Return to Mysterious Island

There are games that seem to appear out of nowhere, delight the few who have the opportunity to get to know them, and then disappear somewhere among millions of others. Little is said about them, usually in a narrow group of fans of the genre they represent, even fewer people have the opportunity to play them, content with the demo version, which was found by some miracle in the abyss of the Net. Even in the countries where they were published, they are quickly forgotten ...

What are the reasons for this? Poor quality, poor plot, poor graphics? No, as a rule, these games boast a pretty good refinement of details and a considerable commitment of the creators in their implementation. So where to look for the reason that after a few months of sitting on store shelves, they return to warehouses and are quickly forgotten? Narrow audience, someone will say ... Oh, there may already be something to do. Lack of adequate financial resources for the so-called media hype? Warm, getting warmer ... Whatever reason we would not find, we can compile quite a large list of game titles that flashed, aroused the admiration of a few and disappeared forgotten.

Therefore, one should shout and shout when another game comes out that few talk about, and in itself it deserves to be heard by millions. Maybe this way it will be possible to wake up one of the local publishers, get interested in it, and decide to spend on the domestic market. Especially that any moment, any moment and she will be forgotten ...

One game that I would like to draw your attention to, as in my opinion it fully deserves it, is the Adventure Company released at the end of last year and created in the recesses of the Kheops studio, Return to Mysterious Island . The production is really great, worth recommending to every adventure game lover, and still, on the Internet and on the pages of various magazines devoted to computer games, too little is said about it. So let's take a closer look at it, since we already have such an opportunity ...

The main character of the game is ... The Island. How is that? After all ... Yes, I know that the main character we will play during our journey is Mina, a young sailor, participating in lonely regattas around the world. It is her that the storm throws on the sandy beach in all its kindness, and she will have to find a way to return to civilization. But it is the Island, mysterious and intriguing, that is most important here. It is she who may decide that despite the efforts and effort put into finding the starting point, Mina does not deserve a return. The island is dangerous, changeable like a woman, it can get angry for no reason and at the same time delight with its beauty. She can be capricious and inaccessible, and then become affectionate and protective. Once, many years ago, she had already grabbed a group of people in her arms and to this day you can see traces of their stay and struggle for survival. And to a large extent they have contributed to the fact that it is such a dangerous place. Is this young, beautiful girl also doomed to eternal imprisonment? Let's hope not ...

After landing on the beach, Mina, happy that she managed to survive, suddenly notices something like a silhouette of a man on the sand. Are there people here ?! Or are they ghosts, shadows from the past, whose desire to escape civilization made this island a trap with no way out? Where to find answers to such questions? How will you know, dear Mino, where are you? Is there someone here who will be able to help you, or are you doomed only to yourself? The latest technology has failed you, the people have failed ...

This is how this journey begins. Where will it lead? Will it be short, or will it be long? Pleasant or dangerous? Will it allow you to learn the secrets of this beautiful and dangerous Island? It all depends ... On what? Rather from whom ...

Anyone who read the books of Jules Verne in his youth will remember from the title of the game that it is largely based on the third part of the sea trilogy of this great French writer, entitled, of course, The Mysterious Island . This trilogy also includes: 20,000 miles of undersea voyage (probably the most famous one) and Captain Grant's Children . Remember the story of five men and their dog Top escaping from Richmond, besieged during the Civil War? In an unusual way, using a balloon for this purpose, they manage to leave the city, but a huge storm causes them to land on an unknown and uninhabited island. They call it Lincoln Island. With no tools, only their knowledge and their will to survive, they managed to make this place their home. They built a windmill-mill, a small boat, a furnace in which they burned dishes, and even armed themselves quite well. They even managed to domesticate a monkey they named Jupiter. Anyway, why am I writing this, since each of us has read it and knows it by heart ...

Now, well over a hundred years later, Mina comes to the same island. He slowly discovers the traces of the survivors from Richmond, tries to understand their actions, to use what they left behind. She will have to face the secrets hidden by the Island, which she guards very closely.

