Mary's Mystery: Hidden Object

Settle in with a pot of tea and your sharpest pair of eyes, because you're about to help Mary unravel the kind of old-school mystery Agatha Christie would've loved. This beautifully illustrated hidden object game takes place in 1920s England, complete with gramophones, pearl necklaces, and an abundance of velvet wallpaper. You're on a mission to find Mary's sister Alice, and that means combing through hand-drawn rooms stuffed with secrets, clues, and red herrings. Each scene gives you a list of objects to find, but don't expect it to be a one-and-done. The game cleverly sends you back through the same scene multiple times with new combinations to challenge your memory. Sometimes you'll find a key item, like a vinyl record, that triggers a puzzle or interactive scene: pop it on the gramophone and suddenly you're chasing musical notes too. You'll also encounter little logic puzzles, broken gadgets to reassemble, and cryptic notes that need decoding. Energy (represented by lightning bolts) is used to enter rooms, and while it does refill over time, it only regenerates when the window is visible: minimize it and you're out of luck, which makes this game strangely suited to old-school patience or strategic multitasking. Beyond solving mysteries, you'll also get to decorate your new detective agency, room by room, using stars you earn through play. You can revamp the lobby, fix up the study, and bring some charm back to the garden while you unravel the bigger mystery one object at a time. The music, a moody blend of piano and strings, sets the perfect tone, somewhere between cozy and suspenseful. Fun fact: Gramophones, which feature in the game, were invented in the late 1800s and popularized in the 1920s. Mary would've needed to hand-wind it every time she wanted to hear her sister's favorite tune.