover of the classic, inventory-based adventure games (such as the King's Quest series), I jumped at MotM, simply for its puzzle-based qualities. 99% of the games on the shelves these days are fighting, racing, or war strategy-based games, and I hoped MotM would be a return to the old days. However, I found that it definitely lacked in originality and plot, and dismally failed in ease of play and interface. Namely, I felt I completely wasted my money.

PLOT:
Without giving anything anyway (for those of you who may still want to buy it), the plot is driven primarily by Sherlock Holmes finding letters, photos, and newspaper clippings. The mystery is solved at the end with Sherlock giving a lengthy monologue in which all the pieces come together. However, the solution is contrived at best, and feels very disconnected from the game play.

INTERFACE:
This aspect is definitely where the game really fails. I can handle a mediocre plot and flat characters for the love of some tasty puzzles, but it's a bit difficult when you feel frustrated enough to toss your monitor out the window. Here's why:
1) The inventory items are IMPOSSIBLE to find! Not all grant you, but you basically have to run your cursor over every inch of your 360-degree view in EVERY SINGLE SCREEN. Even then, I often missed things.
2)The neutral cursor is a hand with a Holmes-like pipe, which changes to a pointer hand if you can move forward, or if there is something of interest, OR if there is a puzzle. The hand changes to a grabbing hand to pick up an inventory item, which is only marginally different from the pointer (i.e. you move when you think you are about to pick up something). Furthermore, game play is picky and difficult to get it the correct cursor to cooperate.
3) There is no way to put an item back into the inventory, making it very time-consuming to experiment with different items.
4) Puzzles are poorly designed - even if you figure out the solution, the hassle of entering the answer negates the fun completely. Examples: a text-based puzzle in which you click on a letter, click on the square, click on the letter, click on the square, etc.

All-in-all, disappointing and a waste of money.

A step up from Nancy Drew

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: August 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

My daughter and I purchased this game while waiting for the next Nancy Drew
We were not disappointed. Lots of puzzles, cool graphics, good story.
Our complaints were:
Some of the objects that we had to pick up were too SMALL to be seen.
We had to get use to the inventory box being in a different window.

Biggest complaint... "We could sure use George and Bess right now"... Sherlock works alone

Very disappointed

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: April 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Dreamcatcher usually puts out very cool games, but this one looks like it was made in 1992 (and that's being nice). The graphics were poor compared to other adventure games, and a lot of the puzzles had nothing to do with the game. I could not tackle a puzzle sometimes because the clues had really nothing to do with the game, so it was hard to know what to look for. And one puzzle near the end required the player to LITERALLY find a pin in a completely destroyed room (like a needle in a haystack!). There was NO WAY of being able to see this piece, let alone find it, unless you carefully followed the directions of a walkthrough. I think they could have done better. Thank goodness I sold it and got some money back....

Dont buy this game!![.]

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: April 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When i bought this game, i ignored the reviews, thinking that it would turn out to be a good game. I was horribly wrong. This was one of the worst games ever made.
For example, about 5 minuites into the game, you have to solve a puzzle before you can do anything else. I dont like puzzles a lot. Well, this game was full of them. Half of the things you were required to do turned out to have no point later in the game. To make my day of gaming even worse, I have come across 2 slider puzzles in the game so far, and i havent finished it yet. {im not anywhere near to finsihing it yet.}
The cursor in the game is very confusing. I just kept clicking around the screen because i didnt understand any of the cursor symbuls. I have counted throughtout my half gaming experience, and noticed the cursor changes 6 times!

If you are going to buy this game, get a walkthrough first, because i couldnt do half the stuff on my own without one.

A Little disappointed!!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Although I did enjoy this somewhat, it was only with the help of an online hint site. I consider myself a fairly good mystery & puzzle solver but the clues in this and the way items were located, if not for those hints... I'd be pulling my hair out. Games are supposed to be fun not frustrating.
With the hints I'd give this a 3.... without I'd give it a 1... hence my 2. Try Black Mirror instead!!

average

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The reason I bought this game was so that my daughter and I could play a game together that had no blood and gore.
It was confusing sometimes and we needed the help of a hint and walkthrough web site at times. I enjoyed it because my daughter liked it. If it weren't for her I probably would have never finished it because I would have lost interest from the beginning.

Worth the effort

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Synopsis: A young woman writes Sherlock that her father was involved in some Egyptian archeological adventures and has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. He comes to their manor to investigate what happens alone, except for a mummy stalking him.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I thought this was a visually pretty, at moments lush, game. Sometimes the generation of the people seemed flat, but you seldom saw people, so it wasn't a big deal. I liked the music and the other production styles and any flaws in the period feel were minimal.

This is a very hard game to play. There are some clues and some puzzles I simply couldn't have solved without a hint site. There was no intuitive way to find some items I needed and there didn't seem to be a continuity between the types of puzzles played (i.e., figuring out how to solve one was no help in figuring out how to solve another). It was also a completely different style of game then the other games I've played, especially Nancy Drew. The puzzles are much less straightforward and much more intertwined, and there was simply no instinctive or obvious way to follow them. On the upside, they also didn't have the random, somewhat pointless aspects of the ND puzzles; everything relates directly to the storyline and to each other.

It is more fair to say that this is an adventure story with some puzzles to follow to help you progress. If you can get over the fact that you will have to cheat at some point (the major drawback of the game), it's a lot of fun and worth the time spent playing. I wanted to rip my hair out at parts when I was playing it, but I was sorry to see it end when it was all over. I'd buy another game in the series, if there is one.

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