As I mentioned, Mina starts her journey on the beach. Hungry and battered by the sea, she first tries to figure out where she is. In the distance, hen against the sky, he notices something like a barrier, protecting the Island from prying eyes. But at first it is not this problem that troubles the girl's mind, but hunger ... In order to go on a further journey, she must first gain strength. By searching the beach, he finds various, more or less useful things to eat, learns how to light a fire, how to make nutritious food out of nothing. And only when it gains strength, can it move on.

We look at the world around us through Mina's eyes, and we change our position as the screens move. Anyone who has played Myst or Schizm knows what I'm talking about. We can turn in all directions, look into every nook and cranny, of course, if the authors of the game predicted that we would like to look there. When the cursor changes its appearance of an interesting shape, it means that at this point we can do something - whether it is going further, picking something up or using something on another. We perform all activities with the mouse, which makes it easier for us to play.

It is worth devoting some space to the handy inventory that Mina uses in her activities. It was designed very cleverly, it can be used in various ways, allowing you to combine various found items and thus create other, more useful items for use in a given place. How it's working? Let's say we found a blade. We already have flint in our pocket. We combine these things together to obtain a handy tool for lighting a fire. After igniting it, at any moment we can break down the tool into prime factors and combine these with something else to get another practical thing. It has been perfectly designed, it is easy to use. The player has to figure out what to connect with what and in what order ...

An important character in the game is ... Jep. Who is he, you ask? Do you remember Verne's book? What was the name of the creature that Cyrus Smith and Co. domesticated? Yes, it is the monkey that Mina saves from death, who only gives her a slightly similar name, and this one in its own way repays, replacing the girl in works for which man was not created. Need to hang a ladder on an inaccessible rock? Jep will do it. Would you like a coconut, but you don't want to climb a palm tree? Just show Jep what to do.

The creature is clever, it catches in flight what we want from it, and it does not interfere with the journey when placed on Mina's shoulder.

There is one thing that cannot be ignored when discussing the handheld inventory of our survivor. These are cavernous pockets where it can fit literally anything. A few turtle eggs, porcupine carcass, a pile of bricks, a barrel of pyroxylin and another with gunpowder, a couple of bamboo poles, a musket, a bow, a slingshot, some dishes, two crabs ... Phew, a lot, right? And I haven't even replaced half of what Mina carries with her. And a monkey on his shoulder ... A big brawny would not be able to cope with it, and here is such a small girlie, and please ... The authors of the game exaggerated a bit with this inventory. I understand that certain items are useful at different stages of the game, but that could have been solved a bit better. Fortunately, our entire trip around the Island is only a few hundred meters one way or the other in a straight line from the beach ...

The island is small, but how beautiful, filling our eyes with a riot of colors and colors. When we look at the azure sea bathed in the rays of the sun, we squint our eyes with delight. The green of the trees, the gold of seaside beaches, the red of maple leaves ... It would take a long time to list all the wonderful views that we will admire during our journey. Someone will say: these are static backgrounds, what is there to be delighted about ?! The clouds do not move, the leaves do not sway in the wind, the sand does not spill, only the water ripples a little. Yes, it's all true. But how these backgrounds were beautifully made! You can count every leaf on a maple, the grass under your feet is not a green stain, there are a lot of multicolored butterflies in the air, birds are circling over our heads, and monkeys are chasing each other in the brush. This world is teeming with life, it is fully blooming with the sun, encouraging to get to know it.

There are only a few locations that we will visit, although with great graphic design, there are actually only a few. The beach, the windmill, the slopes of the mountain ... I will not list all of them as I could deprive you of the pleasure of exploring some of them. Nobody gets tired of running between them, anyway. Yes, it happens that you have to check each of them many times, but just moving from one to the other is only a few mouse clicks. In fact, it could use a bit more places that the player can look to make them a little more varied. I know that the book has the requirements of Mr. Verne's work. Nevertheless, I think that a few, a little, four, maybe five new places, a bit different from those we already know, would make the game even better, even more interesting.

