Legacy: Mystery Mansion – Fun With Puzzles

It’s not often that you find a challenging match-three puzzle game for the iPhone. There have been some very unique puzzle series in previous apps, however, Legacy: Mystery Mansion kicks up the strategy to a whole new level.

The purpose here is to match up similar glyphs and drop antique fragments below the game board, which ties into elements to a plot line that you discover as you move throughout the mansion. The game is not only addictive, but just a great way to kill some time and boasts some very convoluted challenges. Let’s take a closer look after the jump.

Getting Started

After the startup screen, you’re greeted with bright graphics and sound effects. This area is one place where Legacy really shines. The developers have taken extra care to provide phenomenal graphics and music to accompany such a riveting game.

It’s fantastic how quickly the menu screen is pulled up. Aside from the audio options, you’ll find two modes: Story and Free Play. With free play, you can move through a few trial runs to build your skills up. I will say that Legacy is a very challenging game for newbies. Even on a simple match-3 style puzzle challenge it offers some very unique twists and turns.

Rules and Regulations

The purpose of each puzzle isn’t to just clear the board as you might expect. You’ll actually be rearranging the objects within each board to (hopefully) complete the antique puzzle on the left.. Ultimately, your goal in Story Mode is to find all of the missing antiques and put their pieces back together. As you move from room to room the mystery will slowly begin to unfold before your eyes.

As you spot pieces to the antiques lodged within your puzzle you’ll want to drop them down below the game board. This is how you acquire the bits and add them into your inventory. You should then begin to clear a path for each antique and the completed objects will be checked off your building map.

Each puzzle is given a strict five minute time limit for completion. This may seem harsh initially, which is why the puzzle series is so challenging for most. But as you come to grips with the system you’ll progress through the levels a lot easier. If you’re stuck, the game will often pose solutions you can use in bright glittering stars. These appear after a few seconds of inactivity.

Advanced Gameplay Mechanics

If you end up losing at the first level don’t be discouraged. Legacy: Mystery Mansion is truly a challenging puzzle. As you find objects, it is a very difficult process to clear rows beneath and bank on them. Try planning ahead for alignments beneath each object, especially as you move closer towards the bottom of the screen.

Feel free to ignore the auto suggest features throughout the game. The suggestions are merely to help things move along if you’re in a rut, but they are not geared towards your best possible choice — quite honestly, they may be random matchups. There are a decent amount of levels and you generally only need two or three pieces to put together a final puzzle.

The different level themes really do make the game much more enjoyable. As you move between rooms you’ll notice the puzzle icons change as well. You can move between the bedroom, parlour, hall, kitchen and a few other select places. Inside of each puzzle, icons will change between foods, bells, paintings, ink bottles and many other items.

The core differences between story mode and free play don’t stand out very much while you’re playing. You’ll obviously be completing tasks and finishing levels in story mode, but gameplay is identical. Use this to your advantage if you need some practice getting around the difficult puzzle challenges. Take note that you are not penalized for failure during regular gameplay, so you can mess up levels as much as you’d like.

Graphics and Ambiance

The background images moving between each room are hauntingly beautiful. They feature some stunning visual effects and lay down the perfect background to play against. In fact, the whole game does give you the feeling of poking through a haunted mansion — very creepy indeed.

Menu items feature some very simple to use buttons and interface design. Legacy’s logo is displayed throughout loading screens and features bright outlines and light bursts. The map layout is also very peculiar, and gives that feeling of working with an old treasure scroll. Legacy portrays each graphical representation beautifully on both iPhone 3GS and 4 retina display.

The music in each level is simply stunning. In a notable way, it’s also very haunting, but this fits right along with the game. As you face new rooms you’ll find different musical scores to enjoy, and solving the mystery of this old haunted mansion is such an exciting experience, the sinister music only feeds into this energy.

Possible Improvements

Personally, I don’t have much to complain about. After you beat the game there isn’t very much to accomplish, but those purchasing Legacy aren’t looking for a full RPG task list anyways. It’s plenty of fun and a great time killer when you’re waiting on location or simply bored.

The only improvement I can think of is within game mechanics and playability. The difficulty is a little far out, so maybe offering a tutorial course would be beneficial to new users. Also, the touch screen isn’t as sensitive as you may think. This results in sluggish animations and at times it’s difficult to keep moving puzzle pieces. However, this doesn’t detract from the gameplay, and Legacy is one of the best puzzle apps I’ve had the experience of enjoying.

Conclusion

I love Legacy: Mystery Mansion and would highly recommend it for iOS game junkies. The app features a beautiful soundtrack and collection of graphics to go along with the frightening haunted mansion theme. You’ll find 25 fast-paced puzzles moving between maps and rooms to keep you busy.

I would give this game an 8/10 with a high recommendation. If you aren’t a puzzle fan then this title may not be for you. But if you’re willing to give Legacy a shot you will most likely not be disappointed.