News journalist Gabrielle was after the latest story to finally make her famous. Little did she realise the recent apparent suicide of VernidaNews journalist Gabrielle was after the latest story to finally make her famous. Little did she realise the recent apparent suicide of Vernida City’s mayor was anything but that. With the help of her photographer Roland and a crazy scientist Leonard our heroine uncovers a mysterious force that will take her on an unforgettable journey through her subconscious mind and back. Can she escape or will she be doomed to be trapped inside her own nightmare?
Mind’s Eye: Secrets of the Forgotten (2010) is a game that opens with an interesting premise. Imagine having subconscious flashes to a dream while awake yet it later turns out it wasn’t a dream but an erased memory? All that lingers are these reoccurring, brief flashbacks. Mad scientist Leonard is the deus ex machine that allows Gabrielle to unlock and further that story by using a device that unlocks her repressed memories. It’s a cool idea, unfortunately the game’s story feels rushed and confusing. Couple that with uninspiring gameplay and Anino’s HOPA drops the ball. The art itself isn’t too bad although Mind’s Eye still suffers from objects that can be impossible to find because of a lack of resolution for detail. The use of a scrolling screen sometimes provides more confusion as objects become blocked by the foreground. The game seems very determined to tell the player they’re playing something from Anino Games because the company’s name appears during every loading screen. It does get annoying but more than anything Mind’s Eye feels uninspired even with its intriguing premise. The story takes forever to get going but once it does it rushes to the end with unearned, unexplained plot twists. The puzzles themselves are standard stuff with a broken learning curve that spontaneously goes high for a puzzle where you have to decipher symbols. The puzzle makes zero sense even with a solution at hand! It doesn’t help that the game runs horribly on a modern operating system. When running at full screen changing compatibility or resolutions does nothing. Easter egg alert: in Leonard’s lab look out for an unsuccessful mind reading head device belonging to a certain time travelling mad scientist.
A game like Mind’s Eye: Secrets of the Forgotten has a lot going for it but the execution was poorly handled. It’s a confusing story, one lacking clarity and one that feels rushed. The characters remain fairly one dimensional, Gabrielle included. Add to that a lack of support for modern computers and it’s difficult to recommend this game. Like many before and after it had the developers taken time to not rush Mind’s Eye out the door we could have got a strong game. As it stands it’s one that after completing will long fade from memory and that has nothing to do with some subconscious memory draining vampire.… Expand
