Eye on iOS: Volume 8

Age of Enigma: The Curse of the Sixth Ghost

If you’re under the impression that all casual games are alike, think again. Much like its name, Age of Enigma: The Secret of the Sixth Ghost is one of the few games that seeks to truly forge its own identity in the casual realm, borrowing from but never blatantly copying the standard formulas of its contemporaries. Perhaps most closely comparable to Big Fish’s Drawn series and originally reviewed on PC, this supernatural adventure from Casual Box Entertainment features plenty of exploration through a remarkably diverse set of environments, but it’s far more linear than most full-fledged adventures. It often requires collecting sets of items in order to proceed, but never sifting through junkpiles for random lists of hidden objects. And it’s chock full of puzzles of all different types, many of which are sufficiently different from those you’ve encountered a zillion times before.

The star of Age of Enigma – at least metaphysically – is Ashley Reeves, a young woman having recurring dreams of a house burning down. When an anonymous benefactor sends her the key to the very same house, Ashley sets out with her faithful dog Isaac to find it. There she encounters a mysterious man who reveals the true nature of her calling: she’s a spirit medium charged with freeing six tortured souls still trapped in the house. To do so, she must project herself into their souls to re-live their fateful circumstances, only this time correcting the wrongs that still shackle them to this existence. These ghosts are as different as their settings: a medieval monk’s intolerance is responsible for his abbot’s death, a feudal Japanese noblewoman failed to meet her groom-to-be in a serene Zen garden, and an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh must discover who assassinated him and denied him a proper embalming. One ghost will literally take you to hell and back.

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Along the way you’ll need to solve a wide variety of puzzles. Some are standard inventory obstacles, and several are cleverly integrated into the story, like an Incan idol whose various configurations impact the natural elements around you. Many are presented as standalone challenges, however, not unlike the Professor Layton series, which the developers cite as an influence. There are a few old standbys like tile jigsaws, pipes, and Mastermind, but many others, while not entirely original, are at least less common and dressed up in creative new ways. You’ll compare a real room layout with an overhead view, construct multi-sided blocks with the correct symbols in place, and contrast rock formations with shadows. A simple find-the-difference task becomes a matter of trimming a cherry blossom bonsai tree into its proper shape. Even a Simon mimicry sequence feels relevant here, as you follow in the footsteps of a 17th century pirate in search of his treasure.

There are over 30 standalone puzzles and minigames to complete overall, any of which can be replayed from the main menu, though very few are worth revisiting after you’ve solved them the first time. Some you’ll have to solve more than once anyway, as the game begins to rely too much on repetition towards the end, forcing you to repeatedly study grid designs, match fresco fragments, and complete patterns. Some puzzles can be quite challenging, especially on the harder of two difficulty settings. Most puzzles offer a skip button, however, and even a pair of “jokers” that can simplify the puzzle without bypassing it altogether. The easier setting provides hints for the current objective, while the harder setting allows for free exploration (not that you’ll ever have too far to wander in any given past life) and eliminate sparkles for active hotspots. Unfortunately, even the latter doesn’t help with the occasional pixel hunting required.

The concealment of interactive items isn’t due to any failings in the graphics department, as Age of Enigma is a crisp hand-drawn adventure with a colourful cartoon style. From the Caribbean blues of a deserted island to the red-hot rivers of Hades, each locale is so different that it feels like you’re exploring seven mini-worlds in one (including the mansion, where you’ll need to solve various tasks between ghostly endeavours). The music is just as culturally diverse, jumping from haunting piano notes to guitars and flutes to distinctly Asian strings. In between are both environmental and supernatural effects, from wind and waterfalls to ghostly whispers and tortured moans. These come through the iPad speakers quite clearly and effectively, as does the voice acting that punctuates key moments, though the remaining conversations and protagonist comments are text-only.

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The interface is as simple as can be, though not without some frustrations. You can slide your finger across the touchscreen to find hotspots, and a single-tap interacts, but dragging items from the inventory and dropping them into the environment can feel imprecise, and it’s hard to know if you’re doing the wrong thing or simply missing your intended target. Combining inventory items is even more cumbersome when you have to scroll to your second desired object, often resulting in de-selecting the first unintentionally. A few of the puzzles suffer from a lack of precision as well, including a pick-up-sticks variant that didn’t always register the stick I wanted, causing an instant fail. For the most part, however, the game controls just fine, offering an optional tutorial at the beginning to get you started.

Like most casual games, Age of Enigma: The Secret of the Sixth Ghost isn’t particularly long, but it’s an enjoyable few hours for the most part. Available as a free demo with in-app purchase option, exclusively for iPad, it’s a nice mix of lite adventure, scavenger hunting, and pure puzzling, and its segmented structure makes it fairly mobile-friendly. Some pixel hunting and late puzzle repetition do mar the gameplay at times, but the widely different environments to explore and overall puzzle variety combine to keep much of the experience fresh. It looks good, sounds great, and doesn’t feel like every other game out there. So why aren’t more people playing it? It’s an enigma.