Track the scent of a diabolical murderer in the new hidden object adventure game, European Mystery: Scent of Desire. When you are called to Paris to investigate the disappearance of lovely young girls in broad daylight, you quickly put aside thoughts of retirement. Now, it's up to you to sniff out the culprit and discover who's behind these gruesome murders.
Have you been to a department store perfume counter lately? Whatever happened to normal perfume? You know, Shalimar, Chanel No. 5, Opium? Apparently, you can’t purchase any scent that isn’t attached to some celebrity anymore.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to smell like Beyonce, Christina Aguilera or, heaven forbid, Britney Spears, which I can only imagine is some mixture of Cheetos and Mountain Dew. I yearn for the days when perfume was just perfume, typically some form of a flower scent: roses, gardenia, lily of the valley.
Still, smelling like Kim Kardashian must be preferable to smelling like death and rosemary, just two scents you are expected to gather in European Mystery: Scent of Desire.
In this game, you take on the role of a master detective living out his supposed golden years in peaceful retirement in the French countryside. Peaceful, that is, until you are prevailed upon to solve the mystery of young women disappearing in broad daylight in Paris. Complicating your efforts is the fact that certain quarters of the town are closed due to a cholera epidemic.
European Mystery: Scent of Desire is one captivating little game that does most things right. The story is engaging. The graphics are sharp and very detailed. And, the mini-games are just challenging enough.
I did have a bit of difficulty placing this story in space and time. Paris doesn’t look particularly Parisian and the fact that you are asked to explore a sailing ship dockside seems strange since Paris sits inland from the Atlantic by at least a couple of hundred kilometers.
I can’t imagine the Seine could handle much more than a barge or the modern day bateaux mouche. Also, the masks donned by several characters seem distinctly Venetian. “Antoinette” is mentioned in the dialogue, which leads one to assume it’s Marie Antoinette. Yet, the costuming doesn’t necessarily evoke the styles of pre-revolution Paris.
European Mystery: Scent of Desire boasts a very serviceable strategy guide and a fantastically well detailed map that allows you to jump from place to place very quickly. I did expect them to do a little more with the abducted girls.
You are provided with several “missing” flyers describing these ladies. Why aren’t we using these clues to a greater degree? Descriptions of long red hair seem tailor made for detecting strands caught in door jambs or hidden panels.
The hidden object areas include a couple of “two-step” items to locate. And, despite my tongue-in-cheek comments at the beginning of this review, the gathering of the scents is a rather fun activity. You gather various aromas, and then use a kit and formula to mix together the necessary smells to create a scent to use within the game.
European Mystery: Scent of Desire is a solid experience that should satisfy the most discriminating gamer. Play on any of three difficulty levels and sniff out the culprit.