Mystery of the Ancients: Deadly Cold – Review

You arrived at the town of Baumholder to visit your best friend, Kira, who just got married to Viktor. Unexpectedly, you are welcomed with a great blizzard and an ominous ice tower that came out of nowhere. When Kira is kidnapped by the giant Ice Monsters, it is your job to save her from danger and find out the hidden stories behind Viktor, which might be the cause of all this chaos.

Although we are not especially excited about the concept of the storyline in Mystery of the Ancients: Deadly Cold, we do think that it flows very well throughout the game. With a pleasant plot, and interesting events every now and then, Deadly Cold is a fairly captivating game.

Graphics wise, this fourth game in the acclaimed franchise continues to deliver. The graphics are unarguably cartoons-like; however, they balanced depths and bold colors exceptionally well that all the locations look absolutely stunning on the screen. Additionally, the character animations and cutscenes are extremely convincing as well. On the other hand, the background music is nothing to write home about since it remains pretty silent most of the times.

Despite the solid story and strong presentation, HOPA fans might be disappointed by the level of challenge in Mystery of the Ancients: Deadly Cold. The game is indeed a very busy game, with tons of tasks to do in a single scene. But for some reason, finding our way from start to finish did not require much brainwork. The majority of the game involves walking back and forth through locations and completing simple, redundant tasks.

Nonetheless, our complain about the level of challenge was outweighed by the impressiveness of the game’s puzzles and hidden object scenes. The hidden object scenes are beautifully drawn, nicely executed and come in a variety of modes. Moreover, the puzzles are very smart and, perhaps, some of the most creative ones we have seen in a while.

The main game of Mystery of the Ancients: Deadly Cold took us slightly more than 4 hours to complete, while the bonus chapter was an hour long. Unfortunately, the Collector’s Edition is not very rich in extras; some achievements and collectibles, wallpapers, strategy guide, concept art and soundtracks.