The Collection Chamber: THE MYSTERY AT GREVEHOLM 3: THE OLD LEGEND

It is early in the 19th century at Greveholm Castle. One hundred years before the adventures in which you were involved in Greveholm 1 och 2 began. The duke lives in the castle, together with his servant Jean and the princess. The duke is very fond of music and is looking for the sheet of music of "The old castle song".

Jean has made the disastrous mistake of using the back of the duke's sheets of music to paint his portraits of the duke. He has already sent the portraits to different parts of the country in an attempt to find a wife for the duke.

As a punishment, the duke locks Jean and Sprak in the cellar. But how can the duke get his music back? Only Sprak knows where it is. The princess must interpret the secret signals Sprak sends her. They will show her the way.

Help the princess! The duke will not release Jean and Sprak from the prison until all of the music has been returned to the castle...

~ from the back of the CD Jewel Case

Sprak and the duke are back in the third instalment of adventure games based on the Swedish Christmas television special. After the top-down perspective of the second game, Mystery at Greveholm 3: The Old Legend returns to the Myst-style first-person adventuring of the superior original. Or at least it looks like it does from the screenshots. In actuality it is again a very different beast; a mini-game puzzle collection.

We begin in the familiar castle. We're on the second floor hallway looking into the entrance of Sprak's dungeon room. On the right, the duke is continuously playing the piano trying to remember how to play a specific song. It's sheet music is missing and has been ripped up and scattered all over Sweden. This begins a rather rewarding gameplay loop that puts an emphasis on individual puzzles and mini-games over exploration and story.

The duke will play his piano through each of the castle's hallway puzzles (left).

Your reward; a battery! Use it to charge up Sprak so you can unlock new areas (right).

First, we have to solve the current hallway puzzle. These are mostly simple problems involving counting numbers, reading letters and matching sounds for the educational crowd. A success rewards you with a battery at which point you can go into the robot Sprak's room and power him up. Repeat his beeps on the sound machine (a game of Simon Says) and you're rewarded with a bunch of stuff; a clue scroll, and inventory item and coordinates for a new location. Clue scrolls contain images of future puzzles. Lightly coloured scrolls refer to those in the castle, while darker ones refer to those out in the world.

Once we've tired of playing with Sprak, it's time to head on over to the rocket ship and see the sights of Sweden. From the hallway, head left and pull the switch to choose your destination. No matter where you go, the mini-games aren't immediately accessible. This is where those inventory items come in. You might have a bucket which needs adding to a well, a variety of balls with which to prepare a cannon, or a bunch of cogs and chains that allow you to open up an observatory. The items that Sprak gave you along with the location won't always relate so you might have to complete a few more castle puzzles first. Solving these more conventional adventure-game puzzles are, to my mind, the best thing about this game. The worst would be some of the mini-games they unlock which vary drastically in quality.

Solve a game of Simon with Sprak (left) before heading out to your newly uncovered destination (right).

While these mini-games are a bit more involved than the castle puzzles, they usually control poorly or may even be riddled with a bug or two. Occasionally, you will be required to move your hand away from the mouse and make use of the keyboard instead. Each one is a simple, arcadey affair that come in a variety of playstyles. One game requires you to steady the rocket ship so you can hook a portrait held inside a house careening down a lava river (I didn't say it wasn't imaginative). Another sees you control the princess as she navigates an underground cave system in a bucket. You even take control of a table in one segment, manipulating it to fit through the corridors of a stately home. While the best of these are more in-depth logic puzzles, those which require direct control are a complete pain. In fact, controlling these unresponsive avatars is more difficult than actually solving the damn thing. Even simple walking feels off in some of the other games.

At the bottom of the screen are 5 icons. The first is the Castle Greveholm itself, which acts as the main menu where you can save, load and quit. The second is the map of Sweden. Click on it to see how many locations you've uncovered and completed. In the middle is your inventory. Open it to select an item which will be placed on top of it ready to be dragged and dropped when needed. The scroll takes you to your collected clues, though considering the ease of the game you won't need this much. On the right is your magic power. Or, more specifically the power of the princess. This is used in a number of mini-games where you directly control the royal. It's use differs between games and the gauge will deplete when used so you can't just try it out willy-nilly. Thankfully, it will be obvious where to use it and there'll likely be a few mana-replenishing gold lumps scattered around too.

Amass clue scrolls to give you hints whenever you're stuck (left).
Even if you aren't, their art is certainly worth a gander (right).

The more you play, the more prevalent the game's low budget becomes. It needed a bit longer during the quality assurance phase to tidy up some of the control issues and disheartening bugs (though I admit some of it may be down to emulation). It also looks suspiciously similar to the first game. So much so that I wouldn't blame you if you thought they were one and the same. Particularly in the castle grounds, the graphics are so eerily familiar I'd say a lot of the screens have been ripped and re-used directly from it. Then again, this was a budget title at a budget price which contains a hefty chunk of gameplay on the CD so you can't complain too much I suppose.

While I wouldn't say this Old Legend is as good as the first Greveholm mystery, it is a far sight better that our journey to Planutus. Other than the odd glitch and control issues, the puzzles and mini-games spark the imagination in both presentation and execution. Make no mistake, The Mystery at Greveholm 3: The Old Legend is a decently worthwhile successor.

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 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: 272 Mb. Install Size: 526 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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