The Mirror Mysteries Game Review

The story of The Mirror Mysteries begins with a mother and her young children driving through the countryside when they decided to stop and rest near an abandoned house (not a wise decision). The mother took a nap while the children played around the house (another unwise decision), and was awakened by the sound of smashing glass. Fearing for the safety of her children, she rushed into the house to find them trapped in a magical mirror!

The sentient mirror reveals that the children had smashed some mirrors while they were in the house, and she would have to help repair the damage if she wanted their safe return. The mirror requires her to find the smashed mirror pieces that have been scattered throughout the magical mirror realms, which include a cuckoo clock, a frozen castle, a fiery dungeon and many more. Your task is to help her acquire the mirror pieces from the denizens of these realms.

The first thing you'll notice when playing The Mirror Mysteries is how polished the game is. Every item in the game just seems to fit perfectly in the scene. There are no random objects such as trucks or baseball bats littering the scenes that are typical of standard hidden object games. If the current world is a cuckoo clock, every object in the related scenes have a direct relation to clocks such as gears, screws and planks.

The game style of the hidden object scenes are also different here. No longer are you asked to look in each scene for a dozen random objects that are not related to each other. Instead, the objects you need to find come in "sets" that combine into a larger object when all the components are found. For example, a few pots and pans with random markings on them can be combined into a set that contains an encoded message.

The completed sets are then used in the game's second style of puzzles. The combined items are usually required to be placed back in the scene in a spot that is most logical for them. For example, a jar filled with water should be placed next to a thirsty orc. This isn't too difficult though: the locations where completed items are supposed to be placed will sparkle a bit from time to time. To make things more complicated though, some combined items are meant to be used in other scenes. Some logical thinking and guesswork will guide you to the right scene pretty easily.

There are also other puzzles and mini-games scattered throughout, and are generally not very difficult. Some of these are also pretty subtle and blend in very nicely with the overall look-and-feel of the game. Sometimes you won't even know that you need to solve a puzzle until you realize that you're stuck and there are no longer any objects to be found in plain sight.

The production values in The Mirror Mysteries are awesome. The art is crisp and gorgeous and the accompanying soundtrack blends in beautifully with the game. You also get to visit a series of different environments: from the lush green forests to a castle in the midst of a freezing winter. The characters you interact with are pretty interesting too: from the magic mirror to the engineer mouse who is trying to fix the cuckoo clock. The voice-acting in the game is pretty decent as well.

As has been said before, The Mirror Mysteries PC game has a really polished feel with great production values, and is bound to entertain you for hours. Come dive in and explore the many worlds hidden within these magical mirrors. Get the Mac version here.

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