Mystery of Mortlake Mansion

A delightful and challenging game with a striking graphical style.

My favorite aspect is the setting: a spooky old mansion that exists in two dimensions. While there aren't many locations, they're all quite dynamic. The story is simple but serviceable, with a couple of amusing characters.

Gameplay is also very good, with point-and-click adventuring that will put some strain on your noggin, hard hidden-object scenes, and fun puzzle mini-games.

Unfortunately, part of the difficulty is due to horrendously bad click boxes. Many times I've clicked on an item but it didn't register because I didn't click on the right place on the item. Also, the graphical style and subdued color palette makes it hard to recognize some items. For this genre, such problems would deserve a "not recommended" from me, but the game does everything else well and these frustrations can be overcome.

Another minor issue is the English translation: there are many awkward turns of phrase, a quality-assurance blemish on an otherwise polished experience.