An American journalist Jonathan Hunt is visiting his mother's birthplace in Eger, a town in Hungary. It's not only his family history that has brought him there, as he's also found two letters hidden in a book that once belonged to his great-grandfather. The letters are addressed to a scientist called Abray, who seems to have been researching time travel in the late 19th century.
Jonathan, always the inquisitive journalist, wants to find out if there are any relatives of Abrays left. After arriving at Eger, he gets help from a pretty tourist assistant Juli, who provides a lot of information to him. He also meets an old man, who has been researching a mystery hidden in the novels of a famous, and quite real, Hungarian writer Géza Gárdonyi. The old man believes, that the clues in the novels will prove that a character of Yoomurjak in Gárdonyi's novels was, in fact, an actual time traveller, who went back in time using the device Abray created.
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| "Young" journalist Hunt from America. |
The next day begins with a more sinister note, as when Jonathan goes to meet the old man, he learns he has died. But as he recognized a kindred spirit, the man has left the journalist keys to his home, from where all his research is. With the data in hand, Jonathan sets out to find the truth of the matter. If nothing else, it will make a decent article.
I guess the right way to describe Yoomurjak's Ring is to call it a Myst-clone. It is a point and click adventure, where all the scenes are presented from a 1st person view you can freely rotate 380 degrees. It's a pretty straightforward adventure game with some inventory puzzles and running around Eger in a hunt for the next puzzle to solve. Some of these puzzles are easy, but towards the end, the puzzles do turn more convoluted. Especially the book puzzle is a bit too much for my tastes, as it does require you to piece in clues that are hidden in the hundreds of screens the game consists of. Which is another way of describing a hotspot hunt.
The game itself is an FMV title. The screens are all photos of the city of Eger in Hungary and as such, it often feels like a game designed in the guidance of the local tourism board. I'd say more than half of the screens are there just for the show and have no other function than present Eger to people who've never even heard of the place. You know, it kind of reminds me of Google Stree View with some game elements thrown in. The story bits are shown in full FMV, laced with appropriately cheesy acting considering the story. I especially liked how every woman in the game gets instantly flirtatious with Jonathan Hunt, who is constantly referred to as a young man despite the actor looks anything but.
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| Juli has no defence against Hunt's boyish charm |
Yoomurjak's Ring was originally released as a Hungarian only title. The later 2009 release still has Hungarian only audio, but it has been subtitled into English. The quality of the translation does leave some room for improvement, as it at places a bit clumsy. Then again, that might be considered fitting, or even intentional, for the cheesy b-flick aesthetics of the script.
You might get the biggest kick out of the game if you are a fan of games set in real places of the world. It's not necessarily the best-designed game, but there is a certain amount of charm about it. A part of it comes from the location, bigger part from the silly story. In a word, if you like old b-sci-fi, you might get even a bigger kick out of the game.
If this review wet your tongue for some FMV action, you can buy Yoomurjak's Ring, and its sequel Miazma, from Steam.
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