There?s a long-running debate about whether video games can rightly be thought of as an art form. While that?s a debate that may run on for further years without real resolution, just occasionally a game comes along that you feel is much more than just a game; it?s a work of art. Return to Mysterious Island 2: Mina?s Fate is such a game.
It follows on from the first Return to Mysterious Island game, as you might expect, and features many of the same locations and objects / puzzles as the first. However this is so much more than a rehash of the original ? while at first it seems like a pretty standard ?survive on a desert island? plot (with the rescue helicopter that came for Mina at the end of the first game being hit by a rogue volcanic explosion, killing the pilot and leaving Mina once more stranded on a desert island alone), it ends up blending more than one of Jules Vernes? novels into a terrific and very unexpected finale.
Mina isn?t quite alone though ? she has Jep, her faithful monkey friend, who in fact is the only creature who can save her at the start of the game. You can swap between controlling Mina or Jep, with big differences to the resulting gameplay ? Jep can climb trees but not combine items, for instance, and though he can?t speak, Jep can communicate with the other monkeys on the island. This becomes very important at various stages in the game. Some puzzles require a combination of Mina?s and Jep?s abilities. There are a wide variety of puzzles to solve; traditional inventory item and combination, logic puzzles, memory puzzles, codes, all sorts really.
The game uses a 360� view, first-person interface, which immediately makes it a little different from the vast majority of adventure games, which tend to be third person. The full freedom of vision viewing is good though it can make you a little dizzy if you move the mouse too quickly! Inventory control is okay, seems a little too fussy really, but the way you can combine two or more objects to make something new is really nicely implemented. Anyone who?s played either the first Return to Mysterious Island or Journey to the Moon (Voyage in the US) will be instantly at home with the interface.
The visuals are superb, and the cartoon-style cut scenes are a good change of style, with particularly the end sequences (there are two different endings) being beautifully choreographed. There are very few other humans in the game and you can?t directly interact with any of them, but the way Mina and Jep interact is very well handled and you do actually begin to care about the characters. The voice acting is top quality and, a certain lack of regret over the death of her rescue pilot aside, Mina has an appealing enough personality. Admittedly it does take a while for the plot to really get going, but the sheer unexpectedness of the way the storyline changes is worth the wait.
One thing that may put people off however is that Return to Mysterious Island is difficult ? I mean really difficult. I?d honestly be surprised if more than a handful of people have ever managed to complete this game without help. If ever a game cried out for an in-game hint mode, Return to Mysterious Island 2 is it! However the game is so well crafted and the island itself so interesting that it?s well worth playing even if you have to resort to using a walkthrough. There are several points where a lot of thought has gone into the game design ? not having to repeat certain sequences of actions, for etc ? but even so there is a lot of revisiting places and doing certain things several times in order to progress. The game requires patience, imagination, intelligence (and in all likelihood some cheating), and because it?s so well put together I?d thoroughly recommend it to all adventure game fans.
Other features:
- You can synchronise your iPhone with your PC to play some of the mini-games
- There is a scoring system, so when you complete the game you also have a final score as well, depending on what you?ve done during the game (and how well you?ve done it!).
System Requirements:
- OS: Windows 200/XP/Vista (no problems with Vista 64-bit); I?m guessing it should be okay with Windows 7 too
- CPU: 800MHZ+
- GPU: 64Mb+ card
- DirectX: 9.0C
- HDD Space: 3.5Gb
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