I just finished playing a few bits of Millennium Secrets: Emerald Curse, the latest creation from JetDogs Studios, the studio behind games like Annabel or the more “hardcore” Legends of Beowulf. The Emerald Curse is the first in the Millenium Secrets series and it’s quite promising (I’ve only played a beta of the game), making me wish to get my hands on the final product and solve the mystery.

Millennium Secrets: Emerald Curse tells the story of Kate McCormick, a private investigator that receives a call from her friend, professor Archibald Jones, an expert in ancient Mesoamerican civilizations. The old guy is in trouble and only manages to tell Kate about a mysterious briefcase she has to find and give to the authorities. Of course, after the FBI takes the briefcase, Kate decides to take the matter into her own hands and solve the mystery herself. And you will help her!

So prepare to find out everything about an ancient mystery of the Aztec Empire, expose a secret organization and save some lives in the process – everything in a thrilling game that’s really, really well done!

Millennium Secrets: Emerald Curse is a “casual first person adventure” – if such a genre exists already, meaning that fans of big point and click adventures like Myst, Benoit Sokal’s work and so on might not be completely amazed by JetDogs’ game. However, this doesn’t mean that the game is boring or poorly done. On the contrary!

The Emerald Curse mixes the first person adventure genre with hidden object elements and many puzzles/minigames that keep the action alert and you entertained. Even better, the minigames are not repetitive, so you will not get bored doing the same things over and over again. Or, if you find them too difficult (which shouldn’t be the case), you can skip them entirely and only focus on the mystery-solving part of the game.

The graphics are also really well done for what we can call a low budget title – and even though Millennium Secrets: Emerald Curse can’t battle with the graphic quality of such games as Crysis, it delivers some colorful visuals, some really nice environments and some enjoyable characters, all in 3D, unlike most of the hidden object games and adventures you can find on Big Fish Games. Add to that a really well done soundtrack that manages to add to the excitement and mystery of the game and you’ll really get some value for the $7 the game will cost on Big Fish Games.

So even though I only tested a beta version of the game I can say that I was fascinated and I can barely wait for the full product to hit the stores (it had to happen on the 12th of March, but apparently there was a tiny delay).

UPDATE: Now you can buy the game by clicking this link. Have fun!