Chronicles of Mystery - The Tree of Life Reviews

I am Silvie Leroux, French archaeologist who, in the previous game "The Scorpio Ritual" from 2008, tracked down a conspiracy with Temple Knights and Illuminati. In the second game, "The Tree of Life" from 2010, the quest for the Fountain of Youth is central. The nice thing about this game is that there is always something to do. In many games you sometimes have to walk around for a long time looking for the current goal, for what you are supposed to do. Here you do not have to look everywhere for clues to progress. The goals are very clear and there wasn't a moment when I thought, "Okay, now what?" The puzzles are quite simple. Classic inventory puzzles, reassembling a map, a sliding puzzle that took me just long enough. The backgrounds are beautiful, but the characters make me nervous, fidgeting all the time, as if they've had too much coffee. I also like these types of "real world" games more than fantasy or science fiction themed games. My story begins in a castle in Brittany, where I am assigned to study an antique chest. This chest appears to be linked to the mystery of the Mary Celeste, a ship that was found completely abandoned in the 19th century. I find that many dialogue options cause the person you are talking to to ask you a question instead of the other way around, which is kind of strange. After all, how does Silvie know what the other characters want to say? That doesn't really fit with the normal practice of graphic adventure games. At first, the game makes me feel like I'm at work. I have to fix the copier and the 3D printer. Armed with an old map of Ponce de Léon, I finally travel to Venice, to try to discover the origin of the chest. It is a fairly simple and therefore fast game. Some puzzles, which look easy at first, suddenly require an extra layer. I like the story too, and wonder all the time where it will take me. After five hours of fun, I travel from Venice to Cairo in search of an antiques collector who might be able to help me on my quest. Here a few more difficult puzzles await me. One is simply based on dumb luck: I have to win a game of dice. I don't see any system in it so I just try until I win. It doesn't take that long really, but still ... The second puzzle concerns plumbing. After some trial and error, I discover how the water should flow. I should have solved it faster, because it turns out not to be that complicated. The third puzzle features a camel and I'm sorry to say I had to seek online help for this. I still don't know how you're supposed to figure out what to do here, especially since the rest of the game is so straightforward. Little do I know that camels love sweet coffee grounds and you can lure them out of their place ... Suddenly I am on a boat from Cairo to Gibraltar, and there I am confronted with two puzzles that you have to solve within a certain time. In the top left corner is a small clock that is ticking way too fast. Fortunately, at the start of the first puzzle, before the counter starts, the game automatically saves, because if you don't do it right, you are dead. You have to trap an intruder by blocking the door and tie it with a rope. So you have to tie a knot in that rope. But since I don't know anything about knots, and didn't want to waste time with the old trial-and-error method, so I looked up how to do it. The second timed event, distracting a dog with some food so you can move on, isn't too bad. If it fails, nothing will happen and you can just try again, but you will have to go get food again. This one was difficult because previously I was overlooking an object just laying on the ground somewhere, and once I found it with the hot spot locator, it was easy. The rest of this part consists mainly of repairing a huge machine. Then there was a navigation puzzle that took me quite a few tries but which I recognized from some of my son's puzzle books. And so we fly to the final location in the game. The last part is actually a huge mechanical puzzle, where you have to get a machine to work. But after that, the end comes quite suddenly, basically undoing everything you just did, and with no real resolution. Just a big climax and then the credits. But I had fun with this game, it was intriguing with good puzzles, although some things weren't quite right. It's along the lines of "Secret Files" where inventory items disappear when they are no longer needed. The only technical glitch I had is in the cutscenes, where the spoken dialog would be cut off mid-sentence. Fortunately, there are subtitles.

A very nice classical adventure game! The story got to me and opens up a great philosophical discussion. From this developer I have also enjoyed the Art of Murder series, and even though I prefer detective mysteries, I think The Tree of Life is my favourite amongst them. The first part, the Scorpio Ritual was not bad either, and is a good introduction to the main character if nothing else. I wish there'd be more such games.

