Haunted Past: Realm of Ghosts Reviews

I wouldn’t say this game is entirely without merit, but the negatives outweighed the positives enough for me to not recommend it. - Production Values - The aesthetics are pretty good, with okay voice acting, background graphics, and atmospheric music that is almost *too* creepy at times. I liked switching back and forth between the dilapidated real world and the ghostly world of the past, but brightness-wise, the normal areas are often too dark to parse, and the ghost realm is comparatively too florescent. - Story - The plot is fairly coherent for the genre, with ghosts, mirror portals, mediums, and dark arts as the main occult themes. It had a satisfying enough conclusion. - Hidden Object Screens - There are 15 simple text-clue hidden object screens (HOS) in the game. They contain no caches, combo items, morphing items, or other modern HOG gimmicks, and most of the challenge stems from the desaturated color palette that makes items visually blend into one another. I actually had to adjust my monitor to be able to see some of the objects. Some of the puzzles commit one of my biggest pet peeves by having multiple items that reasonably match the same text clue. In the pantry there are four things that could be considered a “lamp,” and in the bath there are five “birds” when you are only supposed to find two. Combined with some of the hotspots being finicky and requiring pixel accuracy, it can be hard to tell if you are clicking on the right item and it is not registering, or if you need to locate a different variation of the item altogether. The game makes a decent attempt to theme items in each HOS to the room or area it is located in, for instance the music room HOS is filled with instruments, however for some reason they pepper in some modern items that are at least 50 years later than the late Victorian / early Edwardian setting of the story. - Other Puzzles - The inventory-based puzzles are fairly intuitive, with each item being clear as to its purpose. There is at least one, though, that only makes sense if you are actively reading the journal as you play. There are also about 20, I hesitate to call them full minigames, but actiony puzzle components in addition to finding and using objects. They are all incredibly simple with no real challenge, and any of the ones that look like maybe the player might have to use their brain are negated by requiring your character to find the exact solution and copy it down before the game will allow you to solve it. - User Interface - There are a good variety of adaptive cursor icons; however they are not always implemented correctly, and in some places background objects that are interactable aren’t indicated at all. It makes it very easy to miss key adventuring elements. Your current objective is displayed on a drop down bar at the top, which is helpful, but that drop down bar constantly gets in the way during HOS. Once you have done everything possible in a “zoom to examine” window, it will dissolve into sparkles, clearly letting the player know it is complete. Likewise, once you have finished each room, a permanent “area cleared” message will display at the top of the screen. These features are great and help balance out the unreliable mouse notifications when trying to narrow down what you’ve missed. The largest disappointment in the game is the lack of feedback. Outside of the journal and a few scripted lines of dialogue, there is no other text at all. No flavor text. No reaction text. No descriptions. No message if you try to use the wrong item on a puzzle. No instructions for any of the puzzles. Just nothing. It leaves the experience feeling hollow and empty. - Miscellany - Being the standard edition, there are no extra features or achievements included. The game does have an optimization option for slow computers, though, so that might be a big selling point if you are running an older machine. The game kept running in the background after exiting, and I couldn’t fully shut it down from within Steam or from my computer’s task manager. I needed to close out and restart the entire Steam application. - Conclusion - There was the seed of a good game here, but the overly simplistic puzzles, HOS item redundancy, persnickety cursor icons and hotspots, brightness issues, and total lack of feedback really dragged it down for me.

In a month of October, I spy this game that has a supernatural scene and get it to have fun with... and lots of fun was had! It isn't super scary and there are no jump scares. In fact, the story is well written and the sounds/music fit everything super well! I like everything in this game. There isn't even that many Hidden Object scenes actually. Most of the time, you try to see where you can use an object on. Oh! I really liked that the Developers put in "Walk Between Worlds" part. That's when you go to a "Ghost Realm". Everything looks restored and you get to do something interesting. I can't spoil it... because that's also unique to this game. You get to find the story through journals and ghosties. I am just wondering what happened to a woman named Catherine? I did play until the end, but I don't think it ever said what happened to her while she was still alive. Mini games? They are rare and that's completely fine. Actually, when they do appear on screen, they are similar to "Logic Puzzes" (I think... you have to see for yourself). October... not October: you get to explore a Haunted Mansion and solve mysterious happenings! The house design is amazing and I enjoyed sticking things into paintings! Alright, alright! Time to wrap up and have more fun! Go and have fun! Thank you for the fun game!!! :) =) :>

A great game. Its not really long and hard but its still very fun and has a nice story, great ambience and cool maechanics. I wish they made more parts especially after the mother signals that there will be more to come. Its totally worth playing over and over again. I can really highly recommend this game

For an older game, this holds up well and mixes things up from the more modern HOG formula. While exploring a mansion to figure out what is going on with some ghosts that live there, you find mirrors in the rooms to go to the ghost realms to find/hide tools you need to solve problems on the side of the living. The ghost realm was a fun addition along with the glyphs you solve to progress. Puzzles were a bit different from what I'm use to encountering which along with the hidden object scenes made this a chill but slightly spooky game to play. The game is voice acted throughout which a plus even if the audio in general feels a little dated. While short, about 80 minutes for me, this is a pretty good HOG to pick up on sale.

