Mind's Eye: Secrets of the Forgotten
Game Review

Gabrielle is a journalist who happened to be in the right place at the right time when the mayor is found dead from an apparent suicide. As she and her cameraman partner Roland report on the incident, they discover there's more to this mystery than meets the eye. There might have been foul play involved, and murder is on the cards. And it all seems to tie in with a mysterious concert that is currently playing in town.

Their investigations lead them to a girl who seems to be suffering from some kind of mental distress, and who happened to have attended the same mysterious concert. A scientist suggests that they can help the girl by entering her mind to help her sort things out. Gabrielle volunteers for this but soon finds herself in over her head. And there's the issue of her recurring nightmares and a creepy character from her past coming back to haunt her...

Mind's Eye: Secrets of the Forgotten is a great interactive hidden object game that moves from a crime mystery case into a more surreal supernatural adventure. The story is quite unique and strong, though at times things seem to move too fast for the player to get really involved and attached to the characters and the story.

The artwork in the game complements the story very well too. The overall feel is very comic book-like with cartoony characters and splashes of crime noir backdrops. And when the story progressed to its darker and supernatural side with all the adventures in people's minds, the artwork really exudes the creepiness and unease that brings the story to another level. The haunting soundtrack also supports the game and story very well.

The gameplay in Mind's Eye: Secrets of the Forgotten is very much an interactive hidden object game with plenty of hidden object scenes and mini-puzzles. The hidden object scenes have the same noir and creepy feel that was mentioned earlier. There is also great creative reuse of scenes to keep each chapter of the game feeling fresh. For example, there is an abandoned subway station scene with the flickering light bulb and the crime scene feel. Then later on, when Gabrielle is exploring the mind of a person who has a fear of sea creatures, the subway station scene turns into an underwater nightmare with creepy sea creatures moving around between pillars and through the subway tunnels.

The hidden object puzzles in this game also have an interesting 3D concept to it (everything seems to be going 3D now!). You can scroll left and right in each scene, and the different layers of foreground and background will move as the perspective changes. This interesting gimmick allows objects to come into and go out of sight, for example an item hidden behind a pillar will only be visible if you move around the pillar.

Another interesting concept introduced with this side-scrolling idea is having parts of an object combine when you are looking at them at the right angle. For instance, a knife blade might be hidden in the foreground and the hilt might be way off to the left in the background. But when you scroll to the right angle, they come together and overlap perfectly, allowing you to grab the whole knife. The game also includes a fair few mini-puzzles that provide nice breaks when the hidden object searching becomes tiresome.

Mind's Eye: Secrets of the Forgotten is a great game that brings a strong and interesting story that will definitely entertain. There are new concepts that make this game stand out from other games in this genre, and together with the great artwork are able to turn this into a nice entertainment package.

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