Mortimer Beckett and the Lost King Premium Edition

Hidden object games may not be as complicated or as demanding as true adventure games, but they are certainly fun and intriguing. They target slightly more casual players, which means that the mysteries are not as complex, even if the puzzles may sometimes be quite tricky. As such, most of your attention needs to be on the screen itself, in order to notice the cleverly disguised items.

Mortimer Beckett and the Lost King is your typical hidden object game, in the sense that it allows you to tackle a few interesting puzzles and try to figure out how to get to the bottom of the mystery. Besides the hidden object sequences, you also have to deal with the occasional riddle, which challenges your problem-solving skills. On the other hand, the gameplay would get dull if you only had to spot disguised items.

The story revolves around Mortimer Beckett, a clever guy trying to solve a mystery regarding a long-forgotten king. Hence, he tries to bring him back after many years of absence, because the realm needs his guidance. However, he must also find the jewels in his crown, otherwise the king is powerless and without any authority. To find them, he must search in a variety of places and try his best to spot them.

Most of the gameplay revolves around your ability to spot the items you’ll need along the way, which is easier than it sounds, because they are displayed at the bottom of the screen. You are free to explore the map as you see fit and jump from location to location in search of the items. You’ll obviously have to track back a few times, but the experience shouldn’t get too repetitive.

As far as the visual chapter is concerned, the game looks and feels quite nice, even if most of the environments are hand-drawn, and thus static. The cutscenes are fully animated and pretty decent, complete with dialog and voice acting. Naturally, you shouldn’t expect too much in this regard, although the voice actors pull their weight and they make the characters come to life, more or less.

All things being equal, Mortimer Beckett and the Lost King may not be a masterpiece in storytelling, but it features enough intrigue and mystery to be fun over long periods of time. The gameplay is quite fun, at least if you do not mind doing the same things over and over again.