Murder Island - Secret of Tantalus

Escape the grasps of a serial killer in a heart-pounding experience riddled with danger and suspense.

You and eight former classmates are heading for a weeklong high school reunion on a gorgeous isolated Greek island. Upon arriving, something isn't right as one by one, your old classmates are getting killed off. Why is this all happening and can you find a way to get off the island before it's too late? Escape the island before you become a victim in this thrilling adventure. Unmask the killer and find out why the murders mirror tragic Greek myths. Explore dozens of challenging scenes, decipher complex puzzles, and learn about Greek mythology for clues.

Introduction: High school reunions are quite an actual theme for everyone at least once in their life… First it starts with five years past or ten years, but recently in my town there was a first time reunion after 30 years. So looking from this perspective you can automatically imagine some nice memories. In our case it isn’t so as always some scary theme is lying behind that reunion if you are thinking through games, but you can’t just pick out an enchanted castle where ghosts are terrifying people until they die… The manufacture of this game had a bit more inspiring idea, and as a background to the reunion he used Greece. Beautiful country, many attractive places, and the thing that interests me the most about this game, as it should interest you, is the Ancient Greek mythology. Gameplay: So what does really happen here? A reunion has been organized by some of your friends, including your very good friend C.J. The reunion place is no other then Greece and like I said a very desirable location for doing things like a reunion… Everything is set and others have confirmed their arrival to a place in Greece called Tantalus which represents a part of Greek mythology. For those who are not familiar with the Tantalus myth, he was a mortal son of Zeus and there were writings about the city he ruled and which was called by his name. The guests arrive at island Tantalus and its signification is used to maximize the realistic effect of the game (more about this in further text). As soon as you and your friend C.J. arrive at the island with a little village near the beach, all hell breaks loss, as you see the dead body of your comrade who is also invited to the island. With no way back, and no way to figure out what is happening there is only one thing left to do and that is run and hide… As the game evolves and the body count keeps rising a pattern starts to show in those killing making you suspect on an event from Greek mythology, that might be a way out for you, and of course a way to stay alive. So the chase begins for yours and your friend’s life and to figuring out who is the murder that keeps slaughtering down all of your friends from high school. The game is consisted from hidden objects that need to be found and puzzles that need to be solved. The level of balance of the two keeps the game very tense all the time and of course very interesting, especially when more and more myths and stories from Greek mythology start to involve in the game. This is only just the beginning of a great game, as it doesn’t stop there! The next step in the game is to find the items that you need, and unlike the usual pile of items you get in a hidden object scene, this pile really is completely connected to the scene/location. There are no items that don’t belong, for example on the beach, as there are picnic basket items for beach like sunglasses, creams, parasol and so forth… The gives the game the beginning feeling of reality, as the fiction and imaginative part of the game has been set down to minimum. Along with collecting clues, you'll also collect decorative tiles; every twelve you collect unlocks a blurb describing one aspect of Greek mythology. Not only are these blurbs interesting in their own right, as the mystery progresses, they also offer clues to the reasons behind various events. Besides collecting pieces for additional explanations, you will be collecting items for future events in the game where the items that you have collected in the game will be used on a single place for continuing forward. The game isn’t linear in the area that you are moving through, only in the story. The areas and locations that you visit will be revisited a couple of more times, while some locations are restricted to only few visits. There will be mosaic tiles that you should locate as collecting all 96 tiles in the game unlocks a series of 8 short explanations of aspects of the island’s mythology. It’s not much, but it does give the player another goal to work towards, especially for those who are not familiar with the Greek mythology. Because of the backtracking problem that is known especially for the veterans, where you have to go from one end of the game to another. This game solves that problem by entering the game’s map where you have ‘teleportation’ points to go straightforward to where you want, however there is a limit to how often can you use that feature. As you have been reading you have probably realized that possessing knowledge about Greek mythology gives you a good head start to what needs to be done in the game, as the explanations you get at the beginning are pretty poor. The mini-games are done in a graphics Greek style but with the core structure of already known mini-games in many puzzle and hidden object games. Graphics and audio: Something additionally that sets it apart a bit from other starts with the game’s graphics. The Greek theme has been shown in wonderful details; like the scenes and he faces of the characters are based on real life persons give it the additional feeling of reality. The part where I had the biggest surprise is the game audio. The music is Greek of course, but the voices are all done separately and with great quality giving it what many games lack of. All in all a game that many gamers will enjoy and will find what they have been looking for a long time in a game.

Murder Island - Secret of Tantalus

2013-01-01

Platforms:
shareware
Developer
Magnetic Scrolls
Publisher
-Unknown-
Genre
Tags
shareware games hidden object seek and find

Escape the grasps of a serial killer in a heart-pounding experience riddled with danger and suspense.