Game Review: Enigmatis 2 – The Mists of Ravenwood (Xbox One)

Artifex Mundi’s second story in the Enigmatis series (The Mists of Ravenwood) begins two years after the events of the first game, Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek. You can read our review of that game here as well as our reviews of other Artifex Mundi games below:

Clockwork Tales: Of Ink & Glass
Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart
Nightmares from The Deep – The Siren’s Call

The games are puzzle adventures with point & click elements filled with beautiful, varied locations & interesting stories. The first Enigmatis game was one of the strongest stories to date & while The Mists of Ravenwood is another great game, it doesn’t have quite the same impact.

Placed once again in the role of the female protagonist from the first game. She has spent the months after the events of The Ghosts of Maple Creek hunting down the evil preacher, the villain of the last game.

She hears about people going missing & decides to investigate discovering an abandoned RV outside Ravenwood Park. The RV has signs of being attacked by some sort of large creature & the trail leads into the park.

What awaits our heroine within? Will she solve the mystery of the Park or become just another victim of those who wait inside?

As always gameplay is straight-forward enough. You have no direct control over the character but rather you move a cursor around the screen. Items can be picked up (all items are always used to progress the game), locations moved between & as always, an item-search mini-game. Artifex Mundi appeared to have listened to criticism here as this mini-game is far less used.

Often just convenient ways for you to find an item that will help you progress, it’s the actual puzzles that shine here. The Mists of Ravenwood Park has some decent challenge but never crosses the line to become frustrating.

The good narrative makes each puzzle feel like a stepping stone, they don’t feel jammed in just to slow progress. Should you be struggling there are also a number of handy ways you can get help. A rechargeable hint button & map icons can get you out of a jam quickly.

The evidence tracker makes a return here, picking up scraps of information that gets added to your evidence wall. It’s fun to see the case slowly unravel as you piece together the roles of the suspects, the victims & how your part plays out too.

Visually the Mists of Ravenwood Park is as pretty as all Artifex Mundi games. The beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds & interesting locations combine to make a fascinating world. It can be completed in a few hours depending on how often you hit that skip button but an extra difficulty level & bonus chapter add some extra length.

It’s another worthy buy even if it’s not as memorable as the first one.