Mystery of Unicorn Castle 2 is a game that vastly surpasses the sum of its parts. The seemingly stock story, the almost-familiar level design and atmosphere, the carefully crafted hidden object scenes all come together as one of the best hidden object games on the market.

Mysteries of Unicorn castle was a forgettable, old-school hidden object game that only caught interest with the challenge of some of its hidden object scenes. The official sequel, The Beastmaster, is on a whole new level though—a level that surpasses most other hidden object games, even the justly-fabled Artifex Mundi portfolio. Simply put, this is one of the best HOG I ever encountered.

It is strange, because the story combines the two most tired clichés of the genre: a detective is trying to find a missing child, only to end up battling a mostly unexplained evil wizard of evilness.
The game’s strength lies in its individual elements and how they combine into something much greater. Elements like the protagonist’s somewhat cheesy constant narration, the slow build-up as the history of the castle is told, or just the sheer atmosphere created by the combination of scenery and writing style. They result in a quintessential hidden object game that manages to rise above the genre’s limitations.

The only reason I cannot give it an even higher score is that it tends to reuse its hidden object scenes (they are almost perfectly balanced, by the way), and because the puzzles are few and just barely above the interesting level. Still, it is just a small drawback for an otherwise great game.

I really do love a good hidden object game and I decided to play Mystery of Unicorn Castle: The Beastmaster because it was recommended to me. It was a fun game to play, with a decent story and good gameplay along with nice artwork and decent voice acting. Something about the game, to me, felt like it was trying to hard. Some of my issues with the title are nitpicks, and it is, overall, a solid hidden object game that I even played twice for both endings. I will state right now that you can play the game only once and still get a very fulfilling experience.

The story is rather generic, a small child named Sophie is kidnapped and the main character is a detective tasked with finding her. He is never given a name but I liked him alot, he was full of witty lines and humorous observations of the situation he was in. What starts in a modern world some how leads the detective to a mystical castle that, despite being near wherever Sophie lives, looks like it’s straight out of medieval times. This is never actually explained and honestly could have been avoided if the time period that Sophie and the detective were from was changed. What also doesn’t make sense is some of the items you find in the mystical abandoned castle, like modern day lipstick. Nitpicks aside, to save Sophie you must also help the ghosts trapped on our mortal plane, people who died because of the evil sorcerer who has Sophie. The game has a choice system, either good or evil, and promises that you can change the story by picking your own path. But you can’t. Everything is very linear and the ending barely changes at all depending on the path you take. I was very disappointed by this, why offer choices if they barely affect anything?

Because of this “choices matter” feature, I played the game twice. I’ve seen it before and was hoping that in this title the choices would affect something but they don’t. You can choose to decline to help a ghost but they just scold you and you are forced to help them anyway. You can also choose peaceful or violent methods to handle issues, like using a bag to move a snake or a slingshot to hit a bird. In the end, you feel like a jerk for choosing the bad options and little else. Aside from this, the gameplay is very solid. The hidden object scenes were fun, though I did find some items a bit small to find. Also, you will have to revisit the scenes, thankfully only once, but still wish there were just more scenes instead. The puzzles are for the most part not too challenging but there aren’t many of them. Most of the gameplay is item collecting and backtracking to use said item to then get another item to use, repeated the entire game. The game has a very detailed map making this a lot easier. Also, if two items need to be combined they do it automatically, though they have no initial indication that they can’t be used alone. The game offers four difficulty modes, one being “hardcore” where there is no hint system at all which is pretty interesting.

The game is aesthetically lovely. The artwork is well done as are the animations and cutscenes. My major complaint is that, as mentioned before, some of the items were really small in the hidden object scenes so I did have to squint a bit due to my eyes being not the best. However, nothing was blurry and everything was rendered well. The game also has full voice acting and for the most part everyone does well. The main character talking is always a nice a feature and the actor does a good job bringing the witty detective to life. I will point out, there is an option to turn off the main character’s voice if you want to, but not the other characters. The music in the game is fitting, nothing too amazing but in no way was it bad.

