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Mystical Riddle - Ghostly Park is a Hidden Object adventure title from the Domini catalogue of games.  I have been looking at the product's Collector's Edition version for the purpose of this review.  This enhanced version of the offering comes with a number of bonus items to supplement the basic games involving the search for a long-lost sister and what was once a joyful amusement park which was now shrouded in darkness and disrepair.

Following an introduction, as you enter the amusement park via an opened clown's mouth, you can adjust various volume levels and scene brightness settings, options are available to turn on a custom cursor, special effects and a click effect.  The game offers a choice of Casual, Advanced, Hardcore or Custom difficulty levels with different rates of recharging and whether active zones will be indicated or not.

You are hired to investigate events that are somehow connected to the amusement park by Allison McKenzie.  Her sister had died in an accident on the Ferris Wheel ten years earlier.  Since then several more people had died at the park and there had been an increase in the number of recorded spirit activities.

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To assist you in your investigation of the amusement park, you are provided with a number of tools arranged across the bottom of the screen.  Initially this collection of tools will consist of a Journal holding sections for notes and tasks, a Map, Inventory, Strategy Guide and a Hint feature.  Items in the Inventory paired with a plus sign will need some work before use. 

After some work, as you find the relevant components, the list of tools will be supplemented by a special camera that has a built-in lens to capture ghost images and ward off threat from paranormal phenomena.  This particular tool will shimmer when it is available for use.  There are also two additional fly-out tools positioned on either side of the screen.  On the left is a tool that will provide updates as to the Collectibles you have gathered while the tool on the right shows the Decisions you have made at vital points in the story and affect the flow of the game.

As you investigate the amusement park by completing various tasks, you will encounter the presence of ghostly influence and meet characters such as the previously mentioned Allison McKenzie and an ex-employee Nicholas Wyde who are not what they seem.  Often use will be made of overlaid windows, split screen views and a number of scene and locations that are sometimes repeated as you need to back-track to revisit locations in search of solutions.  In order to solve the mystery of the amusement park, you will need to defeat an evil entity called the Soul Collector and recue the ghost spirits trapped within the various elements of the park.

Along with searching for the tools to free ghosts, you will need to tackle mini game puzzles and Hidden Object scenes,  As usual with Domini games, these types of challenges both come with a choice of action type when tackling the problem.

Generally you will have a choice of Easy or Hard problem with mini game puzzles.  With this form of challenge you could be asked to adjust sliders to turn on a series of lights, recreate pictures split into different types of area and guide candles to their correct destinations.  Other challenges could involve setting the flow of water along a pipe system and shooting certain targets.

Using the familiar outbreak of sparkles, Hidden Object game play will use words, riddles, patterns, silhouettes, type and paired items for their required list from the current scene.  In some cases you might also need to replace items within a scene.  At any time you can switch the puzzle type to that of Match 3 game play as you clear away covered tiles from a grid.

Despite the occasional appearance of ghostly figures, and the game's title, this excursion to the Ghostly Park is not really scary in the least.  In fact, at times, the game felt more boring than scary.  I downloaded my copy of the title from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99.  It is also available from Big Fish Games priced at £15.46.  The game requires a 2.0 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM running Windows 7 and later.

Mystical Riddles - Ghostly Park Collector's Edition | Big Fish Games

Mystical Riddles - Ghostly Park Collector's Edition | GameHouse