Mystery Stories: Island of Hope - All Work and No Play?

In Mystery Stories: Island of Hope you will find all the features so valued by hidden object fans - rich and engaging story, variety of game play and terrific colorful graphics. As Michelle Deanfield, top New York journalist, you will plunge into the exotic atmosphere of the Caribbean to investigate mysterious events supposedly connected with ancient Mayan legends. Add a fascinating love story - and you'll get a hidden object game of really high quality.

Your journey starts when Michelle, who received the vacation as a bonus for a sensational article on dog food she wrote, departs for the trip she has been longing for.

 

Michelle is anticipating two weeks of relaxation, and hopes to meet a perfect guy, which would be just wonderful. But mysterious break-in in the town museum leaves nothing of all plans and hopes. Our heroine very soon finds herself in the very middle of a whirl of events all related to some ancient Mayan artifacts and culture. Together with Professor McAllister and Diego, a really good-looking diving instructor, she devotes all her time to the investigation, trying to find out the truth and solve the mystery.

That's all that can be said about the story in the beginning. All the rest will be revealed in the process of playing - and there is much for you to learn. But let us dwell a bit on the game play.

The basic game play of the game is hidden object. But even here you are offered some new turns that add significant variety to your game experience and guarantee you will never get bored while playing. You are offered a choice of game modes: first, you select whether you wish to play Story or Puzzle mode. Then you will decide whether you prefer Normal mode or Relax mode, where you get ten times more time for solving each puzzle. On each of hidden object levels your task is to find all the hidden items in the screen, which is quite expected in such a game. But the items are not only defined in words or given as silhouettes, which is the most widespread way of describing necessary objects. But you will also encounter levels requiring that you find objects corresponding to certain sounds given instead of instructions. Some screens will darkened and need to be explored with a flashlight only. In others you get not just single words, but ciphered descriptions. And some will make you look for each object within a very short period of time.

But, surely, you will also get some aids to facilitate the search process. They are quite plentiful and can be found in every level. You will be offered additional hints, time bonuses, aids doubling your points for some time, etc. But be careful, for you get time penalty for too many misclicks. This doesn't matter in the Relax mode, but if play Normal, you may find it a bit tough.

After each set of hidden object levels you will be offered a mini-game. Those are different puzzle games, some really unique and challenging. But if you don't wish to play them, you always have an option to skip such a puzzle and proceed with the main game.

As I already said, Mystery Stories: Island of Hope can boast not only a fascinating story and diverse game play, but also beautiful visuals. The graphics is absolutely great and it makes you feel as if you are in the tropics instead of your office or home.

 

On the whole I would say the game is of genuinely high quality and no doubt deserves your attention.

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