[Review] Mysteries and Treasures: The Adventures of the Mary Celeste (PC)

I got a lot of boxed games…and they are begging to be played! Most are point-and-click, and most I’m sure you’ve never heard of! Here is one of them!

Mysteries & Treasures: The Adventures of the Mary Celeste

I love me a good mystery, particularly urban legends and the unexplained. One of those areas happens to be stories about ghost ships.

Have you heard of the Mary Celeste? In 1872, an American ship called the Mary Celeste was found abandoned at sea. It was carrying booze which hadn’t been messed with, and was full of personal effects from the ship’s crew. The lifeboat was missing. The ship’s captain and crew have never been found. Since then, speculation and myths perpetuate about what happened to the crew – a storm? Pirates? Aliens??  No one really knows for sure.

Mysteries like this always intrigue me, because it’s different, strange and there are a lot of “what ifs”. Why wouldn’t I be interested in a hidden object game that epitomizes this historical story?

Well…the Adventures of the Mary Celeste isn’t reaaaallly about the real Mary Celeste…it’s about Mary Morehouse who takes a vacation on board the Mary Celeste II. Part II is on her maiden voyage, and of course, because of legend, all sorts of shit gets real, starting with a wicked storm. But, not before this happens:

Thanks to the taxi company strewning the contents of Mary’s luggage all over the harbor, YOU have to pick it all up in a hidden object scene. If this were real life, I’d be pissed!

Once you pick up Mary’s knickers, she settles in to her cabin, when suddenly the lights go out. She soon discovers she is alone on this ride – what now? Time to find some objects! Where the heck is everyone?! She is tasked with getting off this crazy ship, but not before she searches for that wrench, rope and pulley for the upteenth time.

The gameplay predominantly consists of hidden object scenes with untangle and pipe puzzles interspersed. The game uses about eight different venues for these scenes, and repeats the same 20 objects to search for, which, let’s be honest here…gets boring even for a beginner to the genre. At least you weren’t timed (my least favourite casual gaming trait!)! The story of this ship does not advance in any meaningful way, and I guarantee you, if I were Mary, I’d be jumping on the next lifeboat outta there the first chance I got. No messing around!

The Adventures of the Mary Celeste was one of the first boxed hidden object games I ever bought, back in 2011. I had just started getting into this genre of casual games, and my appetite for HOGs was insatiable – I’d pretty much rip through one of these every two evenings. I had little experience with these games, and Mary Celeste filled a gaming need. But, even back then, I recognized there were some decent HOGs, and some bad. This one fits somewhere in the mid range – safe, boring, skippable. There are better ones out there!

6.5/10

Mysteries & Treasures: The Adventures of the Mary Celeste
City Interactive
2011

Go here to read recommendations for some better hidden object games!