Time Mysteries 2: The Ancient Spectres Reviews

Some pretty tough puzzles, but I found help online so I managed to get all the achievements. It's an older game, so the graphics aren't as crisp, making HO scenes more difficult. This is definitely heavy on the HO scenes, and there is a lot of traveling back and forth, but this game has a fast travel map, and you don't have to win it on Expert to get all the achievements, so if you get really stuck you can just open the map and see where you should go next. I had fun playing it despite the flaws.

A good quality game of its type: The Artifex Mundi engine is very good, puzzles all good with a lot of variation. Not my favourite Artifex Mundi game and I have played all of their games that are currently on Steam, but definitely worth playing by any fan of the genre. I should mention that apart from the game engine, which is very slick and for instance auto zooms when you need it to, it has the standard map feature which is present in all but one (the oldest) Artifex Mundi game currently on Steam which allows fast travel by clicking on the location in the map screen. The artwork is the usual high standard I come to expect from Artifex Mundi. The games main feature which sets it apart from other Artifex Mundi games it involves time travel, such that you have travel to the past, change something and then return to the present, or to a later time to advance the plot of the game. So in closing I would recommend the game, as I said not my favourite, but well worth playing and playing this game did cause me to purchase and play all of the other Artifex Mundi games on Steam which is a recommendation in itself.

Game was very frustrating as a few of the HOG mini games were literally impossible to find an item, even when clicking all over the screen, then when i HAD to press the hint button, it lead to a blank space with nothing there. was going for the 15 hog games with no hints, no uninstalled!

The good: If you like HO puzzles, there are lots of them! Also, the story is reasonably interesting, as well as being a direct lead-in to Time Mysteries 3. Switching between times and altering the past/future is fun and the mechanic is well-conceived without being over-thought (best not to, with time travel!). The music is slightly repetitive, but quite good, and the overall feel of the game is nicely atmospheric (and appropriately creepy in places). The less good: The puzzles are decent but have no explanations, and are occasionally... less then intuitive. I dislike spending more time figuring out what the puzzle *is* than I spend solving it. On the other hand, kudos for immersion, since I suppose the protagonist has to guess as she goes along as well! The least good, which is to say the bad: There were a handful of places where the use of, or lack of, plurals was very confusing. Translations were generally pretty good, but not quite good enough for two solid thumbs up. A ladle isn't a spoon, and looking for "cherries" is different than looking for a (single) cherry (sounds minor, but there were just a few too many). I'd like to offer my services to Artifex Mundi as a proofreader. That said, the REAL problem was in a HO scene where you open three chests (with keys) the first time you are there. When you return, the chests are still open (as they should be, since there is no random box-closer ghost). Unfortunately, there are objects behind the lids of the boxes, and the game doesn't handle that properly. I spent a very long time looking for a card that literally could not be seen. Eventually, the potential problem dawned on me and I started randomly clicking the open lids. Poof! Suddenly my last card appeared. Final note: this is a decent game, it just needed a wee bit more care. That, and a little less pixel-hunting on a few of the HO scenes. The graphics quality is a big improvement over the first game (we won't talk about the Squidgy Head Faces thing that happened in Time Mysteries 1, because it just has to be seen to be believed). Too much aggravation with the HO scenes, but well worth buying on sale in my opinion.

Personally, I don't mind a HOG. And I have to admit, I'm quite enjoying this one. There's lots of moving back and forth to get various objects to complete tasks, and the 'time device' you gain quite early on can certainly assist in where you need to go to next, should you get stuck. A nice touch is the ability to swap to a mini game if you get fed up of the hidden object path. The only downside so far is the voice acting. it's very meh. As if the actors weren't being paid enough!! In general though, if you want a bit of a time waster game, with some light challeneges, and something that's not too mind bending to figure out, then this should do the trick.

The game has an interesting setting with time travel and time based riddles. Unfortunately the user guidance is not existing, You are doing one thing in a room and then have to leave for the next room / time to do the next. It gets confusing very quick and I started only to use the map guidance rather than walking through the game. HO scenes pop up randomly somewhere when you finish a task, I could not find the logic. This plus the "to be continued" ending end in my thumbs down.

Though this game is leagues better than the first Time Mysteries, I still would not recommend this. It is completely confounding. The plot idea of traveling through time is fun but it's poorly executed. You are aimlessly wandering between timelines without clear guidance or reason to go there. You're expected to collect random items with, again, no clear purpose. Here, collect these rings and lanterns but we aren't going to explain why in the first place. You're expected to gather the answers before being presented with the questions. Which is super frustrating and leaves you feeling unsure of what you are doing. The hidden objects aspect is very challenging but it's an improvement to the first.

