The Mystery of the Crystal Portal

In Brief

The Mystery of the Crystal Portal is a hidden object game originally released via Real Arcade (now part of Gamehouse) during the summer of 2008.

Introduction:

Embark on a brain-bending adventure that's full of unique Hidden Object fun! Journalist Nicole Rankwist has always been close to her archaeologist father, so when he goes missing, Nicole knows she has to find him! After all, he had apparently just made a discovery that could change the course of humanity. Join Nicole as she searches the globe on an eye-popping quest to find her father and discover The Mystery of the Crystal Portal.

Reference accessed HERE. Jan 26th 2020

The Game:

The Mystery of the Crystal Portal, centers on journalist Nicole Rankvist as she receives a strange note from her archaeologist father, Robert, saying that he’s discovered an artifact that has the power to change humanity. When Robert goes missing, Nicole must find pieces of the Crystal Portal key and retrace Robert’s steps by – you guessed it – searching for hidden objects!

Nicole’s journey takes her to five exotic locations, including Japan, the Swiss Alps, the Mayan ruins of Guatemala, and wintry Russia. Each location is broken into two or three scenes where you must search for "normal" objects (the usual random assortment of items such as vase, bucket and saw), story items that will help you advance (like a jug of gasoline to power a generator), container items (more on these in a moment) and "puzzle" items like gears and tile fragments that unlock the final stage of each round, which is always a puzzle game of some sort.

The container items that represent The Mystery of the Crystal Portal‘s major game play twist. Once you find and click on one of these special items, it will open up to reveal a second set of items that you need to find, click on and drag into the container in order to complete it.

Certain containers, when completed, will move or disintegrate to reveal additional objects underneath. Some objects have to be found and used in other scenes, such as finding a can of gasoline to power a generator to light up a darkened cave for you to explore.

The containers are a neat idea, except that you have no idea what the containers look like beforehand because, unlike most hidden object games, you aren’t shown a silhouette or picture of what you’re looking for – it’s only after you’ve found and clicked on the container that little images appear of the objects you’re supposed to find and put inside.

In other words, finding each container involves clicking around randomly until your mouse cursor changes shape to indicate that the object can be clicked on – and then you know that you’ve found a container. Strangely, a little icon of the container shows up only after you’ve found it, and not before.

There’s also the feeling that the story and the sequence of events you’re meant to follow in the game isn’t quite air-tight. For example, when I picked up the last stone in a series of stones to find, Nicole exclaimed that the "last piece of stone was behind the fireplace!" when actually the last stone I picked up was on a shelf. On another occasion, I was told to find matches in one scene so that I could light a fire in another scene to get a better look at a crest at the back of the fireplace. But when I found the matches and returned to the room, the fire was burning but I clicked on the crest and nothing happened. I had to find all the items in a lamp container before the fireplace crest became clickable. (Ok…)

These foibles are easier to overlook owing to the fact that there are no time limits or penalties for random clicking, and unlimited hints as long as you’re prepared to wait for the hint bar to refill (although sometimes hints reveal items that go into containers you haven’t found yet, which isn’t very helpful).

The game has good graphics in its favor, including beautiful scrolling panoramas that introduce each new location. It’ s evident that a lot of care was taken to place items in the scenes that look like they belong there instead of completely random stock photo clutter (in other words, you won’t see a Statue of Liberty or Eiffel Tower amongst the Mayan ruin, thankfully.

The verdict: The Mystery of the Crystal Portal is a good, though not stellar, hidden object game whose laid back set of rules is sure to provide a relaxing experience free of the stress of time limits and penalties for random clicking or using up hints.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Jan 26th 2020

Videos and Walkthroughs of The Mystery of the Crystal Portal:

You can see several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE (Deutsche), HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. You can find written walkthroughs to help if you get stuck so HERE and HERE

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via TooMky Games 24/7 HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it HERE via Big Fish Games.

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting The Mystery of the Crystal Portal to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try whitelisting the setup.gcd file. In the almost 11 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, you have a game to offer the community, or are unable to download the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve you can do so HERE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank TooMky Games for giving away The Mystery of the Crystal Portal and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If The Mystery of the Crystal Portal doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

From now until Half-Life : Alyx is released sometime in March, every Half-life game is free to play on Steam HERE. They include, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift and Team Fortress Classic

Indie Gala has some new games added to their free section; these include Deep Space Anomaly - an intensive, fascinating and mad game which is sweeping away all borders where the main objective - to kill enemies and to have fun! Also, Affliction - which is set in the fictional Eastern European country of Ghulovka, amidst a terrible civil war, Affliction allows players to take on the role of Vasya, a patient plagued by nightmares and fractured memories, who awakes inside of a cell in a bizarre research facility where grim human experiments are taking place; and Disgraced - a game based in Feudal Japan, Disgraced allows you to assume the role of a soldier who was reluctantly conscripted into the newly proclaimed Shogun's army. Serving a corrupt and tyrannical government, you're expected to follow orders and commit terrible atrocities. Torn between duty and justice, you must choose your own path, and forge your own destiny

Don't forget to check out the Epic game store for the latest freebie on offer HERE/. It's an excellent physics based game called 'The Bridge'; a logic puzzle game that forces the player to re-evaluate their preconceptions of physics and perspective. It is Isaac Newton meets M.C. Escher combo where you manipulate gravity to redefine the ceiling as the floor while venturing through impossible architectures. Next week it's the excellent Farming Simulator 19

There are more free games over at Indie Gala HERE.

Finally, check out Delenns thread over in the Game Discussion forums for details of other free games and offers HERE