MIAZMA or the Devil's Stone

pros

✅ story is intriguing. journalist Jonathan Hunt is approached by a friend who works for Atomki, a Nuclear Research Institute, to investigate the disappearance of her brother. What begins as a simple missing persons case soon turns into something much more than Hunt bargained for, which sets him on the trail of a piece of ancient meteorite nicknamed "The Devil’s Stone".
✅ when you press the space button, hotspots are highlighted, so there is no need to pixelhunt
✅ decent english voice acting
✅ there is a nice variety of interesting and eccentric side characters.
✅ well quality FMV
✅ generally well acted by some lead actors
✅ decent length
✅ there is auto save
✅ mostly nice variety and many complex, challenging puzzles. There are also inventory-based puzzles to solve, so you can also make multiple combinations in your inventory and create new items. The majority of the puzzle solutions in this game are based on science and historical scientific figures.
✅ there is a quick travel map, which prevents some backtracking
✅ there are two difficulty options (easy and hard)
✅ there are some interesting indoor and outdoor locations from Hungary.
✅ nice background musics


cons

❌ there are too many boring scientific and mundane conversations with side characters
❌ there are no Steam achievements and cards
❌ some campy acting from side actors.
❌ general B movie and cheesy feeling
❌ there is too much back-and-forth between areas
❌ the last six safe lock puzzles are quite convoluted and tedious.

Overall this is an interesting and fun to play/watch FMV interactive point and click adventure game.

I have a soft spot for FMV games such as this one; nowadays the trend leans more towards choices matter interactive movies rather than traditional FMV adventure games. The English dubbing in this particular game isn't great, but the rest holds up fine. Yoomurjak's Ring stood out to me a bit more because it featured more puzzles, better story and the gameplay felt like navigating Google Maps Street View.

Really enjoyed the story line and puzzles. I admit there's no way I was going to solve some of these without help from the developer's walkthru, but with that help this game was thoroughly entertaining. It takes some getting used to with the stillshots and constant jumping from lab to lab, and you definitely want to take notes during gameplay. However, the dialogue is good and story line keeps you hooked. I recommend it!

Miazma or the Devil's Stone is an adventure, puzzle, point and click game with FMV elements. This game is the sequel for Yoomurjak's ring, where you playing as Jonathan Hunt, an american journalist, who lives in Hungary and want to buy a house, but for that, he needs to check the water at his property, so he goes to Debrecen to a laboratory to check his sample, however a boy disappears from the laboratory and he needs to uncover his whereabout and the secrets of the place and the city.

I mostly played the Hungarian version of the game, which is not on Steam, so my playtime is not accurate, I have around 12 hours in the game.

I'm going to compare the game to Yoomurjak's ring.

This game has bit bigger soundtrack, with modern, instrumental tracks, which I enjoyed through out the game. The game is from 2015, and for it's time, it looks visually all right. The new "room camera", where you can see the main character waiting for instructions, is a clever idea, and it has it's moments, however sometimes it looks weird when the character standing roughly still. The main menu is minimalistic, but in a modern way, I liked it, and atleast it had a bit more settings option, than Yoomurjak's ring. The more detailed view of objects and items is a good idea, and it also add more puzzles to the game. The UI is okay in the game, however sometimes is in the way, when the cursor is around the top or the bottom of the screen. This game has more different characters, then Yoomurjak, which I liked it, however they are not "stick to the ground", they all have their on monomania. The area which the player can discover (Atomki labs and Debrecen) are well made and interesting. Really good easy mode, which actually fix the pixel hunting and let the player skipping puzzles

However, the game sadly not perfect. Probably the most annyoing thing in the game, is when you do a dialouge, the game will immedietly throw you to the room screen, so you need to choose the character again and choose a topic for talking every single time. The base situation and how our character got into the lab is somewhat a mystery for me still and I think it's not well written. Also a few characters background with the player's character is also not really understandable. Some puzzles are still overdone and overthought, but only just a few. There are some weird moments in the story, which has no sense at all. Some items, which the player helps from the beginning is literally useless and only good around the last hour. In the game, it's really easy to skip some cutscenes. The ending is clashed. The English voice lines really sounds wrong to me. Maybe it's because I'm Hungarian and I'm not into the English voices, but still sound horrible to me.

In general, Miazma is definietly a better game, than Yoomurjak's ring, so this is definietly one step ahead. In general, the game took away some, but give some too for the player, and I somewhat liked the game, even though there were some puzzles which was beyond on my knowledge, but most of them were all right. To be honest, I can recommend this game for a shot, but I suggest to get the Hungarian voice lines. For 8.2€, try to get the game for 7€.

Really disappointing. We gave these guys another chance after that poorly designed Yoomurjack Ring game but sadly this is another wasted opportunity with absurd puzzles - going nowhere without a walkthrough - uninstalled halfway through the game, so many superior titles to try

This is not as good as the first game in the series, Yoomurjak's Ring, the plot of which was far more intriguing, but this one is still worth playing. primarily for the puzzles in the second half. I think part of the problem with this game compared to its predecessor is the pacing. Here all the detective/investigation work is in the first half of the game and all the puzzles are in the last half. Because of this you get a bit bored of each before they are done. Additionally, I really wish this Steam version had an option for Hungarian voice with English subtitles. It only has English dubbing, and while a couple of the actors are okay, the majority are terrible. It's also a bit disappointing that, although it bills itself as a full motion video game, this is only once in a while. Mostly you look at still images of the actors.

