The gameplay and plotting of Haunted Houdini requires a lot of patience and attention, but those who manage to stay on board are rewarded with an intricate ghost mystery thriller worthy of the Midnight Mysteries name.

Playing through Haunted Houdini, the fourth entry in the Midnight Mysteries series, I had the feeling that this hidden object game was made for a very specific audience, that is, those who were playing this series at least since Salem Witch Trials. The game just expects you to know how the story is structured or how the mechanics work.

The familiar gameplay hides a different kind of story. The plot almost entirely removed the semi-historical bits to dive into the heart of mysticism, not even trying to build itself around credible elements.
Ironically, this completely fictional plot is about Harry Houdini’s crusade against spiritists, where our task is now to look into the exact details of his death. The investigation jumps around time and space continuously and (to keep the consistency from the previous games) involves another famous writer, Arthur Conan Doyle, a well-known spiritualist, who serves as a counterweight to Houdini’s views.
It is hardly the best-written in the series, but those who like the made-up world of mediums will most likely rank it as their favourite in the series.

Another hidden object adventure game in the Midnight Mysteries series. This time we follow Houdini intertwined with a little bit of Sir Conan Arthur Doyle. You are trying to find out who has killed Houdini and why he died. Another decent hidden object game. Definitely worthwhile of playing. Good graphics and decent mix of puzzle and hidden object scenes.

Can't even play it, even after trying to run different compatibility settings, the game still plays at 1 FPS. To give you an idea, it took me 16mn just to get to the menu to check if there was an option to try in there to solve my problem.

I have the exact same problem with 3/5 of the Midnight Mysteries series:
- Devil on the Mississippi
- Haunted Houdini
- Witches of Abraham

DEVELOPERS HAVE ABANDONNED THEIR GAME, THEY DON'T ANSWER TO PEOPLE WHILE SOME ARE ASKING FOR HELP SINCE 2013 !!!

I bought this Game a while back in a Huge Mumbo Jumbo Bundle together with all the other Midnight Mysteries in the Series and I must say I am not dissapointed.

Now before you think about getting this Game I recommend you to play Number 1,2 & 3 first before getting into this one. Why? Because it will all make alot more sense then.

The Game comes with the Collectors Edition and 1 Bonus Level also Unlimited HO Mode.

The Resolution of the Game can once again not be changed but is alot higher then it was in Number 1, 2 & 3. Like in Number 2 & 3 you keep the crafting system and it is used quite alot. Although I had the feeling it was more used in Number 3 then 4.

The Story itself is amazing and is about the World Famous Houdini. The Atmosphere is great and the animation is simple but nice. Once again this Game has a few jumpscares but not as many as Number 2 & 3 did.

The Artstyle is very good and looks honestly very pretty although it is not as Colourfull as Mind Snares Alice's Journey.

The Puzzles in this Game I personally found alot of the times hard and annoying unlike the other 3 Games which were just about the right difficulty.

Unlike most Point & click / HO Games this Game has an inbuild Guide with pictures to help you find your way incase you get Stuck. Which personally I find very good so you dont have to google it, which would off been very hard without a Steam Overlay.

Although it doesnt say so on the Steam Store Page this Game does have Steam Achievements and they seem to work very well. So if you think about getting 100% Achievements then this game will be for you!

All in all this Game is great and although I got a little bit impatient and annoyed with the Puzzles it is worth buying it to see its beautiful story!

I do recommend this Game to any Achievement Hunters & Point & Click / HO Fans. However I do recommend getting it on Sale as 10€ seems a bit a high price.

Here are my other Reviews for the Midnight Mysteries Games:
Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy (1)
Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials (2)
Midnight Mysteries 3: Devil on the Mississippi
Midnight Mysteries: Witches of Abraham - Collector's Edition (5)

Excellent game. Like Midnight Mysteries 3, the game is a little more challenging, overall, than the average HOPA. However, you will find a good mix of puzzles of varying levels, and solid HO scenes in the classic word list style. The HO scenes generally have a couple of objects that require an extra step to find, such as under a cloth or in a drawer. Very good value for money in terms of length (but ignore my listed time, since I left this one running even more than usual).

I especially enjoyed all the historical detail about Harry Houdini and his connection to (Sir) Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame. The historical detail is all presented in an immersive - and ghost-driven - story that keeps the player wanting to know "what happened next?"

The game doesn't have trading cards, but does have steam achievements, which is nice. The game comes with a Guide, in case you get stuck, or if you want to make sure you find all the collectibles in one run.

Once again, there is no Map feature, but unlike MM3, I didn't find this to be a problem, as the layout doesn't require much backtracking except within limited areas.

Definitely worth adding to your library if you enjoy a classic paranormal-style adventure, and don't mind a few mild jump scares. 9.5/10 for me.

Essentially a very easy graphic adventure mixed with a hidden object game. I suspect given Houdini's attitude towards mediums that being portrayed as a ghost along with his wife would probably not have sat well with him. On the other hand as a fun story with conspiracies it serves its purpose well enough. There is some nice usage of actual historical records/places and of course some very heavy artistic licence!

Tentative positive. It's not great, but for genre junkies like me, it's worth a play (especially on sale). It's a good passtime for a few hours, especially if you complete everything.

For one thing, it's the most challenging Midnight Mysteries yet. It's still extremely linear, and woe be to he who forgets to click a clover before solving a puzzle, but getting through the game and the bonuses can lead to some hair loss, without feeling like it's been overly unfair.

The only exception is the quality of the Hidden Object scenes themselves; they're very substandard, with almost everything being brown-ish, a low resolution that makes it nearly impossible to differentiate, and an inordinate number of things aren't in logical locations. One of the touches that was nice about #3 was that everything looked drawn and rendered just for the scene; here there's lots of re-used objects with wrong lighting or hidden in edges they would never be in real life. In other words, it's lazy.

The plot and writing is definitely better than Devil on the Mississippi, but not by much. The character graphics are about the same, still no voice acting. Don't play for the story, obviously, but I do appreciate their fresh takes on real historical controversies/conspiracy theories, and it actually kind of worked this time around.

If you enjoy hidden object games, the Midnight Mysteries series are the best you'll find on Steam. No, they're not as good as the Mystery Case Files series but they're damn good in their own right. Each game have interesting historically based stories with hidden object goodness, mini games and bonus levels. There are even Steam Achievements. I also recommend Sherlock Homes: Hound of the Baskervilles and Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders if you're looking for HOG games with Achievements.

Ok graphics and good HOG game. Story is interesting and like good mystery movie.

I'm honestly surprised this has a Positive Steam review rating. It's not a bad puzzle / HOG game. In fact, the puzzles and HOG are for the most part, pretty good, especially for a casual puzzle fan. There's even an abundance of hints available should you need them.

However, the story is pretty bland and forgettable. You have great source material here: the spirit of Harry Houdini, reaching out to you for help from the afterlife. So many good places this story could have gone. It could have been a good mystery along with the nice puzzles and HOG mechanics. Instead, the story seems like an afherthought (told through mostly text bubbles); there were no VOs (voice-overs). While the game art was serviceable, the animations were subpar.

While I enjoyed the puzzles for the most part, the story had me almost snoozing. I couldn't have cared less on what actually happened. It honestly just felt like you were doing puzzles to do puzzles, that's how thin the story was. Whole thing took me about 4 hours and an extra hour for the extra story content (did not do the bonus HOG game).

Rate 5.5/10. Very mediocre attempt here. At least the puzzles were good for the most part and I experienced zero crashes and my saved progress was always there