House of Mystery

House of Mystery is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Artifex Mundi and released in 2017. The game is set in a fictional Victorian-era mansion where the player character, a journalist named Sarah, investigates the disappearance of her brother. The narrative unfolds through a series of static, hand-painted scenes depicting the mansion’s interior and surrounding grounds. The story incorporates elements of gothic fiction, including a hidden family curse, supernatural occurrences, and a secret society. The game is structured as a hidden-object puzzle adventure, requiring the player to locate specific items within cluttered environments to progress. It also features logic puzzles, such as mechanical contraptions and symbol-matching challenges, which unlock new areas or advance the plot. The game includes a built-in hint system and a journal that records narrative clues. House of Mystery is available on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. The game’s length is approximately four to six hours for a single playthrough, depending on the player’s puzzle-solving speed.

Gameplay and controls are based on a point-and-click interface. The player interacts with the game world by clicking on objects, characters, or areas of interest using a mouse or touch input. The cursor changes shape to indicate interactive elements: a magnifying glass for examination, a gear for manipulation, and a hand for picking up items. The inventory is located at the bottom of the screen and holds collected objects. Items can be combined by dragging one onto another. Hidden-object scenes present a list of items to find; clicking on the correct object removes it from the list and adds it to the inventory. Logic puzzles require the player to drag, rotate, or place items into specific slots. The hint button, located in the lower-right corner, highlights the next objective or reveals the location of a hidden object after a cooldown period. The skip button allows the player to bypass a puzzle after a set time. The journal, accessible via an icon, contains narrative text and clues. The game supports both full-screen and windowed modes. No keyboard shortcuts are required; all actions are performed through mouse clicks or touch taps.