I'd rate this game as a 2.5/5. It isn't up to Artifex Mundi's usual standards. I did enjoy the story, and the time travel was handled well (i really liked seeing how changes in an earlier time impacted later times for that location). Unfortunately, the hidden object puzzles will sometimes have you find objects that are completely obscured behind other parts of the scene. For example: in one hidden object scene, you have to find a key and open a box to locate a scepter. You may also need to find a playing card that is now entirely hidden behind the lid of the box you opened. And there is no way to close the box, so if you didn't see it ahead of time, you are out of luck. There is an option to play a match-3 mini-game instead of locating hidden objects. Unfortunately, the system treats that as using a hint, and it will prevent you from getting your achievements. Pros: Good story Engaging use of time-travel plot Some interesting puzzles Cons: Occasionally impossible Hidden Object scenes Uncanny Valley character models (especially in the bonus story) Lackluster (and in one case *missing*) voice acting lines.

[i][/i] No. No, no. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/Eincrou/recommended/350010]I thought the first Time Mysteries was not worth recommending.[/url] This is another not recommendation. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3215928683 To start, we again have a very old game that was designed for the era of 4:3 aspect ratio displays. The game launches in a 16:9 format and this stretches all of the artwork. I changed my desktop resolution to 1024x768 to be able to play at the game's native resolution with the correct aspect ratio. The artwork in this is ugly enough without distorting it to fill a widescreen format. Even with the correct aspect ratio, grungy, grimy, gross, grainy, nasty visuals are still waiting for the player. Hidden object scenes are downright disgusting. Not only is the resolution very low, a visual pall was cast over the scenes. No objects appear with the color they should because the visuals have been massively color "in"-corrected. Everything blends together, making it literally headache-inducing to try and distinguish objects out of the murk and muck. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3212623973 The hideous hidden object scene artwork is not the only problem. This is one of those hidden object adventure games that has desired objects that first require an interaction before you can collect it. [i]But sometimes, that interaction has nothing to do with the object you're looking for![/i] This makes it REQUIRED to mouseover the entire scene until the cursor changes to indicate you can do something. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3212623206 Time-travelling is a big part of the gameplay, with two areas that have several years in which you can visit them. This game is all about backtracking and gradually opening new rooms. As you might expect, there's a problem with this, too! As a backtracking type of game, TM2 is one of those HOAGs where previously-solved hidden object scenes are reused. They will reactivate at certain stages of progress. DO NOT PLAY Time Mysteries 2, but if you do, avoid playing on "Expert" difficulty, like I did. The typical "Expert" feature of not highlighting rooms where you can do something in on the map, or indicating active hidden object scenes, meant there were often points where I didn't know what to do. So, [i]I had to go room-by-room looking for reactivated hidden object scenes![/i] The standard Expert limitations are a serious problem in this game. With this many different rooms, across different time periods, it's easy to get lost. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3212621487 There were two things that saved the game from this critical design flaw: One, you don't need to play on Expert to get any of the achievements, so don't. And two, none of the achievements say you can't use the Hint button for normal exploration. In my Expert playthrough, I used the hint button to find what I could do next. *record_scratch.wav* Hold on. You didn't think it was that simple, did you? I hope not, because EVEN THE HINT SYSTEM IS MESSED UP! The Hint button only gives useful information if you are in a room where something can be done, or a room you can do something is next to the room you're standing in. Otherwise, it just points to the time travel device, which we already know doesn't show active rooms on "Expert" difficulty! That's right, in this game with tons of rooms and multiple time periods, THE HINT IS ALMOST USELESS on "Expert." I still had to run around every room, in every time period, trying to find reactivated hidden object scenes! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3212622606 I hate this game, but I managed to complete the main story. The bonus chapter was much, much better. It had a smaller playable area and the hidden object scenes were colorful, instead of being mutilated by extreme color "in"-correction. I also played on Normal difficulty, so I could always see where to go next. The fact that Time Mysteries is a trilogy requires me to play the next game, mercifully titled, "The [b]Final[/b] Enigma." https://store.steampowered.com/app/319320/Time_Mysteries_3_The_Final_Enigma/ I am not looking forward to it...

You play as Esther, a lady trying to learn more about your lost family after you receive a letter from a distant relative that suggests you to investigate an old mansion, which is, of course, full of mysteries. During your adventure you'll come across multiple hidden object scenes and puzzles of all sorts of difficulty. The hidden object scenes are nicely drawn, but it's often hard to find the objects because they're quite well hidden and undistinguishable from the others. Most scenes come with a color palette containing many shades of gold, orange or brown, and these can be incredibly difficult to complete. Nevertheless, there is a hint button that recharges almost instantly, in case you get stuck. The novelty that this game brings is the travel device that allows you to travel to important moments in your family’s past, and the actions you do will alter the future scenes. The device also serves as an incredibly helpful map - you have different symbols for the rooms you need to visit (those that have incomplete actions), for the unexplored rooms and for the scenes that change due to actions in the past. It also serves as a fast-travel device, even within the same time. I found the game very enjoyable and interesting, but I wouldn't recommend it to people that are beginners in this genre because the difficulty of the hidden object scenes will probably set them back. [quote]More reviews on the [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/lillyscorner/curation]Lilly's Corner Curator page[/url][/quote]