Travel the World with Mystery Games
By: Susan Ayers Walker Source: AARP.org Date Posted:
If you like to read mystery books then you might like to play mystery games on your computer. As a pastime, I love games that are thought provoking giving me challenges with puzzle solving and finding cleverly hidden objects. Each screen is different with beautifully detailed graphics and in several of these games you can play in famous locations around the world. Here is a sample of several good ones I have enjoyed.
Mysteryville
The heroine of this game is journalist Laura Winner; she investigated the riddle of missing cats in the first Mysteryville adventure game. Laura returns to find herself solving a new mystery in the game Mysteryville 2. The play in both games is similar; you move around the town to different locations to find hidden objects and solve interesting puzzles. The primary goal of both Mysteryville games is to search for lists of objects that are hidden in a variety of clutter-filled rooms within a given time limit. In the Mysteryville games our heroine interacts with people in the town and the puzzles are integrated with the dialogue and plot of the game. There are also different puzzles that break up the hidden object sections like tile-swapping and concentration like challenges of comparing two rooms for their differences. You also get to decipher scrambled messages. You get a hint button for those times you get stuck, but you cannot rely on hints very often, after using a hint it takes quite a long time for the hint button to re-energize so you can use it again. Since you are racing against the clock to solve puzzles you will be penalized 20 valuable seconds for clicking on too many objects.
Hidden Expedition
I just finished the Hidden Expedition: Everest game. This is the second episode in the Hidden Expedition series from Big Fish Games. The first was Hidden Expedition: Titanic. In the Hidden Expedition: Everest game, players race across the world from locations in South American jungles to beautiful island chains and finally to Mount Everest solving puzzles. In this game, the famous American climber Ed Viesturs helps players discover hidden tunnels and other clues that will ultimately lead them to the top of the mountain. If you have read about Ed Viesturs, he is the only American to ascend the 14 tallest mountains in the world including six trips to the top of Mount Everest.
Travelogue Games
In this set of games you travel to Italy. One is a Travelogue 360 game that lets you explore real locations in the city of Rome through 360-degree photographs to solve a hidden object mystery. You find special objects in over 25 locations and swap the objects for clues to solve the mystery of The Curse of the Necklace. You will visit some of Rome's most famous attractions like the Trevi Fountain, the Coliseum and St. Peter's Square. I am told there are locations that only the locals know about. In the new Venice Mystery, you have to solve the game by finding thirteen forgotten paintings before Venice sinks into the water. All these downloadable games are classified as “casual games” meaning no violence or fighting so you can play them with your grandchildren. For each game there is an hour long free trial to see if you like any of these games plus test your system resources to make sure they are sufficient before you decide to own the game. These games are rich in details, visually interesting and of course good exercise for our brains while having fun.
AARP does not recommend or endorse any of these products or web sites. Please be advised that there are other similar products and web sites available which were not reviewed and are not listed here.
About the Author
Susan Ayers Walker is a leading-edge boomer with over 35 years experience in emerging technologies.
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