Casual Update II - Mystery Legends 2

I know I’ve been writing about computer games a lot the last few weeks. Well, there have been a lot of interesting games to write about, so I did it. This post is about the other of the two new and scary HOG games I’ve been playing: “Mystery Legends – The Phantom of the Opera”.

The first “Mystery Legends” was dedicated to the Headless Horseman of “Sleepy Hollow”, but went far beyond the original story. One after another of the inhabitants of the village was stalked and killed by the Horseman in a straight HOG (meaning there wasn’t any inventory or any interactive bits around – it’s an old game, by the standards of HOG gaming). In the second game, the Phantom of the Opera is the focus of the story. But it’s not the original story, it’s what might have happened afterwards. In the role of the daughter of Christine and Raoul (two of the characters of the original story), the player suddenly finds herself in a derelict opera house, stalked by the phantom – who thinks she is Christine.

Even the first “Mystery Legends” game had gorgeous graphics and they have been upgraded for the second one. Derelict, but at the same time beautifully hand-drawn places inside the opera house (the novel is set in the Opéra Populaire in Paris which never burned down and is still used today, still, this place would not have made a good background) take you to a time at the beginning of the twentieth century (end of the 1920s, I’d guess). Scary places filled with death and decay (and strange contraptions which the Phantom has created to lock off doors) lie before the young woman who has no idea who this Phantom is and why he is talking as if he knew her. The HOG scenes are just as beautiful (and slightly disturbing) as the rest of the game. Most are revisited a few times over the course of the game. Currently, only the CE of the game is available, so if you do not feel the ‘must have’ hunger for this game I have, you might want to wait for the SE to appear. The little bonus chapter, score board and original novel (which is also available at Forgotten Books) do hardly justify the higher price.

“Mystery Legends – The Phantom of the Opera” is a very well-done IHOG, scary as the season demands, interesting and not with the typical ending.