Alchemy Mysteries: Prague Legends wouldn’t be a bad game if there already weren’t a few thousand other HOA games out there competing for my time and dollar, but in the grand scheme of things there is nothing original about this game aside from the detailed backgrounds you’ll be exploring. Honestly, it’s hard for any HOA game to stake its claim to anything original, and most have to try and tell some new and interesting story, so this tale of a young woman who inherits a creepy old mansion from some distant relative is feeling played out before I even have to find my first item.
Your quest for knickknacks will have you analyzing every square inch of your new house as well as other supplemental locations like a creepy graveyard and even creepier antique shop. In addition to endless item hunts you’ll get the rare treat of a mini-game or puzzle sequence that offers a brief and refreshing respite for your eyes to refocus. These are a nice assortment of all of your traditional puzzle game varieties, some with an occult-style twist. Many of the puzzles require items found and even assemble from parts found in multiple locations, so expect a lot of backtracking, although you never really know when it’s time to return to a previous room unless you make use of the Hint button.
The overall presentation is pretty good with nice detailed graphics and some good sound, music, and voice acting. The 360 degrees of exploration was a nice feature to what is traditionally a static-scene genre, even if you are viewing the room 60 degrees at a time. The load times and fading between scenes was short, but you move around and backtrack so much it does start to add up after a while.
There are a lot of items to collect, even more if you play in the Advanced mode, and enough puzzles to easily occupy a solid 4-6 hours – about the going rate for an HOA game these days. If you are in dire need of another HOA game to fill your time then Alchemy Mysteries: Prague Legends certainly fits the bill. Just don’t expect anything new or terribly rewarding about the experience.
