Mystery of the Druids Review

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The Mystery of the Druids

Review by Old RoosterMay 2002

“Halligan, We’ve Got a Bit of a Problem!” —Chief Inspector Miller; Seconded by Old Rooster

I admit to initially being rather puzzled that none of our three “pure adventure” reviewers grabbed the opportunity to appraise what appears to be a classic detective game—in the mold of Broken Sword or Gabriel Knight. They left it to the Rooster, one who specializes in action/adventures but has high interest in this kind of effort. How nice of them. They now owe me—big time!

The Mystery of the Druids is frustrating, almost infuriating.  This isn’t because it’s a bad game (although it flirts dangerously close to that characterization). It arises mostly because MOTD has the potential and framework to be a very fine game but fails badly in terms of execution and some design decisions.

“Human Sacrifices Are a Thing of the Past” —Melanie

What’s it all about, Alfie? MOTD attempts to place story first, much in the way we might expect from Broken Sword, and puzzles second—within the context of the overarching narrative; as opposed to a Myst style of game—puzzles first, story second, if at all. And what is that story? Let’s take it from the game box.

“In this classic adventure, you will take on the role of young Scotland Yard Detective Brent Halligan, assigned to solve the puzzle surrounding a mysterious order of Druids and a series of gruesome murders. In the course of their investigations, the engaging anti-hero and his ally, a young scientist, delve into almost forgotten secrets of the past. Aided by an expert on Druids, they will travel back in time. Only in the past will they be able to find the key in order to save the world. But, will they succeed?”

Promising 50 locations, 360 interactive scenes and 20 speaking characters, MOTD almost seems like a “can’t miss” adventure.

“I Can’t See it Properly” —Melanie

How is the game set up and managed? Aside from the encouraging box, we find a quite good 17-page manual and a case notes/correspondence log, with interesting background. Installation size is as little as 150 MB, and the game will play on a P200, with or without a 3D card. There are three CDs—one for installation, another for “The Present,” and the last for “The Past” (a bit of a story giveaway!).

Control is completely mouse-driven, using point-and-click arrows for movement and an “intelligent” cursor to indicate direction, possible interactive object or person, and something that can be magnified for closer examination. You move from generally static scene to scene, with 360-degree rotation not in the works. Inventory items are stored at the bottom of the screen and are easily chosen and activated. Once the needed item is in the inventory, it becomes a simple process of elimination and logic to deduce the correct selection for the task at hand. You’ll often experience Halligan saying, “No, that doesn’t work,” or “Hmm, that can’t be it.” Finding the needed item in the world around you is another matter, however. This exercise all too often deteriorates into a tedious pixel hunt unaccompanied by logic.

It is in this arena of setup and execution that we find one of our major gripes. The Druids have bugs—not in their ragged cloaks, but in the ragged game! Over the course of 35 hours of play, I had eleven crashes to the desktop—all of these, unfortunately, without the game autosaving (a nice feature when it works) at the point of the crash. This necessitated going back to a previous save and starting that sequence again, with fingers crossed. I looked, in vain, for a patch at CDV but found instead the classic “update your drivers” kind of excuse. Support from the publisher is minimal, at best, and online bulletin boards indicate my experience isn’t unique.

“It’s Pretty Creepy out There!” —Fisherman

Although dated, by comparison with today’s action titles especially, MOTD’s graphics are attractive, particularly the backgrounds.  Care and detail have gone into Blake’s home, other offices, and many of the settings, such as the graveyard at Castle de Carmors.  The 3D character depictions and animations (especially facial) are not as appealing. Further, there is a major collision detection problem that has Halligan walking on and through furniture. This does take something away from the game and provides CDV with yet another occasion for a fancy excuse—in this case, look for a “hardware compatibility problem.” Of course, being able to run the likes of Gothic and Dungeon Siege doesn’t seem to faze them. “It can’t be our game; it must be your system.”

Speaking of that castle cemetery, though, reminds me of the often creepy and appropriate background music. Unfortunately, another bug rears its head, this time one causing the game music volume setting to sometimes not lock and come blasting on unexpectedly.

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise was the voice acting. Halligan, the Inspector, Melanie, and the others do an excellent and professional job—almost at a “books on tape” level. In addition, text of all conversations is shown.

“That’s Just It, Mr. Halligan, I Haven’t Told You the Whole Story Yet” —Blake

My first few hours with MOTD, precrashes, were entertaining.  I was quite pleased to be playing, taking notes, preparing for a review. Unfortunately, the last 30 hours were boring, tedious, confusing, sometimes excruciating. They were enlivened by occasional glimpses of an interesting yarn but ruined by illogical puzzles, burdensome conversation trees, vision-ruining pixel hunts, and game lockups.

Although the narrative generally has linearity, forcing you along a certain path (one can’t go to the next level until X, Y, and Z are done), you often go bonkers, for example, trying to figure out how to make a simple phone call (the first illogical puzzle) or secure conversational information. In that regard, your exchanges with NPCs may seem complete but often aren’t, and you don’t know that! Evidencing poor design decision, as far as I’m concerned, you often have to return again and again to the same character to get that critical response you need in order to solve the current problem. This may even involve retracing steps quite a bit in the several locations open to you. What is particularly exasperating is that you may never realize you’ve missed a vital clue. I was ashamed to finally have to consult a walkthrough while in Carmoors and was subsequently shocked at what I was supposed to do, since there hadn’t been a hint in all the exchanges I’d had with the fellows on the pier. Even with that, the “answer” was most difficult to pull off. That just isn’t fun.

“Hey, Don’t Despair; Everybody Has a Hard Time Now and Then” —Halligan

If the narrative of Mystery of the Druids were a book, I might well enjoy the read. As a game, I’m afraid, it simply doesn’t succeed. Conversational trees are confounding, puzzles are often absurdly illogical, needed inventory items are sometime impossible to locate, and crashes become numbingly disheartening. It could have been, should have been, a more than satisfactory game, but it fails badly.

In a current FFC review of another adventure title, Bioscopia, the writer reflects on the attributes of a good game. These include being “clever, original and just a plain old good time,” not “freezing or quitting to the desktop,” and not being given “a bunch of goofy, time-consuming design filler, such as a maze or some horrible-to-find hotspot.” A good game “also does not give the player dead ends or misleading clues.”

Unfortunately, Mystery of the Druids falls at the opposite end of this spectrum. It’s not a “plain old good time.”  It often freezes and quits to the desktop. There are design fillers, hard-to-find hot spots, dead ends, and misleading clues (or no clues!).  It’s really too bad, given the potential.

Even with the price now $10 at some stores, I cannot recommend Mystery of the Druids for your purchase. After all, our time is also valuable, and there are too many fine and enjoyable titles available without engaging in the often-maddening frustration it takes to enter this world of the Druids.

What I Liked the Most

The underlying story is interesting; voice acting is quite good; background graphics are attractive.

What I Liked the Least

Bugs and crashes spoil any potential; puzzles are too often illogical and confounding; return trips to conversations are exasperating. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: House of Tales Publisher: CDV Release Date: 2001

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

P200 (PII 400 recommended) 32 MB RAM 2 MB video card 150 MB free hard disk space

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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