Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy

Lord Montcalfe has been found dead inside his mansion and his daughter Elizabeth doesn't believe the police explanation that he killed himself in a fit of madness.

That's the story behind The Mystery of the Mummy and the reason that you - as Sherlock Holmes - are invited along to have a poke around to see what you can find out.

There's nothing elementary about how you solve this mystery either. In fact, it's a pretty tough and in-depth task. Moving Holmes around the isometric-viewed mansion is easy enough, but the clever stuff comes whenever a question mark appears above an item.

Pressing '5' brings up a menu with several options - Observe, Take, Move and Open. You can select any of these options for any item that can be interacted with - although, as you might expect, not all options will work with all items.

As a general rule you can only pick up items you'll later need, or move ones whose purpose is to be moved. However, this doesn't mean the game is completely linear. It's not.

Rooms are generally explorable in any order you like, with the only restrictions being puzzles that crop up to test your brain power and make sure you haven't missed anything along the way.

Where things get more interesting is when you need to use items you've collected in order to progress. In this respect, Sherlock Holmes follows after a whole lot of point-and-click adventures in which you combine the right items to solve mini-puzzles.

So if there's a sticky locked door, you not only need to find the key, but also some lubricant. Other puzzles lead from one to another - from discovering you can push a sarcophagus to reveal a trapdoor to finding a screwdriver to prise open that door, then a key to open another door and a hammer to break open a weak looking crate.

Some of these puzzles are pretty obvious - you pick up an item and the game spells out for you when to use it. But some are also devilishly hard.

Others are just annoying, like having to walk around a room reading plaques and memorising numbers on them to enter on a separate screen. And ones where you have to find a certain number of something, except you can't find the last one. In cases like the latter, a 'hint' button wouldn't go amiss.

The Mystery of the Mummy is a good solid game at its heart with only one problem: for a game about such a well known character it lacks any particular personality in its script.

Instructions are passed on through letters, and Holmes repeats the same dialogue for every object he can't manipulate as directed (for example, he says, "I'm not going to burden myself with that" whenever you try to pick up something inappropriate).

There's also very little atmosphere or sound, except for a decent enough but repetitive tune on a loop.

This won't matter too much if a functional adventure is what you're after, but most players would have hoped for a little more. Admittedly, there aren't too many games of this sort available on mobile, and for that reason Mr Holmes and his puzzles are very welcome.

We just wish as much effort had gone into flair as it has functionality: without the flair, exploring a mansion full of random objects isn't as appealing as it could have been.

Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy

A puzzle-packed adventure that'll keep point-and-click adventure fans happy for several hours. The only problem is that the script and dialogue is bland enough that you might be simultaneously lulled to sleep
Score
Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.