Rating: E (for Everyone)
Publisher: City Interactive
Release Date: November, 2009
Official Website

RENT

Sylvie’s uncle is a renowned historian working on uncovering the secrets behind the ancient temple. After she receives a distressing letter from him in the middle of his archaeological discoveries, she leaves for France in hopes of finding and returning him to his important work in uncovering the mysterious underground chapel.  The game is mostly a hidden object adventure game, where you look for not only clues, but hidden doors and passageways to open; and figuring how the clues fit together in the search for the professor and who may be causing all the trouble with the expedition.

The cast of characters and the mystery factor kept me guessing until the end – and then some. I suspected everyone Sylvie came in contact with, at some point, which is the mark of a good mystery.  I didn’t feel the story didn’t drag in any area, and in fact felt the end of the story might have happened a little quickly.  I wasn’t quite sure how it all worked (hence the and then some), but I don’t want to spoil anything.

The characters added a much needed level of identification to draw players into the game. Sylvie as the lead character, is a positive female role model: clever, fearless (and at times reckless), determined, resourceful, and kind-hearted. The other characters were also well developed for the time we got to know them, giving players just enough of a glimpse of their individual personalities each time they met the hero to become suspicious while revealing a little more about themselves.

The exotic settings provided a lot of visual interest while working within the confines of the small DS screen. The answer to the limitation of the small screen was a panning or scrolling feature, which I had mixed feelings about. It did allow for more images to search through, but made the stylus more annoying to use. While there weren’t any objects that I couldn’t recognize on the small screen, it occasionally proved difficult to get the perfect stylus placement to grab onto what I wanted. The game is largely stylus controlled, taking occasional advantage of the mic and touchscreen sensitivity, giving players a fresh perspective to challenges. I would have liked to see them use the different screen perspectives or more split screen in game play to make full use of the DS and DSi capabilities.

The sounds were both hit and miss in this game. I found myself turning down the background music, but the sound effects themselves were appropriate, and the character voices added dimension, helping to define them.

The game moved along nicely, peppered with a variety of mini-games to change the pace. They provided some unexpected challenges; with concepts like weighing cogs and placing them correctly or patching stained glass colors. The mini-games are really only good to play through once though; they don’t change each time you play the same level in the mini-game playthrough. Often mini-games add greatly to the replayability of a game and I don’t think that’s the case here. One thing that did motivate me to continue playing was the award room. The room shows which awards are available and which of them have been achieved, sending me back into the story to try to get the ones I missed. Cleverly, there are underachievement awards, such as allowing time to run out and using 10 hints in one level, as well as the usual overachievement awards. This makes players continue through multiple levels in order to get them all.

All in all, I’d say that it’s worth picking up if you’re looking for a new hidden object adventure. It does offer a relax mode without time limits as well as the normal story mode, replayable mini-games and straight seek and find puzzles, though it didn’t provide as many play hours as I would like with a full price game . Mix that with music that I didn’t enjoy while playing, and frustratingly easily overlooked scrolls (I played through 3 times and still didn’t find them all – though they’re not vital for the game, they’re vital to get all of the achievement trophies). I’d say rent it if possible, or pick it up on sale.
Thanks for reading!

Review copy was provided by City Interactive and did not affect the outcome of this review.

Journey with young adventurer/archaeologist Sylvie Leroux as she searches for the historic legend of the Tree of Life through exotic locales like Venice, Cairo, and Gibralter. Solve mysteries, unravel enigmas, and seek out the answers she needs, all the while avoiding the temptation that those who have come before her have succumbed to.

Chronicles of Mystery: Tree of Life Features
* Exciting, compelling plot full of secrets from the past
* Challenging puzzles requiring wits and logical thinking
* Detailed, eye catching locations, such as Venice, Cairo and Gibraltar
* A multitude of intriguing characters to interact with