The Mistery

            An online adventure reviewed by Sue

When Inferno gave me permission to publish his solution to the
Mistery, I thought it would be a good idea to link it to a review,
because it hadn't already been covered.

The homepage for The Mistery is http://www.pcpop.nl/ so it is
based in The Netherlands. While you're playing, you'll be told how
many other players are currently online and how many have already
played it (over 42,000 when I was playing).

As you enter the site there are atmospheric thunderclaps and
crashes of lightning. The first main screen shows a pile of skulls
by a crypt gateway. "Find your way into the Crypt of Fear," the
message says. Some of the skulls' eyes glow red as you pass the
mouse over them and clicking on them calls up other sound effects
or progresses you to the next part of the game.

The Ring of Skulls is a Simon-type puzzle where you have to click
on them in the right order. Another puzzle soon after asks you to
identify the inhabitants of three graves from their descriptions.
If you don't know the answers, there's a handy 'search' box you
can use. For instance, the first clue is 'The outlaw was shot at
his home in 1882 St Joseph Missouri' and picking out a few
keywords for the Search will give the correct name.

In this way you progress through the game, translating clues,
looking up things on the Internet, completing answers to reach the
next part. It's great to see a game that makes use of the
facilities available online.

The Mistery draws from many religions and myths which I found very
interesting. You'll find extracts from the Egyptian Book of the
Dead and information about Charon the ferryman. Some of the
sections require you to be pixel perfect and others to do things
in a precise order.

I'm not really a horror fan, but I found this game interesting
because it was different from anything I'd played before. Having
Freeserve Anytime meant I didn't have to worry how long I spent
online playing it, which was a bonus. UK players will notice a few
spelling and grammar errors but nothing to cause any problems when
playing.

Did I enjoy it? To be honest I only played long enough to write
this. It didn't grab me enough to keep me playing and finish it. I
wonder how many of the 42,000 people did other than Inferno?  It
would be interesting to know. It's worth a look, certainly, to see
what can be done online.








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