Mystery Chronicles: Betrayals of Love opens with the murder of a countess and the arrest of a fisherman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You are summoned to the scene of the crime when the local police cannot find any leads. You will need to investigate the crime scene, question suspects, and uncover the events that led up to the death of the countess and the apparent disappearance of her husband the count. Along the way, you’ll uncover a tale of betrayal and loss.
Mystery Chronicles: Betrayals of Love opens with the murder of a countess and the arrest of a fisherman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You are summoned to the scene of the crime when the local police cannot find any leads. You will need to investigate the crime scene, question suspects, and uncover the events that led up to the death of the countess and the apparent disappearance of her husband the count. Along the way, you’ll uncover a tale of betrayal and loss.
You arrive on the scene of the crime in a carriage that is being pulled by…nothing…the carriage just moves across the screen, as if being pulled by invisible horses. This is the beginning of several odd occurrences that seem to be oversights on the part of the developers. While these instances don’t really detract from the gameplay, they stand out as odd and illogical. At one point you are asked by the Commissaire to find a lost key so that you can both enter the house of the countess. By the time you find it he is gone but the gate is still locked. He is waiting for you on the other side of the gate, though I have no idea how he got there.
Mystery Chronicles: Betrayals of Love is a hidden object game with inventory puzzles. There are also a couple standard puzzles but they are few and far between. The hidden object scenes are challenging. While the scenes are not really dark, and the items are not overly small, the items blend in with the scenery incredibly well, sometimes too well. Luckily, you have a hint button and it charges fairly quickly. You will probably find yourself using the hint button outside the hidden objects scenes more often then within them though.
You will be wearing out your boots in Betrayals of Love. You will be traipsing all over the property of the count and countess, and there is a lot of ground to cover. You may be in one scene, but the item you need is five scenes over, and then you’ll need another item that is four scenes away. Unfortunately, there is no way to know where you need to go without wandering through every scene looking for a sparkling area, or using a hint. The hints are pretty much spoilers though. You will be told exactly where to go and what you need to find or do in that location. A simple hint about where to search would have left more of a challenge.
You will be acquiring an extensive inventory throughout Betrayals of Love and you will find every item to be useful. Most of the inventory puzzles are straightforward, but there are a few that are just frustrating. At one point you need to cut some flowers but apparently the knife you have is too dull to cut through a flower stem. This is the same knife that recently cut through burlap. Why can’t it cut through a flower stem? No one knows, but you will have to locate a completely different item to finish the task.
The graphics in Mystery Chronicles: Betrayals of Love are pleasant and well done. The images a 3D as are all the objects in the scenes. The cut scenes however, are hand drawn and 2-dimensional. Both styles are nice, but they don’t really mesh together well. Especially at one point when the cut scene fades away to the 3D scene.
The music and sound effects in the game are not extremely memorable, but fit with the theme of the game. There is no voice acting in the game. You interact with several different characters during the course of the game and it would have been a nice addition.
You will get a good feel for Mystery Chronicles: Betrayals of Love‘s gameplay during the one hour trial and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a sold hidden object game.
