Echoes of the Past: Royal House of Stone

In fact this title is very much patterned after the Dire Grove style of hidden object games. You travel around the castle by mouse; the pointer changes into an arrow when hovering over exits and clicking sends you in that direction. On your way you are accompanied by a talking magic mirror to guide you with hints and lists of hidden items to find. This very magic mirror is able to give you hints when find objects becomes too difficult and you’re ready to give it up. It holds a set number of hints and you can accumulate more by finding mirrors in the hidden object scenes. In order to complicate the game the developers penalize random clicks by causing your mouse pointer to disintegrate after too many wrong clicks in a row. 

Inventory puzzles or mini games aren’t too hard, but the castle is large and sometimes it can be tricky knowing where to go next. When in doubt, just click on your magic mirror for a repeat description or perhaps a helpful comment. Echoes of the Past: Royal House of Stone is too short for its genre since you can finish it in three hours.

The graphics are fine; however a low resolution of screen makes some objects blurry. Despite this obvious defect, the sheer amount of animation in practically every scene has to be seen to be believed! Spiders climb webs, objects move on their own, dust and lighting effects fill the castle chambers look credible. Background music fills out the gameplay nicely and adds much to the creepy atmosphere. Of course, we are too choosy today but let’s throw away our snobbery and try Echoes of the Past: Royal House of Stone.