Four Fat Chicks -- Mystery of the Druids Review

The Mystery of the Druids

Review by Old Rooster
May 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.