Overall, the game is unique and you learn a bit about Hungarian scientists, and their contributions in physics, which is very nice. I might have heard, at some point, the Hungarians found the first evidence of the neutrino--for instance--but this put it in context and made me care about it. The puzzles are all logical and solvable without a walkthrough, though a couple of things take quite a bit of trial and error since they don't work the way you'd like them to. What I don't really care for is all the walking around required to solve them. And quite often you see just what you are supposed to do and where to go to do it, but even if you go to the proper place, the game won't let you do the thing until you've talked to another person in a different room who tells you to do the thing you already know.

So, yes, this is a very weak recommendation. I'm sure there are better adventures games than this out there to spend your time with, but I suppose I'm clicking the positive button on the review because I didn't regret my time with it and I would like to see another similar educational game in series.

This game is a bit hard to describe, its FMV point and click puzzle mystery game set in Hungary. Its also a sequel to another game I haven't played called Yoomurjak's ring and hasn't been ported to PC as far as I could find. But the lack of knowledge didn't affect my time with this game.

You play Jonathan Hunt a New York journalist who settled down in Hungary and has a bit of reputation because of the first game. He's asked by a friend for a nuclear researcher insitute where he's asked to find her missing brother, but as you get to know the characters and enviroment, you realize there's more going on.

And there are a lot of characters and enviroments to find, the majority a bit of charm to them while others are pretty forgettable and only seen a few times in the game. It feels like one of those B-Movies that take themselves a bit too seriously and maybe that was the charm of this game but its hard to say exactly what they were going for? It never gets too grim, and there's a lot of use of scienctific principles for the puzzles, which would have taken a lot longer to solve if I didn't have hints helping me. But their a clever of point and click adventure game logic puzzles with actual science behind their use, though the exact accuracy is better left to someone who understand it better.

The game is also in a different language but was dubbed in English and its the only option to play it in, the actors are mix bag, some do the voice work well and you can tell others were recording in a closet. There isn't any stand out performances but the actors emote well enough to get the feel of the characters personality though I was having trouble remember who was who even later in the game?

The only real grip I have about this game is the interface. Like any other Point and click game you have to click around the screen and combine items to make progress, but for some reason the markers for seeing the objects fad away after being pointed out and to see it again you have to push a button at the bottom of the screen in order to point it out as its giving you a hint. I dont really see how its a hint more so point to what you can click as the game doesn't tell me what I can do with the items it could at least point to where items are so I can work it from there.

On top of that every time you transition from one place to another it shows a short shot of the John entering the room or building, the first time made sense since there are real locations aside from the sets but the movie part of the FMV felt undeeded and seemed like it was meant to pad out the time, granted you can skip them as soon as they show up so its less of an issue. The only time it felt undeeded was when your in the apartment and you click on the bathroom for john to use and the screen will just show the room for a minute while you hear showering in the background, no idea why it was in there?

And I think that is the main demographic for this game, people interested in science, history and Hungary. It takes a lot inspiration from old adventure games and can feel like one too for better or worse. And while it isn't bad, I can easily see people being bored by the beginning of the game and not seeing the work put into the later half. But once you get past you still get convoluted puzzles. That aside it was charming, a nice FMV that'll get a good number of hours out of but only if you go in already knowing what your in for.

Extremely boring FMV game wich tests your level of patience with non stop dialogs and little or no puzzling. Not recommended even for the fans of FMV games of the past, many of which were actually good. This one is not, so beware...

The storyline is pretty interesting, and the visuals and acting are highly amusing. There are some funny parts, and some serious parts. If you like puzzle games and listening/reading dialogue, you'll enjoy this!

I like the slow story-rich games and loved this one. My only complaint is that imho some puzzles were too difficult (in easy mode.) The two walkthrough I found on YouTube end right at the point where it became (overly?) difficult. That said, I'm not a puzzle person and you might find them simple.

The setting and characters are charming and you'll also have a school-like learning experience.

I did not mind the "slideshow presentation" at all. I felt it was one of the ways the game entertained with subtle humor.

I'll be looking for more games by this team.

Hooray to FMV

grating english dub WTF?
slideshow WTF?
no puzzles WTF?
irritating characters WTF?

Decent FMV try. I love playing FMV games from way back so i always give it a try when i find a new one. Nice story, quite funny acting and nice puzzles except 1-2. They had to try better for the FMV dialogues and to place a few places cause it is very linear and straight forward. I recommend buying it only on sales.

Interesting story and that last puzzle is a doozy.

I found Miazma to be interesting but for me, the final 6 puzzles were too convoluted/complex and without the help of a walkthrough, I would not have been able to solve them.

Excellent game! Tt's a treat to have such a good FMV game with well-constructed puzzles (the final scavenger hunt is very good, it's on par with GK3's Serpent Rouge, but scientific instead of esoteric) and a good story to boot.

