It’s
time to don your deerstalker hat and fire-up your calabash pipe for
the game’s afoot again! Yet this time the culprit is not your
arch-nemesis Moriarty, but rather a cursed mummy that has escaped
from his disturbed sarcophagus and is seeking revenge.

Anyone
who is nostalgic for a good old-fashioned point-and-click adventure
game need search no further than Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery
of the Mummy. The game is played from a first-person point-of-view,
though the wonderful cut-scenes are all in the third-person mode and
as Watson is not available to offer his assistance, you must act as
Sherlock’s eyes and ears.

The
entire mystery transpires in the mansion of Lord Montcalfe, a well-known
scientist and explorer who also happened to own an immense collection
of Egyptian artifacts. We say ‘happened’ because it seems
his Lordship has recently been the victim of a tragic and untimely
death. Elizabeth, his daughter, has asked her acquaintance Sherlock
Holmes to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding her
father’s supposed suicide.

As
the story progresses, Sherlock will unravel more than the mystery
of the mummy as long-hidden family secrets begin to shed some light
on the case.

Adventure gamers who have
previously played the demo
of this game, will be pleased to know that Sherlock’s voice
now consists of a very respectable British accent. The game is broken
into chapters and each chapter usually concludes with Sherlock either
escaping from a room in which he is trapped or from the clutches of
death.

Be
forewarned Sherlock fans, you will want to save often for Sherlock
can die and as we all know, there is nothing worse than replaying
twenty or thirty minutes of your game.

Mystery
of the Mummy is a puzzle lovers delight as there are numerous
brain-stumpers, but most are pretty simple if you only use –
ahem – logic. There were a few occasions that I found myself
briefly stumped, but as the puzzles are usually confined to a limited
portion of the mansion, it was usually only a matter of deductive
reasoning before you will find a solution that will allow you egress
to another section of the mansion.

As of now Sherlock
Holmes and the Mystery of the Mummy does not have a North American
publisher, but you will be able to order the game directly from the
developer’s site (http://www.frogwares.com.ua/sherlock/kindex.php)
for a mid-November delivery.

If you would like to try
Mystery of the Mummy first, please download the demo
or watch a trailer
of the game.