This game is one of storyless exploration. You wake up on an island and...that's it for the story. Then, you run around trying to find the gameplay. (My first ten minutes of the game consisted of running in different directions and finding nothing to do.) I'm afraid I had little patience for the game. It is lacking in every aspect except art direction, and it really lagged and skipped frames on my system despite the low-poly graphics. The devs seem to have used the standard move set that comes with the Unreal engine, including the goofy run (but with decent platforming). What the developers added to the standard character was complex, artful animations. Those look great, but this was not the game to use them, as it makes everything so slow. For example, if you bump into something because the camera has decided to swing wildly, the character will fall, lie stunned for a bit, then pick himself up and shake his head. This takes nearly three seconds and destroys all momentum of running around. And the game consists solely of running around, so it was important to get that right. They also were responsible for the camera, which seems to have its own agenda at times. The game is very pretty to look at, and all there is to the game is looking at everything. If you are a patient person with...a longing for an aesthetic experience?...you might like this? It's hard for me to say because I did NOT like it, so much. I can't help but compare it unfavorably to Brothers: Tale of Two Sons and Papo e Yo, two games with almost exactly the same gameplay and character model but which DO have a story and a sense of progression and have equally impressive visuals. You might also look into Zelda: Breath of the Wild as an alternative to this game.
The Enigmatis series of games has better than average puzzles than the standard hidden object game because they are typically related to the action at hand, and there is some suspense as you are trying to, e.g., save your own life by solving a puzzle. The game made good use of its budget by keeping its use of character models limited and focusing on its 2D art, which is very good. The background music has improved, I noticed. There are some nice "Eastern"-themed tracks for the later sections of the game. There are some things that aren't necessarily cons, but they can get old. This game has you rescuing a helpless little girl, which, if I remember correctly, happens in both the other games. (It is definitely a recurring theme in hidden object games.) This particular one is being trained in a *spoiler spoiler* as a *spoiler*, so it is really strange that she spends her time drawing with crayons in a stereotypical "cute" way. Also, the supernatural elements are introduced in a ridiculously casual way. The characters never act surprised or disturbed by seeing any new phenomenon, and the voice actors recite fantastic stories matter-of-factly. Let me also note that he character models and animation are just "off" enough to be creepy. What I found really annoying was the poor optimization of the game. The load times were up to 10 seconds by the end of the game, and that was between scenes that were as short as 2 seconds long. This killed my immersion entirely. During the bonus chapter, the game started lagging really badly as well. Steam commenters report that this can be fixed by restarting the program. I didn't know that while I was playing, but it may help you. (I searched to make sure this wasn't a problem unique to my computer or the GOG version. It is not.) I'm going to give the game three stars for its attempts at involving puzzles, but leaving in memory leaks or whatever is going on with the optimization was a really poor choice.
Nearly every hidden object game has the same puzzles and so does this one. Moving on. This particular series has better stories than most, and the pacing is good. It manages to maintain suspense by having the heroine solve puzzles that are somewhat related to the plot. The "evil preacher" is still a cliche, so I'm not going to give it full credit for the story, but it's not bad. The art is good, although too pastel for my taste. The voice acting remains okay. (I think the same woman voices all these games.) Camera movements are terrible (they try and fail to produce jump scares), and the animation looks cheap because only key areas move. Overall, this is better than average and one of the best hidden object games available.
This game is absolutely stunning; with no doubt, the art is top notch. And now the bad news. It is about an hour long, and it would be fifteen minutes long or less if your character moved at a typical speed. Gameplay consists of clicking on the screen. When you locate an interactive object, your bug will SLLOOWWWLY move towards it. The interactions do not have logic behind them for the most part, so it's just a matter of clicking on everything to see if anything happens. Short games are fine, but I found the tedium far outweighed the loveliness of the atmosphere. It is very cheap, so it may be worth a look for the sake of the art. NOTE: I have not played the GOG version of the game. I have the Steam version.
NOTE: I haven't played the GOG release, so I am talking about the original CD version here. Pros: 1. Amazing Set Pieces. This game was an early 3D title whose clean art direction managed to avoid the texture-vomit style of many of its contemporaries. (It style has eye-gouging pointy polygons everywhere.) 2. Characters. It has Guybrush and Murray, two all-time classics. 3. Clever dialogue. It isn't quite as fun as the third game, but it is still funny. 4. Voice acting. All the characters have real interesting voices which add a lot to their characterization. Cons 1. Tank controls. They aren't easy to get used to. By this, I mean you move the character using arrow keys. You have to slowly spin them around to turn. It isn't fun. 2. Two tedious levels--a short maze and a series of grindy battles where you have to experiment to learn what moves beat what. You will need paper and patience, and this part sends some into a frothing rage (it didn't bother me). 3. At launch, the cutscene videos were unstable and tended to crash. That may have also just been Windows 95/98/2000, which also was unstable and tended to crash. Either way, hopefully this is fixed. At launch, this game was slightly disappointing when compared to the third game, and...fans?...are still complaining about that to this day. With hindsight, however, it is much better than average and worth playing, especially if you are a new player. Me, it is one of my all-time favorites. I don't believe the cons are worth knocking off a star, as they are mostly a product of the technological limitations of the time. Personally, I prefer it to Telltale's take on the series for its sense of fun and broader scope.
NOTE: I played the Steam Kickstarter version. The mystique of this type of story is compelling, so many people will be able to look past everything else and enjoy this game on this merit alone. Sadly, everything about the UI and presentation of the game are at odds with the narrative, so it may be difficult to overlook the game's flaws. The actual gameplay is focused on managing an array of timers. Events pop up on the game board, and you create or arrange cards to interact with them. This fundamental element of the game is not managed well. You are probably zoomed in at least a bit, so you may not see an event arrive. You can freely move your cards, but the game also moves them for you. Managing the timers means you must know where your cards are and which ones you have, but the game does not respect your attempts at organization. Corralling annoying cards and suddenly losing to an event you didn't know was happening is...not fun. What this game needs is for card and timer management to be challenging yet intuitive, but this did not happen. It is also surprisingly difficult to focus on the text. The timers are relentless, and the icons showing card types are tiny. Some icons allow you to click on them for information, and some...don't (too bad for you!). Story text only appears once and is easily missed. In game, there is no journal or any way to record your own notes. It is up to you to pause the game and write your own. Pause the game and write. Pause the game and reorder your cards. Actually playing the game does not happen much. This game is both a snappy five-minute sudden death game of timers and a lazy narrative game with discovery of card-combination recipes. It is not good at either. The devs seem to be caught off-guard at the criticism of the UI at launch and have stated there will be improvements. I'm not sure if they will be enough. The problems seem to be pervasive and fundamental. I would hold off on purchasing for now.