This is a fascinating game and is located not just in Hungary but at Atomki which is a real place... Institute for Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
I enjoyed the story, and the FMV was great.

I recommend to use the notebook that is with ones inventory ; it is very helpful.
It documents all dialogues and one can review
important information that was imparted or even more , where to head next.

I enjoyed the history and learning about the discovery of the the meteorites..
The earlier puzzles and the investigative aspects were my favourites.
I am sure that there will be people that ADORE the 6 physics puzzles that occur later in this game, but quite frankly, I skipped some of those. (Luckily there is this option )
(I was fascinated to learn the connection with this game and AGON (a very tricky adventure game, perhaps remembered by some) I do recommend this game....

I can’t recommend this game for everyone by a long shot. If after I’m done with this review, you’re interested, then you’ll probably like it. I did.

First, you should know I’m a sucker for FMV games. With a few exceptions, they’re usually campy, look homemade, and don’t exactly have the best acting talent in the world. But sometimes, it’s those very things that make them entertaining and funny to me. This is not really a complete FMV game. They filmed the main character walking around a lovely city in Hungary and a scientific research campus. When he enters a room, he stops and when it comes time for dialogues, you will see the answering character’s face in a sequence of still shots of expressions fitting their character answering the question, but this technique leaves the faces out of sync with the voices. At first it was awful to me, but I got used to the style and it just wasn’t a thing that bothered me anymore.

The dialogue mechanics is somewhat annoying. Say you have 3 questions to ask. The question bubble shows up on the character. Click on it and pick one of the 3. The character answers and the dialogue close-up window closes. Then click on the bubble again and pick from the remaining choices, etc.

The developers spent a lot of time on the scenes. We get a historical tour, with a trip to the botanical gardens, very old buildings with the works of Hungarian artists, etc. Each scientist you visit has decorated their offices to suit their personalities and the care with the decorations, as well as the variety of complex scientific equipment in so many scenes (about 10 on the campus alone) was impressive to me.

But how was the story? There is a mystery afoot. A young man disappears leaving an enigmatic note. The story switches between the investigator on the case and the missing man and his experiences. Easily the first hour or probably two of the game is spent moving from quirky character to quirky character asking questions and figuring out what’s going on. Without giving too much away, the Devil’s Stone is a meteorite and most of the story and puzzles concern physics and then general science in a variety of specialties. A bit of geology here. A bit of chemistry there, etc. There is a mystery, but this is not a whodunnit. It’s more of an unraveling of secrets and escaping danger mystery.

Puzzles? Oh boy, there are puzzles! Like I said though, the game starts dialogue heavy. You are running from place to place, talking and talking and talking some more. I thought, is there any gameplay?? Then it begins. There are three main sets of multiple puzzles. The first set are physics experiments. Read a textbook and apply what you’ve learned in real life. Not as easy as it sounds. The second are dialogue choices – have you been paying attention puzzles. And the last set consists of 6 sets of clues. Solving each set opens one lock on a safe. I thought this last set was great. To solve each one, you need to talk to the right person, solve some puzzles and integrate multiple clues into a numeric solution to open each lock. Very high challenge level to get to the end of it all.

A journal records all your conversations for reference. You have a phone with a Mini-Wiki. It has a set of key pages already listed, but you can also type terms in and see if there is an entry. There are maps upon exiting scenes, so you aren’t walking for days. And if you click as the character is entering a scene, it will jump straight to dialogue time so you don’t walk to keep watching that over and over.

Although the game got off to a slow start for me, by the time the pace started picking up, I got hooked and did enjoy the super challenge and interesting story of the game. It’s not for everyone, but if you have patience and want to spend some serious time talking and reading about science and puzzling your way through, I’d say give it a go.

Playing this game was a great fun. I forgot time and enjoyed it.
The psychological description in detail was remarkable.
The diary book in the game helped me when I missed closed captions.
I'm looking forward to the next work of this team.

I really love FMV games and generally have a high tolerance (and appreciation) for the campiness that tends to come along with them. This game is really, really bad. Through the first two hours of play I did nothing but listen to boring voices narrate clumsy dialogue. There were no puzzles or other elements of challenge. The acting is also really difficult to watch; way past being enjoyably campy. Despite being an FMV game most of the dialogue is delivered over top of a slideshow of the character's face so you aren't even benefitting from having an actor in that role. The voice dubbing is brutal; I encountered only one character in the first two hours that sounded even remotely animated. Expect to be inundated with really boring and poorly worded explanations of scientific concepts to the point where you dread clicking the next dialogue option. As if that weren't enough, the attempts to establish the main character as some sort of womanizer come across as both demeaning and deeply embarassing. I would really hate for this to be someone's first experience with the genre. Please avoid.

I would respectfully suggest that I disagree about the game. OK, if y9u want an action-packed, bang bang, zap zap, testosterone-loaded game, this game is not for you. This game is really a detective story and, I think, quite interesting for all that. As an older player, I prefer more cerebral games, and I have to say that action games leave me totally cold.

However, each to their own. I enjoyed the game.