Cleverly combining fact and fiction, The Great Unknown Houdini’s Castle pits you against Harry’s protégé and adopted son. Can you match wits with the heir to magic’s greatest secrets and save yourself and your new husband from the terrors that awaits you in Houdini’s castle? Find out in this exciting new hidden object adventure game. 

Now that I’ve written for CGG for nearly five months, you’ve come to know a little bit about my… ahem, idiosyncrasies. In 20-some weeks of reviews, you have discovered that I’m an English history nerd who watches a little too much Law and Order. I’m a mother of two who escapes a Dilbert-like workplace through gaming, but then picks those same games apart for logic gaps, misspellings and historical inaccuracies.

And now, The Great Unknown: Houdini’s Castle review reveals yet another piece to this neurotic puzzle that is me.
 

I love Houdini. I know that’s a weird sort of confession, but I think he was clearly one of the most fascinating creatures of early 1900s America. To be fair, I have a soft spot for characters and loonies in general, and folks who are a bit larger than life itself. I think people like P.T. Barnum, Will Rogers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and  Lewis Carroll make the human race that much more interesting.

So, I’m sure you can appreciate the toe-curling excitement with which I approached this assignment. (Thank you, Tracy!) The premise involves your honeymoon being cut short as your plane crashes on an uncharted island. Little do you know that the accident was no accident…

Houdini’s protégé has brought you there to help him bring his assistant back to life. Your motivation to help him? He’s captured your new husband. In order to be sure that you are “the one” with the talent to assist him, he’s assembled several sinister tests to gauge your gifts.
 

The mixing of fact and fiction in this adventure’s themes is noteworthy, and I congratulate the game developers on their inventiveness.

Houdini himself was captivated by the concept of life after death. He gained fame for debunking so-called spiritualists and fortune tellers. This zealous pursuit of charlatans and hoaxers masked a deep desire to find an authentic medium who could reportedly put him in touch with his beloved dead mother.
 

This single-minded drive to expose fakers actually cost him his friendship with the aforementioned Conan Doyle, a dedicated believer in spiritualists. It’s said that Houdini and his wife, Bess, concocted a secret phrase before his death that he would use if he could indeed reach her from the afterlife. It’s said that Bess held a séance every year on Halloween (the date of his death) for nearly a decade in an attempt to hear the agreed upon two words.

Another nod to the real Houdini, besides interesting photos of the man interspersed within the game, is the name of his so-called protégé. In the game, the man is referred to as Alan Whitehead. In truth, the man said to be responsible for killing Houdini was a J. Gordon Whitehead, a McGill University student who tested Houdini’s supposed claim that he could take any blow to the stomach.
 

Shortly after a performance while Harry was resting on a couch, Whitehead approached and mentioned Harry’s claim. Before Harry had a chance to tense his stomach muscles, Whitehead rained blows upon Harry’s abdomen. This beating eventually burst Houdini’s appendix and caused his death.

Now that you’ve discovered more than you ever probably wanted to know about Houdini, maybe I should actually begin The Great Unknown: Houdini’s Castle review.

The graphics, as you might expect, are beautiful, highly detailed, and in keeping with the time period. The mini-games are on the easier side, so even if you don’t usually, you might want to try the advanced gameplay. The traditional hidden object areas are interesting and inventive. In one, you are tasked with finding a "Rubik’s Cube," but can’t claim said object until you twist the squares solving the puzzle itself.
 

The game also has a few "match 'em up" type hidden object areas, where you are presented with a tray of items, which you must match with an appropriate item in the scene. Most of these are fairly straightforward. Fishing rod-fishing reel, needle-thread. I get that. But, pointing index finger? What does that go with, nostril? Apparently, push button. They got me there.

The old fashioned movie projector on which you play vintage black and white silent films that move the story along was a nice touch.
 

Despite the fact that I am a self-confessed Houdini nut, I think this game would be enjoyable for most HOA fans. Try it on a harder difficulty level and delve deep into the mysteries of America’s greatest escape artist in The Great Unknown Houdini's Castle.