From a Timeless
Story…

The Jules Verne classic
Mysterious Island is a story of survival, determination,
and mankind’s triumph against the challenges of nature. Five
men escape a Confederate prison in a hot air balloon during the American
Civil War. Caught in a fierce storm, they get carried into the Pacific
Ocean and eventually find themselves trapped in a remote uncharted
island. With no means to escape the island, the castaways rely on
their resourcefulness and scientific knowledge to forge themselves
a new life. Throughout the novel, the castaways receive help from
an unknown source. This mysterious guardian is none other than Captain
Nemo from Jules Verne’s 2000 Leagues Under the Sea.
As the island is destroyed with a volcanic eruption at the end of
the novel, Captain Nemo reveals himself and escorts the castaways
to safety with his submarine Nautilus.

…To an Excellent
Adventure Game

Return
to Mysterious Island assumes that the island was never
destroyed as described in Jules Verne’s novel. Many years after
the departure of the original castaways, the island is still uncharted
and seemingly uninhabited. On an ambitious journey to sail around
the world, Mina is caught in a storm and gets stranded on the island.
The game starts as Mina wakes up on the shore of the island. She is
determined to get away, but first she will have to overcome the island
and unlock its mysteries. Walking on the footsteps of the original
castaways, it is up to the players to help Mina survive and understand
Captain Nemo’s home.

Return to Mysterious
Island makes a great sequel to the Jules Verne classic.
Fans of the novel will be thrilled to explore famous locations from
the book, like the Granite House and the windmill, not to mention
the legendary submarine Nautilus. With her resourcefulness, resolve,
and scientific aptitude, Mina could have easily been the protagonist
in a Jules Verne novel. Mina even heals and tames a monkey like the
characters in the novel. However, the game can easily appeal to those
who know nothing about the story behind it. Return to
Mysterious Island is about a young woman’s will
to survive in a hostile environment. It is an adventure about overcoming
challenges and finding the hope to carry on in a most unlikely place.

The
Adventure Company delivers a very successful game with Return
to Mysterious Island. The pre-rendered graphics are
very impressive and inspiring. The island is full of interesting details
and visual appeal. The music is pleasant and appropriate for the theme
of the game. The mouse-based interface is simple and intuitive. The
first-person view will be familiar to the players of games like Myst,
The Crystal Key, or Atlantis:
The Lost Tales. The puzzles are intelligent, fairly
rich in variety, and fit logically into the story.

At
the beginning of the game, Mina is weakened and hungry after her ordeals
in the sea. Thus, the first task of the game is to help Mina regain
her strength. The simple challenge of finding food and starting a
fire on a deserted island is enough to reveal the beauty of Return
to Mysterious Island. The players will have to be creative
and make use of the objects along the beach to help Mina recover her
energy. Once Mina is strong enough to explore the island, the players
will be able to visit the locations from the novel, unravel the history
of the island, and understand its inner workings. Creative thinking
and careful observation will be required at every step. Players will
have to reinvent simple tools and make use of the inventions of Captain
Nemo and the five castaways to overcome the game’s challenges.

One
of the most interesting features of Return to Mysterious
Island is its approach to puzzle solutions. Many of
the inventory-based puzzles in the game have more than one solution.
Different item combinations can be used to create the same object.
For instance, the player is not limited to the specific branch of
a specific tree to create a fishing pole. This makes the item-related
puzzles in Return to Mysterious Island far
more logical than many other adventure games. Furthermore, the ability
to use multiple items for the same purpose increases the likelihood
of players finding the items they need to complete the game. However,
this puzzle structure also means that players are likely to end up
with a number of items they will never use throughout the game.

Players
should be aware that going through Return to Mysterious
Island does involve a certain amount of pixel hunting.
Players can easily pass by certain locations without noticing all
the significant items the first time around. However, this should
be nothing new to experienced adventure players. Finding the items
to solve the puzzles is merely part of the challenge in adventure
games. Furthermore, the objects that can be picked up or interacted
with are often in places that are not particularly difficult to spot.
There are no especially obscure or unfair objects the players are
required to find. It is doubtful that very many players will have
to resort to dragging the mouse all over the screen.

The
real challenge in Return to Mysterious Island
is coming up with ways to combine the inventory items. The inventory
interface features a construction area where players can combine one
or more objects to create others. If a given combination only includes
two objects, the new item is immediately created. If more than two
items are required, the current state of the combination is stored
until the player adds all the remaining objects to the mix. Some of
the item combinations can be dismantled once they are created. Thus,
the players can use many of the individual components for more than
one purpose.

The game also contains
a number of puzzles that are not inventory related. These challenges
include decoding two passwords and rerouting electricity to a device
by using various switches. While they are not exceptionally original,
these puzzles do offer a break from the inventory-based challenges
that are abundant throughout the game.

There
are a small number of puzzles in Return to Mysterious
Island where time is limited. However, the challenge
is never unreasonable in these puzzles. Players can expect to solve
all the time-based puzzles in their first attempt. If they fail, they
simply may not have created the item required to solve the puzzle.
Furthermore, players are not required to start over from a saved game
if they cannot solve the puzzle within the allotted timeframe. The
game automatically restarts one screen before the time-based puzzle
so the players can immediately try again. Thus, the time constraints
are far from being frustrating in Return to Mysterious
Island. On the contrary, they arguably add excitement
to the game.

Once healed and tamed,
Mina’s animal companion Jep adds an interesting level of depth
to the game. Mina can ask her monkey to retrieve items from locations
she cannot reach on her own. Jep is also capable of using simple tools.
Mina can equip him with various inventory items to solve various puzzles
in the game.

Return
to Mysterious Island features a bonus point system that
challenges players to be creative. Players are awarded bonus points
for collecting inventory items, combining existing items to create
new objects, and solving puzzles. For every 100 points accumulated,
bonus pictures are added to the image gallery section of the game.
This gives players an incentive to discover all the alternate methods
to overcome the game’s challenges.

The only shortcoming of
Return to Mysterious Island is its length.
While the game is not exceptionally short, it could have been longer.
The adventure ends a little too abruptly and feels as though there
should have been a little more to the game. Mina does discover the
island’s secrets at the end of the game and the ending movie
is appropriate even though it is predictable. However, additional
playtime and several more locations to visit would have been nice.
Of course players should also note that the game is available for
only $19.99, which is a great bargain given the price of most new
games. When many action games can be completed within six to eight
hours, it is perhaps unfair to complain about the length of an adventure
game that is offered at a very reasonable price.

The
Adventure Company and Kheops have done a terrific job with Return
to Mysterious Island. This is a solid adventure game
with clever puzzles, beautiful graphics, and interesting locations.
The idea of surviving on a deserted island far from civilization may
not be a new theme, but it has been applied very successfully in this
game. Return to Mysterious Island is a great
way to rediscover a Jules Verne classic. If the idea of overcoming
nature’s challenges, surviving in a forgotten land, and unlocking
the mysteries of an exotic island interest you, do not miss this game.

The final grade is a well-deserved
A.

Final Grade: A
(find
out more about our grading system)

System Requirements:

• Windows®
98/ME/2000/XP
• 600 MHz Pentium® III or Equivalent (800 MHz Recommended)
• 16x CD-ROM Drive (24x CD-ROM Drive Recommended)
• 64 MB DirectX® Compatible 3D Video Card
• DirectX® 7 Compatible Sound Card
• 64 MB RAM