Review from Mike David
Mosaic is a fun little title that wraps the mystery around King Tut's death with a unique and interesting puzzle game with all sorts of Egyptian flair. The premise is interesting enough as it promises to delve into who was responsible for the Pharaoh's death as well as all those who had motive to kill the young king. And while the way the game moves itself along with you solving puzzles that translate into the mystery, I had to grin as I listened to the voice narration and read the cleverly humorous passages that are made available prior to the beginning of each level.
But how the puzzle plays is similar to other puzzle-style games in this vein. Basically, at the beginning of each level, there is a strange shaped design in the middle of the screen made up of many smaller shapes. On the left of the screen shapes that may or may not fit begin falling and stacking up on the bottom of the screen. You must take the shapes and (by rotating) place them into spots on the large puzzle. Of course this is made all the more difficult by the pieces stacking up and coming at you that much more quickly. Now the game has several other little nuances that help mix things up. For one, every once in a while, one of the puzzle pieces is lightning charged and you place it on the board then, when the next lightning charged piece is placed on the board the two pieces charge up and fill in any empty spaces that are between them. So it makes sense to place the two pieces as far apart as possible so you can take that much more advantage of the magic.
Next, the puzzle sometimes has gems pop up on the spaces, if you can place a puzzle piece on the gem space before it disappears, you are rewarded with a glyph that appears with your stack of puzzle pieces on the left side. Now these glyphs are one of three types that you can use. One of them destroys all of your stack and therefore buys you more time since the game ends if your stack reaches the top of the screen. Another glyph shows you where you can put the puzzle pieces by lighting up the parts of the puzzle where they will fit. This is easily one of the best tricks you can get in the game. The last glyph is the falcon, the falcon can be used to pluck already used pieces from the puzzle permanently, allowing you to place another piece in it's place. Hmmm tricky...
But that's not all, oh no, this game still has more tricks for you to use in your quest for the truth. Next up, the crusher, the crusher is used to destroy any pieces that don't fit into the puzzle, but you need to use it pretty much as a last resort as it can only hold one piece at a time and each time it crushes, it slowly opens up before it will work again.
Lastly there is the enormous obelisk on the right side of the screen, each time a shape is placed on the puzzle the obelisk rises towards the top of the screen. When it reaches the top, shapes will appear on it as will a number, these are essentially free puzzle pieces, merely left click on the puzzle piece that's on the obelisk and it automatically goes to the puzzle. You can do this until the number is run down to zero and then the obelisk falls to the bottom of the screen and you must start over.
The graphics featured in Mosaic are a decent bunch. It is a puzzle game, after all, so I went in not expecting the second coming of the wheel; I am happy to say that the game looks pretty good. The puzzles and the shapes are a bit strange and that's the way they should be. Strange in the way that there are odd angles and pieces that look like they should fit, but don't. It's visually a complicated beast. The audio was fun, the Egyptian music that plays in the background is a nice accompaniment but the narrator who guides you along is where the audio does it best. A female voice that's both sly and educational at the same time.
Review from debraford123
Mosaic: Tomb Of Mystery - looks like an award winner to me! The graphics - stunning, well balanced, original, extreme care to detail, detailed, too 3 dimensional to be on a screen. The game play - original, interesting, challeging, twisting, multifaceted, educational, compelling, award winning caliber, a whole lot of fun, suitable for all ages, suitable for mild or intense play. The sound is excellent as expected. It's part of a family of games, that you know, you can play for hours -or- off and on for years, without ever getting sick of the music. As a parent, that raised a kid with game systems, I know most tunes will drive you batty after a few months. I've never had a problem with music or sound effects from Reflexive games. Mosaic: Tomb of Mystery game demo, shows you instantly why Reflexive wins awards every time they make a game. I knew there was something special to be released, because, their tenth year anniversary getting closer. This game explains all the reason's I went to Reflexive Entertainment, when I decided to do game reviews instead of ghost writing technical reports. Whereas, I am not a professional reviewer, yet, this would be the sort of break a newbie to the game reviewing genre of writing could want. There, could easily be a monthly article just on this game alone!!!!! I'm going to play it a lot. I stopped the demo, so I could buy it. It was an easy decision.
Review from Tony Leamer
Sometimes a game comes along that redefines a certain genre. Not a re-invention per se, but a game that sets a new standard in terms of play, theme and polish. Reflexive Entertainment's Mosaic: Tomb of Mystery has done just that for "Inlay"-style games. In the same way that driving a Porsche differs from driving a Chevy, playing Mosaic provides a gaming experience unlike any other "Inlay"-style game we've played before.