Brightstone Mysteries: Paranormal Hotel (Hotel Collector's Edition)

More of a mixed rating than an outright downvote. This looks like a hidden-object puzzle adventure game, but it's not. There were no hidden object scenes. The closest was finding 9 parchments in a bookcase and items barely visible in the background. Puzzles were on the easy side but I liked them well enough. Originally, this was known as just "Hotel" and was a standard point-and-click adventure with a visible character you could move around. This was eventually changed to a more casual and faster first-person adventure. Both versions were included. This 3d-rendered game looked like it was made in the 90s for the PS2 instead of 2010 for the PC. I did like the 3d environments of the hotel, not so much outside of it. The story became quite silly, in a bad way, in the last third of the game. The dialogues were kind of awkward but were not orthographically incorrect. I liked that you could combine items in the inventory which is not a given in this type of game. I liked the list of tasks and integrated hint system. I finished in around 2 hours on the intermediate difficulty. If you like adventures and can get this very cheap, there are worse alternatives. Much better ones too.

An intriguing mystery with a compelling storyline, fully playable with Dutch subtitles

Brightstone Mysteries: Paranormal Hotel – Collector’s Edition is a supernatural mystery adventure developed and published by Cateia Games that blends hidden-object gameplay, puzzle-solving, and detective storytelling into a classic casual adventure experience. Set within an elegant yet unsettling hotel built upon the remains of an ancient Templar stronghold, the game immediately establishes an atmosphere of intrigue and suspense. What begins as an investigation into a missing necklace gradually transforms into a much larger mystery involving secret organizations, paranormal events, forgotten legends, and long-buried secrets. The premise may sound familiar to fans of the genre, but it is presented with enough enthusiasm and mystery to keep players engaged throughout the journey. The story follows detective Bridget Brightstone, whose search for clues leads her through a variety of mysterious locations connected to the hotel and its dark past. One of the game's strengths lies in how it slowly expands its narrative scope. Rather than revealing everything at once, the plot introduces new discoveries piece by piece, encouraging players to continue exploring and solving puzzles to uncove…

delayed review - i have played this game about 3 - 4 times - it is old style (lots of reading) but i enjoyed it.

This game felt like a fever dream, and I really liked it! The plot starts as something serious at first, but then it becomes really weird and the game acknowledges it. The absurdity genuinenely made me laugh. Amazing!

"Lame" would be the best word to describe this apology for a game. Lame, lazy storytelling. Lame, cringey dialogues and characters that make you wonder what the hell the authors were smoking. No voiceovers, except for the opening and the final scenes. The puzzle "difficulty" is a joke (putting together an eight-piece letter, picking up the only collectible item and using it on the only active hotspot in the room, etc.). 95% of the time you're just running back and forth to perform one mundane task after another. The only good thing about this piece of... ahem, gamedev is that I managed to beat it in one sitting in under two hours—otherwise, I wouldn't have tolerated this nonsense any longer. Even if you're the most avid fan of good old point-and-click adventures from the 2000s, don't let your nostalgia get the better of you and just give this one a hard pass. Can't recommend purchasing it even at a discount.