Mystery of Unicorn Castle: The Beastmaster is a fun time and a satisfying entry to your game library if you’re a fan of hidden object games. I will say, there are in-game achievements but there are no Steam achievements if you’re playing the game there which is a shame since it would make playing the game twice for both the “good” and “evil” routes more worthwhile. There are also no Steam trading cards. This game does, however, have a bonus chapter that gives us more backstory on the Unicorn Castle and the mystical unicorn itself. For a game with a main game that you can play twice for a different ending and a bonus chapter, the price point is very reasonable. I recommend this title for hidden object game fans or even new players to the genre.

• Must buy.
  
• A good game to buy.
  
• Only buy if on sale.
  
• Mediocre.
  
• Avoid at all costs.

Lunar Productions[lunarproduction.com]

One of the best Hidden Object games on Steam. Good graphics and cutscenes, challenging puzzles, detailed map so no backtracking is needed, 4 difficulty settings, in-game achievements and other extras. The choices taken throughout the story will determine the ending and this gives this game a lot of replay value...and it's also a nice change from other titles. The HO scenes are very interesting with lots of little details moving in the background, it makes everything less stagnant.

fun game if you like point and click. A little frustrating every time you try to get into the 'toolbox' on the lower edge it toggles between going back a room and your items. Other than that irritation with the interface the game was quite fun to play. Only got truly stumped on the game where you order numbers.

The game is pretty long (which would be a good thing if it wasn't very tedious at times) and the story and soundtrack are just ok. But what actually made me give this a negative review was a game-breaking bug right at the end of the game, in which you can't obtain a key item to finish the game, and the only apparent solution to it is "starting the game all over again".

It is a surprisingly good hidden object game. Except 2 puzzles acting a bit weird I haven't encountered any other issues and unlike most HOGs it actually took me a decent amount of time to beat (about 3 and half hours, Steam didn't count my playtime correctly).

What I really liked is that for some actions the game gave you the choice of of being "good" or "bad" as being able to choose is not something you usually see in this kinds of games.

Works fine with Proton 7.0-4. I couldn't get it working with previous (6.X-X) versions however.

pros

- decent looking and detailed graphics
- good voice acting
- engaging creepy fantasy world and atmosphere
- puzzles are mostly enjoyable.
- story is typical but intriguing
- hidden object elements are fun.
- good background musics fits game's atmosphere
- hint system very helpful
- there is a bonus chapter
- game is not short

cons

- some frustrating puzzles. i directly skipped them.
- there are no cards and achievements

I played this on advanced mode and it took me almost 7 hours including bonus play. Good value for money.
I found this a pretty average HO game. There is replay value if you want to be a nasty person and not help anyone. Graphics were good, but HO scenes were darker and objects hard to find. I got through most without a hint, but I had to be patient! Music and storyline were adequate. The inventory was very buggy and hard to keep open at times to grab an item. If you click at the wrong time you move back out of the scene. I found it very frustrating as it should have been picked up in beta. Puzzles were interesting and I only had to use the guide once, so they were doable.
This game lacked something, so I give it 7 out of 10.

Finished in 4 hours. Decent hidden object game with a few minor puzzles to solve. Good to help you waste some time and chill. There is A LOT of going back and forth between screens once you get items to get through an area so you'll be doing a whole lot of clicking to get around. Though, overall, not too bad. If you're bored you can kill some time with this.

Another very solid entry into the Hidden Object Game genre from 1c.
The game doesn't do anything new but the graphics, sound, puzzles, and HO scenes are all well done.
Once again, the game follows the "find a missing person" with "supernatural elements" thrown in, so the story is predicable and familiar too.

If you like HOGs, you'll get your fix, and it you are new to the genre, it's a good entry game.