I mentioned that the Island is teeming with life. And it is not only visible, but also heard. The wailing of the wind in the palm branches, the cries of monkeys, the sound of the waves reaching the beach, the screeching of birds circling over our heads and the sounds of those hiding among the trees, the buzzing of an insect circling over the rat's carcass, the splash of a stream flashing between the stones, gurgling of a hot spring, creaking of arms windmill ... I could list for a long time everything that we will hear during the trip. The sound effects used here make the whole world come alive, encourage you to immerse yourself in it, learn its secrets and riddles.

The musical setting that accompanies Mina while exploring the Island is not particularly stunning, but at the same time you can hear that a lot of effort was put into its performance. Atmospheric, ambient sounds, sometimes slow and calm, and sometimes slightly accelerating them, create a perfect atmosphere of the events taking place on the screen. The voices of the main characters harmonize well with all of this. There are too many of them, because we only hear Mina all the time, and sometimes only someone else, e.g. her mother, speaks. The actress who voices our heroine did her job really well, you can hear fear, anxiety, fear of the unknown, sometimes curiosity or joy in her voice.

The whole sound and music is at a really excellent level and it is worth listening to it carefully to be able to say that it is one of the best that has been used in adventure games from recent years.

Now, finally, let's take a look at what is most important in adventure games, i.e. riddles and puzzles that have been prepared for us by the authors of the game. It would be difficult to define what they are in one sentence. Difficult or maybe easy? Demanding a sheet of paper and a pencil, or rather just logical thinking. In fact, we have a little bit of everything here. Overall, for someone who can handle Mystem and one of the Schisms with their eyes closed, the game will seem insanely easy. Riddles that are so characteristic of those games are unlikely to be encountered here, and if anything, they will be solved in the blink of an eye. Someone who enjoys a clean hike and finding ways to use one thing in combination with another in a specific place will be much more fun.

Sometimes these interrelationships may seem a bit illogical, a bit absurd, but if they work, why not? In most cases, however, lighting a fire with a knife and flint, burning clay bricks, or combining a couple of things to make nitroglycerin makes sense. Someone who was very careful during chemistry lessons will also have a lot of fun here. A player who only took a measuring cup and a recipe for ethyl alcohol from the course in this subject may have some problems in producing the chemicals needed in the further game. Unless he applies trial and error. Here, fortunately, it does not threaten to take a long flight into the sky ...

You can die in the game ... I can hear those complaints! No worries. Although the game can be saved at any time, and without any restrictions, we do not have to use the "load" option too often. When something bad happens to us, the game automatically returns to the state before it happened and we can try again. Until a positive result ... And these elements, when something may happen to us, are not so difficult and require dexterity that even adventure lovers will not be able to deal with them ...

In exchange for the items you find and successfully create yourself, the game rewards you with points. It's weird for an adventure game, isn't it? Why do we need any points when we'll manage to get to the end of the game anyway. But, surprisingly, it makes some sense. The plot of the game is not entirely linear. Sometimes we can solve puzzles in different ways and the one we choose will give us more or less points. This encourages the player to experiment, as well as to look for alternative exits, and to complete the game several times, because there is even more than one ending. I have already completed it four times, each with a different score. And I'm going to look for what I might have missed ... The game also rewards the player for every hundred points scored with beautiful watercolors, which, combined with the wonderful drawings from some of Mina's activities, are kept in the gallery. A great souvenir remains ...

Time to end the tale of Mina's journey through Captain Nemo's hideout. How did she end? Our sailor returned home, to civilization? Or maybe it remained there forever, protected from the world by a barrier? Has Jep grown into a large and healthy monkey? Did Mina learn the fate of the Richmond escapees? Did she read Captain Nemo's will and fulfill his last will? That's not what I won't reveal here, you have to find out for yourself. However, it is worth going on this journey, because once you set foot on the beach of the Mysterious Island, you will want to go back there more than once ...

Bolesław "Void" Wójtowicz

All quotes after: Umberto Eco Wyspa of the previous day , transl. A. Szymanowski, PIW Warsaw 1995.

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