This one is a tough call. I don't recommend the game, but I don't recommend against it, either. Since Steam requires a yes/no vote, I'll give it a "Recommended" because I did have fun and I don't regret the purchase. Pro: + Interesting mechanic in which you go into the ghost realm and "hide" objects which you then retrieve in the physical world. + In casual mode, a message is displayed at the top of the screen to indicate if a screen has been completed. + The hidden object scenes are fun for the most part. + Low price. Con: - A few items in the hidden objects scenes are mislabeled (for example, one scene listed "2 x blush" instead of "2 x brush"). This could be a translation issue, but it still had me looking for the wrong item. - In two of the hidden objects scenes, I had to click everywhere because one item was literally invisible. - The "minigames" aren't really minigames (there's no thought involved). For example, in one, you simply throw three darts at a dartboard; they automatically go to the correct location, so there's no interaction other than clicking. In another, you simply place six billiard balls on a table; again, there's no interaction other than clicking. I would have preferred minigames that were actual puzzles like in many other HOGs. Neutral: +/- Somewhat short. My playtime was 3.7 hours, which is short compared to most HOGs I have played. +/- The plot is explained through collected notes/journal pages, but because of the length of the game, it never went into much detail. +/- Many of the hidden object scenes are saturated with a specific color, so you are basically looking for objects based on shape alone. This didn't increase the difficult too much, however. Despite the cons and the neutral points, I did have fun with this game. While the mechanic of the ghost realm could be seen as tedious (since you're hiding items only to immediately uncover them), it was also a nice change and something I hadn't seen before, which is almost always a good thing. I never felt frustrated or wondered what I was supposed to do next, and I never had to use a hint or skip a scene. In the end, if I had to choose between "recommend" or "not recommend", I'd choose to recommend it.

First of all it took me ages to get this to work. I finally had to run it in compatibility mode Windows 7, as administrator and high DPI. It took me 2.6hrs and I ended up using the hint button just to find where I had to go next. No real puzzles and the hidden object scenes are pretty basic. Story was average, and if it crashed when I was half way through it, I wouldn't have bothered finishing.

I like the occasional hidden object game as a break from endless zombie slaying and the conquering of endless realms. This game indeed scratches that itch. Very casual; extremely linear and the hidden object areas are good but not too difficult or clever. Where this game fails is in the so called puzzles. They are extremely simple and the developers failed so far offering no mini-games with these. Where the game gets it right is presentation. Good atmosphere, the graphics & sound/music are good for it's genre. I believe that casual players and gamers like myself who are looking for a change of pace will enjoy this game. However aficionados of this type of game will probably find it lacking. Only once did I even consider using the hint button to find a hidden object and a few times I found myself wishing the hidden object portions where either longer or more difficult; this on the so called advanced setting.

This is an odd mystery game maybe better avoided than enjoyed by anyone and very very very short. The game is short and all puzzles can be skipped with hint buttons if stuck somewhere. Adjustable difficulty is nice but its the way the game is designed that is the weak point. Many of the hidden object puzzles have a colored filter over the entire screen making everything seem white, blue, or black. This is very straining to try and enjoy veteran players will find, while casual players spamming the hint button will probably just turn it off. The story is good not that it matters this is a game, and the gameplay is where it breaks down. There is an interesting mechanic used of switching from the present to the ghostly past where you can move items from the past to the present. This is very interesting, would be nice to see some sort of mechanic like that used in future games. Doesnt feel very ghosty overall, not to spooky which is a downer for october scary gaming :( Rating: 4/10 Value: $1.99$

You inherited a mansion but once there, everything is in disarray and dark. When you realize that ghosts are haunting it, you meet the woman that was killed... your mother. An evil is lurking around and your only way to beat it is to use your gift of walking between the ghost and the living realms.... Haunted Past: Realm of Ghosts is one of these games in my backlog that I decided to play after stumbling upon it on Big Fish games, when I was adding to Neoseeker the series Haunted Manor. Haunted Past was the game just under. When I realized that I had it in my library, I told myself why not? So far, I liked the plot. I also liked the twist in the game. Sure, it's not the plot of the year. But at least, you're not discovering the truth early on. The gameplay is the standard one: find items, use them, clear hidden objects scenes and solve puzzles. However, here, you have a special feature: the ghost realm. Indeed, through mirrors, you can access the same room but in another realm and in its previous state. Items found there can't be brought back with you to the real world, so you have to hid them in the ghost room and to find them in the real world. While it's true that these areas are cleared fairly quick, it's still a nice way to influence the world (example: a cushion was put in the real room but in the ghost realm, it's not there. So you use your brain to make one with the items hidden in it... and tadaaa, the cushion in the real world will have them!). Also, to help you, each time a room is totally cleared, a message is shown. And last but not least, some doors are closed because of evil magic/spirit. They can be opened by doing the right glyph you'll find around... Everything is easy, apart for same areas that you can't really see. It might have been influenced by the weather here, as it was a little sunny and that I had to move my screen to find a correct angle (as I'm playing hidden objects games on my laptop mainly). The graphics are quite good, very darker in the real world, as the estate is abandoned but when you go to the ghost realm, it's very bright. The soundtrack is also good. In other words, for 5 bucks, you have a good little casual adventure game, with a good plot, good graphics and interesting features. It would be sad for you to miss it. Go for it, whether it's full price or discounted.

I'm not giving this a thumbs down because it's a bad game. In fact, it's an extremely fun game. However, it's also extremely short. When the game ended, I just sat there dumbfounded. I couldn't believe the game was over already and the story seemed incomplete - there were questions that never got answered. So I looked up the walkthrough on Gamezebo to see if I had missed anything. It turns out that there is a "collector's edition" with more to the story. So I DO recommend this game. But don't buy it on Steam. Buy it elsewhere and make sure it's the Collector's Edition. If you're a hidden object fan, you'll love this game.