Chronicles of Mystery: The Tree of Life

Posted by Michael Temple.
First posted on 10 March 2010. Last updated on 10 March 2010.
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Chronicles of Mystery: The Tree of Life continues the adventures of archeologist Sophie Leroux, who is last seen in Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual. The previous game has been a critical, and apparently commercial, success—enough to persuade the developer and publisher City Interactive to invest in a sequel. Sadly, this second game appears to have been rushed through production, and…

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Previous Comments

Very Good

I dont understand rating here on Adventure Classic Gaming. First game in the series has 4/5, this second edition, which is in fact very similar, but with much better and interesting story, only 1/5? Pity that both games were not reviewed by the same person.

Czech Republic By Joe • On 25 November 2018 • From Somewhere

Poor

As for the difficulty rating.

I can see how it could be puzzling, especially in absence of any context, though you seem to have read the review. I was thinking to assess the quality of the challenge, not whether or not there are effective hindrances that you from getting to the end of the game. In this regard, yes, between the shredded costume mask & champagne bottle to the camel & the whip, there are things that definitively keep you from progressing, but I wouldn't call these things quality challenges. I found a good many "puzzles" to have the same quality as me coming to your house and pouring quick dry cement on your keyboard. It would keep you from progressing with the game, but is it entertainment?

I agree that some of the puzzles in the game work, and some are moderately challenging. On the whole though, there was far too much time spent in trial & error mode for me to believe this game would amuse anyone. Trial & error doesn't equal "difficult" to me, it equals "time consuming." If I gave you a word from a language you didn't understand and tasked you to guess its meaning, you would get it eventually, even if it took ten years. But was the task "difficult?" Again, I wouldn't call it that.

I'm glad for you that you had a better play through than I did.

United States By Michael Temple • On 15 March 2010 • From United States

Good

This game clearly rubbed the reviewer the wrong way. It's far from great but I did enjoy it.

I admit I'm often baffled by ACG difficulty ratings. The vast majority of commercial games are of average difficulty. A one-star, or trivial, rating to me means a kid's game. Put the colorful square peg in the colorful square hole. While a five-star rating, or difficult, is for games that include puzzles intellectually beyond the usual type. A good example would be the tricky base twelve (or was it base eight?) puzzles in Schizm. Tree of Life's puzzles struck me as being squarely average. Though the somewhat elaborate "tree" puzzle at the end was well thought out and not that easy.

I think English-speaking adventure game players have been spoiled. Now that games are mostly being created in Europe and then translated for the US, we're now getting the short end of the the quality stick. Still, it'd be nice if developers shelled out the few extra bucks for an actual professional translator.

United States By GregC • On 13 March 2010 • From New York City