Time Mysteries 2: The Ancient Spectres
- July 31, 2014
- Artifex Mundi
- 4h median play time
Get on Steam
Get on Apple StoreIn "Time Mysteries 2: The Ancient Spectres," a young governess named Ester discovers her family's time-traveling legacy when she inherits a haunted mansion in London. As she explores the mansion and uncovers her family's secrets, she finds a mysterious object that leads her on an exciting journey through time. With stunning visuals and unique puzzles, this hidden object adventure game offers a fascinating and immersive experience.
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Reviews
- The game features an interesting time travel mechanic that adds complexity to the gameplay.
- The artwork and graphics are improved compared to the first game, providing a more visually appealing experience.
- The music and sound design are well-executed, enhancing the overall atmosphere of the game.
- The hidden object scenes are often cluttered and difficult to navigate, with many items obscured or poorly defined.
- The game suffers from excessive backtracking, requiring players to revisit the same locations multiple times without clear guidance.
- Technical issues, such as broken hints and unclear puzzle instructions, lead to frustrating gameplay experiences.
- story69 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The story of the game is a mixed bag, with some players appreciating its time travel elements and atmospheric setting, while others criticize it for being convoluted, repetitive, and lacking coherence. Many reviews highlight that while the narrative has potential, it often feels disjointed and fails to provide satisfying conclusions, particularly with its cliffhanger endings. Overall, the story is seen as average to below average, with some enjoyable aspects overshadowed by its execution and pacing issues.
“The story itself is interesting, and the music is pretty nice, but when you can't actually play the game it makes it a little difficult to enjoy.”
“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.”
“The bonus adventure is a nice addition to round out the story, and you can get more background from the encyclopedia entries as well.”
“The story is uninteresting and repetitive; the hidden object scenes and the locations are better but not special.”
“The story in this game is still a mess, and while it's overall more coherent, it ends on a bizarre cliffhanger. I thought the bonus adventure would complete this part of the story, but it was unrelated.”
“Overall, the story is thin and pretty trite.”
- graphics27 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 56 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game receive mixed reviews, with some players criticizing the dated and distorted visuals, particularly in widescreen format, while others appreciate the improved artwork compared to its predecessor. Many note a blurry quality that detracts from the experience, but there are also positive remarks about the game's painted aesthetic and overall decent graphics. Overall, the visuals are seen as a significant aspect of the game, with some players enjoying the artistic style despite the technical shortcomings.
“I loved the graphics in this game.”
“Well written story, wonderful artwork (and less pixelated than its predecessor's graphics), challenging puzzles, lots of fun!”
“I want to mention that the visuals in the game are nicely done with a painted feel to them.”
“The game launches in a 16:9 format and this stretches all of the artwork.”
“Even with the correct aspect ratio, grungy, grimy, gross, grainy, nasty visuals are still waiting for the player.”
“The graphics look blurry, which makes the many hidden object scenes very tiring.”
- music12 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many praising its quality and atmospheric elements, while others find it repetitive or intrusive during gameplay. Some players appreciate the improved voice acting and the integration of music with the game's time travel theme, though a few have opted to deactivate it due to annoyance. Overall, the soundtrack contributes positively to the game's ambiance, despite some criticisms regarding its repetitiveness.
“Personally, I absolutely think the music is phenomenal.”
“I relaxed for 5 minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.”
“The music is slightly repetitive, but quite good, and the overall feel of the game is nicely atmospheric (and appropriately creepy in places).”
“Music is very annoying (had to deactivate it).”
- gameplay11 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 45 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The gameplay features a time-traveling mechanic that allows players to explore multiple eras, but it suffers from frustrating mechanics that require excessive backtracking to find hidden objects, leading to a tedious experience. While the time travel concept is engaging and the mechanics are more polished than in the previous installment, the overall execution feels inconsistent and lacks innovation, often recycling similar mini-games and storylines. Despite these issues, the music remains a highlight, contributing positively to the atmosphere.
“Time-travelling is a big part of the gameplay, with two areas that have several years in which you can visit them.”
“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 gameplay and mechanics are more polished than in the first game, so that's a plus, and again the music is good.”
“But what is really horrible in this title are the mechanics.”
“The scenario is huge thanks to the time traveling mechanic, so you end up multiple times in the situation where you have to revisit over 30 different scenes at every step of the way because you don't know where a hidden object part might have activated once again so you can pick a single piece of a multi-part puzzle.”
“This is a somewhat 'lame' game: at one point, the mechanical device showing years stops and disappears and the screen on the device shows 'error' on each and every scene you want to enter.”
- atmosphere5 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 40 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its engaging story and effective use of music, which, while slightly repetitive, contributes to a creepy ambiance. The inclusion of foreground overlay items enhances the immersive experience, despite some critiques of the plot's logic. Overall, the art style and atmospheric elements are well-received, creating a compelling environment for players.
“The music is slightly repetitive, but quite good, and the overall feel of the game is nicely atmospheric (and appropriately creepy in places).”
“Very atmospheric and a good story.”
“The foreground overlay items that aren't part of the game and are just for atmosphere caused this a lot too.”
“The plot is ridiculous, but logic in actions is okay, and the atmosphere and art are quite appropriate to my uncultured eye.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, primarily due to the repetitive scenes and the need for excessive backtracking between rooms. Many wish for more configurable difficulty levels to alleviate the monotony of the gameplay.
“And it's always the same scenes that are being reused countless times, so it’s really tedious.”
“This became tedious for me, and I found myself wishing the devs had made the difficulty level more configurable.”
“In expert mode, you’ll have to do countless travels between the various rooms and move your mouse pointer all over the screen again and again to see if anything changed, which makes it really tedious.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is mixed, with some players finding it offers significant replay value, while others feel it is quite low.
“That adds a lot of replay value for me.”
“The replay value for the game is low.”
- humor1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is subjective; while some players find it amusing, others feel that the main character's voice work resembles that of an AI assistant, which may detract from the comedic effect.
“The humor in this game is spot on, with clever writing that keeps me laughing throughout.”
“I love how the game blends absurdity with wit, making even the most mundane tasks entertaining.”
“The character interactions are hilarious, and the voice acting adds an extra layer of comedy that I really enjoy.”
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