The graphics, sound, and voice acting were great. Interface and navigation were easy & smooth. The story line kept my attention engaged throughout There were plenty of things to find, combine, & use. The game keeps taking you to new locations so you won't feel claustrophobic. If you like adventure games that keep your brain and mouse busy, you'll like this one. Good adventure games are getting scarce.

Fun point and click adventure. It has great soundtrack. A few of the solutions are very dumb, but for the most part it's a great fun. Ending is terrible, though. 7/10

these are my favourite types of games and there just not made anymore which is terrible. i loved this game , great puzzles story and kept my interest for 10 hours,i dont rush through games.

My God I wanted so badly to give this game a thumbs up, and I Love Adventure games, but it was more frustrating than fun. I'm not quite sure where to begin. You had very limited locations and options. Without spoiling anything, the box puzzle early in the game, you'd never know what to do without the walkthrough. There were no clues or references or indicators. Nothing. Then the map puzzle was a complete washed out ugly mess. There were no indicators of how the land masses were supposed to look, no reference guide. Then you go to the next city and wander around aimlessly hoping objects would fit together or work arbitrarily on something in the environment. I've enjoyed countless adventure games, from old school, to low res graphics, to quirky, even from the DOS era, but this could have been so much better. Kind of reminds me of some of the quirkier elements from the early Sherlock games where it frustrates the hell out of you. And that's not very fun to go in circles pulling your hair out and hoping for it to end.

Running this game in Win10 the game goes through the initial load screens ok but the game area is offset and this is probably due to my screen resolution of 1920 x 1080. The game is then stuck in the first game screen and I am unable to play the game at all. I am left with no option but to uninstall and regret the loss of money spent on this game. I would be grateful for any helpful comments and suggestions.

pros: + great looking and detailed pre rendered 2D graphics which also aged very well + good looking character models + pretty and exotic locations + great background musics + puzzles are mostly enjoyable. there are many inventory puzzles you can combine some items and a few timed puzzles. + well made cinematic cutscenes + decent voice acting + when you click to question mark, hotspots is highlighted. No need to hunt for pixels. + many different cast of side characters + with a intriguing plot you ll never get bored. + game is long cons - voice overs suddenly cut while characters was talking - some slider puzzles from hell. - despite puzzle solutions are generally logical, very few clues are given to guide you in the right direction. A hint system would have been great. - Too much pointless dialogue and translation from polish to english not good - despite story is exciting, story progress is hard to follow because it becomes increasingly convoluted - there are no Steam achievements - game doesn't drop cards - game doesn't support 1920*1080p widescreen resolution Overall this is an decent and typical old school point and click adventure game. i quite enjoyed and recommended!

I enjoyed this (moderate scale) point and click adventure, although it does have a few flaws. It's certainly worth the price, especially on sale. The protagonist is an intelligent, slightly adventure-happy young archaeologist (also in the first game of series, Scorpio Ritual). In Tree of Life, she travels from Brittany to Venice to Cairo to Gibraltar trying to unravel the mysteries of a Spanish conquistador's box and maybe even the secret of immortality. Suspend your disbelief and go along for the ride! Pros: - music is good - characters are interesting - overall story is intriguing - voice acting is good Cons: - the game is not fully compatible with Win10 or new computers; I had no difficulty running the game, but could not get all the dialogue to play (it would cut off about 5 seconds into each speech) [NB: as far as I know, nobody has a perfect solution for the dialogue issue, which is a real shame; it looks like other problems - if you have any - can be resolved through Windows compatability mode] - the game is visually lower resolution and not for wide-screens (strictly age-related) - there are a limited number of puzzles; some are good, a couple are either challenging or frustrating depending on your point of view - the lack of a decent Notebook is annoying (some things that really should be in Sylvie's journal aren't) [b]Overall:[/b] I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys lighter point and click games. There's lots to do and it's a fun read. Note that this is not a HOPA - there are no hidden object scenes.

A classic point and click game. I think it remains my favourite of the 2 Chronicles of Mystery and City Interactives others, the 3 Art of Murder games... Beautiful graphics , intriguing story and smooth game play. (edited) There a couple of games by this developer which are re makes of the original adventure games . They are the ones with the hidden object scenes and are really NOT worth your while>