Here's a link to The Clockwork Man: The Clockwork Man
5.7 mid-normal
About the closest I've come to believing in ghosts was seeing the spooky footage caught by Ghost Hunters in a few of their shows. I want to believe in ghosts, but I've never seen one myself. I've explored so-called haunted houses, and even worked in a supposed haunted restaurant and a supposed haunted school. Coworkers have sworn to me that they've seen apparitions... but I haven't myself. I've heard weird noises that I can't explain. And even felt like I was tapped on the shoulder by someone when no one was there. But that's not enough for me to believe in ghosts. I do think it's interesting how some houses scare the stuffing out of me late at night when the wind is blowing and the lights are off... and other houses are completely unfrightening and even alone in the dark I never feel uneasy or scared.
Kelly and Brock Burton don't feel at ease in their house. The huge mansion looked to be perfect for the newlyweds. Lots of space for Kelly and lots of things for Brock to tinker around with. But then toilet seats started opening and closing on their own, drawers slammed back and forth, and green spectres appeared in the walls! The couple was about to run back to their real estate agent when a little old man in a bowtie appeared on their doorstep. Milton Hobblepop knows a lot about the ghosts in the Burtons' mansion, and with their help can assemble the proper equipment to catch them all!
Mishap: An Accidental Haunting, developed by Virtual Prophecy Entertainment, is a hidden object puzzle game. You play as the Burtons, following Milton through your mansion looking for objects which have somehow absorbed ghostly energy from the many beings haunting the house. By collecting this energy, Milton will be able to catch the ghosts haunting each area of the house. Some objects can also shed clues on the identity of the ghosts or be used as building blocks to assemble Milton's ghost-hunting gadgets.
Each area of the house (eight in total) include one large room and three smaller rooms attached to it. You can travel between rooms at any time by clicking on doorways. (The mouse pointer becomes a door icon.) The larger room is bigger than the available screen; moving the mouse near the screen's edge causes the view to scroll. Each room contains its own list of hidden objects. Also included are ghosts. Milton's monocle, at the bottom of the screen, flashes in the presence of invisible guests.
Not only must you collect all the hidden objects to complete a room, but you also need to catch any ghosts hiding within. The monocle allows you to see ghosts and gives you a "hot and cold" meter to resolve their location. Hovering on them reveals them, and clicking on each three times allows Milton to vacuum it up.
Your list of hidden objects are at the bottom of the screen. Finding and clicking on one within the scene crosses it off your list and also removes... aw screw it. That's about as much of this review as I can stomach to write.
I can't recommend Mishap: An Accidental Haunting (even though I enjoyed playing through the demo) and here are the three reasons why:
1. Upon completing the demo, the game opened up my web browser without my permission and sent me to the purchase page. I really hate when that happens. Especially when the browser they hijack isn't the one I normally use. But okay, whatever.
2. Mishap left my computer at the wrong desktop resolution. This messed up my icons. When I tried to return to 1680x1050, Windows told me I'd have to restart. That meant the twenty or thirty screenshots I had painstakingly assembled in Adobe Photoshop for this review were lost. Why? Because Photoshop still thought we were in my normal resolution, and the save dialogue box was offscreen so I couldn't click on it to save the screenshots. I tried everything: keyboard shortcuts, the Windows taskbar Move function, hibernating, etc. All in vain. Hence the screenshots included here are taken from the game's official site, something that's against my rules as a game reviewer. :(
3. Virtual Prophecy Entertainment and Namco have decided to sell Mishap through Plimus. Plimus is the worst of the internet's e-commerce companies. As a customer and regular purchaser of online games, I've had nothing but bad luck with Plimus. They never send the game's unlock code right away - they always take hours. You want to continue playing immediately? Too bad. Once, they called me on the phone with a creepy computer voice asking me if I had intended to buy a game. They thought I was a criminal even though I had previously purchased from them using that same credit card. That was the last straw. In conclusion, I'd sooner go out in the woods and throw my money down an old rat hole than give it to Plimus.
Wait until Mishap comes out on a trustworthy portal like Steam or Big Fish Games or Popcap or Game Socks.
Download Mishap: An Accidental Haunting (if you must)
Uesugi… You are the most inept reviewer I have ever come across. This review has nothing to do with this amazing game, but instead focuses on your dislike of the purchasing methods?!?! I know most critics are a shill for someone who is paying them, but please… don’t insult everyone by being so obvious about it. If you’re not actually going to review the games then don’t bother wasting our time with your 6th grade writing level and lame complaints.
Am I really that inept??? Could it be true?
If the game uses a customer-unfriendly payment processor then that goes in my review. I’m used to buying games (or anything digital, come to think of it) online and getting them immediately. And I don’t like my browser being hijacked.
P.S. Agreed that it seems to be an amazing game. Except for the fullscreen ghosts which materialize suddenly when you get too many wrong clicks. (I forgot to mention those above.) Most games restart the random clicking penalty counter when you find an object so you can get away with a little harmless random clicking here and there between successes… but Mishap is strict!