Eternal Night: Realm of Souls

Eternal Night: Realm of Souls is one of the latest releases in the hidden object/adventure genre. The game features everything a game of this genre would. There is a ton of items to find and interact with together with many puzzles to solve, and all that is covered by the mystery of the spiritual realm.

The situation itself reminds the old story of ten plagues on Egyptians for not letting Jews go.

The story starts with the speech of the Egyptian pharaoh to his people. The situation is that there hadn't been the sun for seven days now. That affected the crops and the people. So the pharaoh is asking now for someone brave enough to go to gods and find out what's going on. This brave someone is you. Of course.

The situation itself reminds the old story of ten plagues on Egyptians for not letting Jews go. This is a bit changed version of the actual events. So from that moment you go to tomb of the pharaoh's father and from there to the spirits to find the answers for your nation.

The journey consists of all the familiar elements, but their presentation of the form in which they are given here is a bit innovative and they are worth of our attention. For one, the game provides hints not only for the searches of items, but for the interactive parts as well.

When you are lost not knowing what to do next, you can go to the task area. The big task is shown to you for free. But if the task sounds too general, you can get the smaller steps necessary for completing the task. Those cost you a hint, which are rechargable after a while.

There are also hidden object levels. They work in a non-classic way. You get the clattered scene and a piece of the Egyptian pictograme. The pictograme misses some parts, like one of the soldiers is without a spear. You are to find those missing elements on the scene that is more realistic. So you need to use your imagination in order to think what those items may look like in reality.

After that the itmes go to the left panel of the screen. Now you need to drag them to the pictograme to make it complete, and only after that the hidden object level is completed. Usually you get an additional item after the level to use it somewhere else in the game.

The small puzzles are fun to play too. Some of them feel particularly fresh. For example, the tile maze in the very beginning fo the game, where you need to get to the center through many obstacles. The audio matches the game's theme and creates the required atmosphere. The graphics look a bit blurry sometimes, but that is no deal breaker.

The game may not be perfect, but it does have some refreshing parts for the genre gurus.

digg it! | del.icio.us