European Mystery: The Face of Envy brings you out of retirement and to the streets of Rome, where a mysterious thief is stealing more than just jewelry from the nobles. The victims become gravely ill following the robberies when the bandit steals their personal traits along with valuables. Using a unique set of tools, set off to capture the crook and restore peace to the Italian city in this exhilarating hidden object adventure game!
European Mystery: The Face of Envy is a unique and challenging game set in Rome hundreds of years ago. A close friend calls you about an intriguing case he needs your help to solve.Several nobles have been attacked on the streets and have lost not only their exquisite jewelry but also a piece of themselves.
As you tail the criminal, you witness robberies in progress and the strange side effect of the victims losing things like their hair and eyesight – as it’s transferred to the thief.
You inherit a unique tool developed by the town jeweler that allows you to transform raw materials and crystals into pieces of jewelry using light.You also get a cute little ermine (who you can name!) for help throughout the game.
European Mystery: The Face of Envy is one of the more difficult games I’ve encountered. The storyline is complex, and I frequently had trouble figuring out where to go next. However, the challenge is enjoyable and there are plenty of built-in tools to guide you through.
European Mystery: The Face of Envy Collector’s Edition provides all of the expected features of a CE including bonus material, collectibles, achievements, fully customizable gameplay, integrated strategy guide, and a cute little sidekick. The game is well made with crisp and colorful graphics, an enjoyable soundtrack, and average animation.
I do think there are still some glitches in the game though – I supposedly earned three achievements in my first completed HOS. One for not using the hint feature (I did), one for completing in under two minutes (no way), and a third one that I did truly earn. I have a feeling everyone gets those first few achievements, maybe it’s the feel good method like kid’s tee-ball when they get unlimited strikes. Either way, it gave me a laugh but detracts from my rating a bit.
The hidden object scenes I encountered in European Mystery: The Face of Envy were a great combination of challenging puzzles. A few items might be straightforward, found objects, but most required interaction, which wasn’t always obvious.
Playing in casual mode, the on-screen prompts when clicking on an item were enough to guide me in the right direction (i.e. if you want the object the monkey is holding, the prompt will suggest finding him a snack).
I was much slower than usual, hunting around for two items for each one I would check off the list. There were also the usual variations of finding multiples and using objects to interact with the scene. The variety was excellent and the HOS were my favorite part of the game.
European Mystery: The Face of Envy also contained some very fun and unusual mini-games. A few were the traditional maze/puzzle variety, but one of my favorites from the first chapter was the sketch artist game.
After you’re provided with a sketch of the suspect, you scroll through various hair styles, face shapes, and features until you’ve completed an identical sketch. It reminded me of a very old computer game we had when we were kids called Face Maker, which is probably why I enjoyed the mini-game so much. The games, like the HOS, were obviously well thought out and designed to fit in with the storyline seamlessly.
European Mystery: The Face of Envy is a unique and challenging game with all the extra features of a collector’s edition. I had a great time playing and look forward to the next European Mystery!