You thought it was going to be just another case for your files. A distraught young woman searching for her husband who was taken away to a reclusive sanatorium in the Alps, searching for a cure for his paranormal ailment... it just seemed like an open and shut case from the start. That is, until it became all too apparent that it was all just an elaborate plan to lure you to the hospital in an attempt to remove you from the case once and for all.
And so begins the toughest case of your career in the newest addition to the Agency of Anomalies franchise, Agency of Anomalies: Mind Invasion, as you attempt to avoid being brainwashed and turned to the dark side, so to speak.
Now, you must make your way through the hospital, searching for a way to free the other victims locked in a web of lies created by the brain device of the twisted Dr. Swens.
All in all, a fresh new twist to one of my favorite series.
Dirty and gritty artwork project a realistic edge that was lacking in the previous games, providing the perfect setting for a dangerous detective story. Agency of Anomalies: Mind Invasion is drenched in details... dark shadows seep into the scenes and mingle with patches of sunshine that filter in through the windows of the old sanatorium. Clouds of dust float aimlessly above a tiled floor riddled with cracks and crevices painting a gorgeous world brimming with adventure and peril just waiting for us to explore it.
Agency of Anomalies: Mind Invasion is dominated by rich and varied sounds that filter in as you play. With little to no music in the game, the story and incidents rely heavily on appropriate, well-timed sounds to further immerse you in the gameplay. While the game does a good job of keeping up with interesting and detailed sounds that certainly enhance your gaming experience, I can't help but think a subtle musical score would have been a valuable addition in helping maintain that edge of danger and excitement as you play.
Surprisingly, the voiceovers were excellent. I found the varied accents and tones of the actors to be entertaining and not annoying in the least. The one setback I had was the lack of animation in the cutscenes when the characters were speaking. While it's a tough thing to get right, it definitely can be disconcerting to see nicely detailed characters staring at you close lipped while they become lost in their monologues.
Gamplay in Agency of Anomalies: Mind Invasion was pretty standard for your traditional hidden object adventure games. Simple point and click game mechanics that were well-executed paved the way for an intuitive and easy-to-understand gaming experience.
The mini-games in Agency of Anomalies: Mind Invasion, while not as prominent as the hidden object games, were still an exciting aspect to the overall gameplay, as it featured some unique twists on some old classics that required some forethought and planning in order to solve them without resorting to using the skip button.
The hidden object scenes in Agency of Anomalies: Mind Invasion are entertaining and varied, ranging from your traditional list of objects to find to silhouettes to placing objects back in the scene. I enjoyed the break in monotony and found myself looking forward to watching each sparkling scene unfold. The scenes weren't too complex and didn't hold too many challenges, but were still beautiful to behold in their grimy, disheveled way.
Overall, Agency of Anomalies: Mind Invasion was another fantastic addition to an exceptional series, and breathed new life into your normal case solving days as a special agent of the paranormal.