The Collection Chamber: THE MYSTERY AT GREVEHOLM 2: JOURNEY TO PLANUTUS

The Mystery at Greveholm II - Journey to Planutus

One day, the princess' rocket returns to Greveholm Castle. The rocket crashes and breaks up. It is empty...

Ivar and Lilian must now put the rocket back together, return to the princess' planet and rescue her from the Jellyfish King and his army of stinging jellyfish who have invaded Planutus. To succeed, you must solve many problems, fly through meteorite showers in space and build vehicles to move around quickly in the desert and mountains on Plantutus

However, time is limited...

You have just seven days to help the princess and her people...

After that, there will be no water left on Planutus. Ivar and Lilian also have the robot SPRAK with them to help them in situations they cannot deal with on their own...

~ from the back of the CD Jewel Case

Young Genius' second attempt at adapting the classic Swedish kids show changed things up dramatically. Gone is the Myst-style first-person adventuring and in its place, The Mystery at Greveholm 2: Journey to Planutus features a top-down perspective. Releasing in 1998, it's been two years since the spooky Christmas special aired on the SVT channel, an episode a day on the run up to Yuletide. It must surely be a beloved show.

Journey to Planutus tells an entirely different story. Castle Greveholm itself is barely features and there's not a single ghost sighting in sight. Instead, the plot sees young siblings Lillian and Ivar travel the faraway planet of Planutus with their intelligent robot named Sprak. This is because an alien princess has crash landed on the castle grounds that allowed the evil jellyfish king to take over her home world. Or at least that's what the manual summarises. In an effort to perhaps minimise translation costs, there is very little dialogue in the game, even though an English-language version was released. With its top-down viewpoint, open-world design and pre-rendered graphics, it combines to give the game a cheaper feeling than its entertaining predecessor.

Each character has their own limited inventory, so pay attention to what you're carrying (left).
Find the map to give you a good bird's eye view of the area. Or open the included PDF file (right).

That's not to say some interesting gameplay features haven't been touched upon. You play as Lillian, Ivar and Sprak simultaneously in an effort to explore Greveholm's surrounding area and the planet of Planutus itself. Your main aim is to find a number of items placed randomly on each playthrough to first launch the castle's turret-shaped rocket ship, and then to interact with a number of contraptions of this alien civilization. You'll wander around for quite some time, cursing the frustratingly placed trees blocking your path or the quality assurance team for the multiple time I got stuck in scenery. I seems a bit arbitrary too. Why are cogs, fairground mallets and keys strewn on the lawn when a more logical location would be more rewarding? Why are there so many delicious turkey legs, bananas and milk bottles sitting in the sun?

Well, that last one I can answer. These will restore your energy. All three companions will gradually tire out as you aimlessly walk around, and a little pick-me up of muddied meat and soured milk will keep your stamina up. Sprak, on the other hand, requires batteries, but he can carry a smorgasbord of food with him for emergencies - it the buggy programming allows you to that it. Don't worry too much if you drop to zero. Your little person will just collapse where they are to snooze for a few minutes before getting up again with full health. During these rests, I found myself controlling one of the other characters but you will temporarily lose access to any important items sleeping beauty was carrying.

Buildings and select other locations usually include a puzzle, though you might need an item to activate it (left).
Your journey to Planutus includes an asteroid-dodging schmup section (right).

It's a frustrating mechanic that dis-incentivises exploration and experimentation in a game that otherwise demands it. Couple with with an ever-ticking timer - you have seven in-game days to complete it - and it just makes what should be a fun and casual playthrough into a thoroughly frustrating adventure game. Thankfully, this timer can be turned off in the main menu.

The gameplay loop is somewhat repetitive too. Search the pre-rendered landscapes that are more often barren than beautiful until you have what you need to solve a puzzle. These are often located inside buildings like barns or warehouses and they range in difficulty, necessity and entertainment value. One shed requires a circular counter weight to lift the tarpaulin off of a work vehicle that can literally move bridges. Another requires those empty beer cans in order to knock optional clue pages off of a shelf. The best ones make you feel like your fixing a simple Rube-Goldberg machine which will then offer up a simple logic puzzle.

You need to find a lot of items to fix this machine; cue aimless wondering (left).
Poor Lillian is pooped. Give it a few minutes and she'll be full o' beans again (right).

There are a couple of features that can help you solve the game. Hidden scrolls will give you access to a world map which is useful to plan routes. You will also find portals in the shape of archways that offer assistance. The Time Portal will turn back time 24 hours (as long as a whole day has passed) while the Internet Portal is a little more fascinating. Combine two different random items found in the game world to create a magical object. When accessed via the Internet Panel (the @ symbol or "I" key), you can perform one of seven abilities. These include being able to run with the Fast Shoes, spawn bananas with the Food Tree or slow speed with the Hour Glass. Some items will also replace the maps or hint scrolls that can also be found separately in the game world.

When you reach the game's end, a couple of hours may have passed but most of that time was spend searching for the randomly placed items. When you're not doing that, you get glimpses of the charm found in the first game but without it you're looking at about 30 minutes of gameplay at most. The Mystery of Greveholm 2: Journey to Planutus is a bit of a let down after the welcome efforts of the first so I can't be as enthusiastic as I hoped. There is one more game in the series that returns to its Myst-like roots, but that will have to wait until next time. Until then, keep your expectations low before launching.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox 0.74 running Windows '95. Manual & Map included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

IMPORTANT - Remember to shut down the emulated version of Windows before exiting DOSBox. This could potentially result in errors, lost saves and corrupt data. The program will automatically shut down when you exit the game.

File Size: 428 Mb. Install Size: 857 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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