Story game “Ink Mountains and Mystery” (IMM) opens with beautiful music laced with heavy Asian influence and a delicate, well drawn scene of a grassy mountain surrounded by big trees swaying in wind. It looks extremely peaceful and the first impression of this game is that it will be relaxing.

IMM takes the player through a continuous story surrounding two main characters as they journey through paintings to find different colors. The game goes through chapters as the player progresses, and each chapter features a central theme with included examples such as kindness, friendship and religion.

The story of the game is pure and features what seems to be genuine love for the arts. The main characters are amazed at different paintings and are in amazement of various painters throughout the game.

IMM is also filled with excellent animation. The artists who worked on the game clearly spent an excruciating amount of time designing every aspect of the visuals. There isn’t a single scene that doesn’t look like it took a while to design. The whole game is entirely breathtaking when it comes to the visual aspect. The style is very delicate and pretty with soft colors and light, feathery strokes, thus mirroring it’s content. It seems like every scene is a part of a painting, because of the style, deliberately showing brush strokes and paint dribbles in the title sequences and cut scenes.

Aside from IMM’s beauty, there are some problems with the game. The first one is the constant mention of religion. The main characters constantly mention “Buddha” and send prayers to him. In the description, it should be written that the player is not getting just an art game, they’re also getting a lesson in Buddhism. This might not be a huge problem, but it is an important part of the game and if not expected, it could get repetitive and annoying.

The game can also get a bit redundant at times. The challenges are similar throughout the game and grow boring. IMM isn’t very dynamic as there is no thrill or excitement. Despite its purpose, there are other ways to project a message in a game, and this was a weak spot in IMM.

Another problem with the game is the constant bugs. The game glitches quite frequently and develops lagging issues. The beginning scenes of the game lagged quite a bit and as the game progressed, and the screen froze and crashed multiple times. On the fifth time the software crashed, the game reset progress and started from the beginning again.

Although IMM is beautiful, you must have a lot of patience to continue playing this game amid all the bugs. It seems like the creators of this game would be better suited to make breathtaking artwork rather than spending time developing a game such as this one.

However, the game might appeal to some players who prefer simpler, slower games to help with anxiety or to put them to sleep. It would be very good in that sense, being that the music is calming and the colors are soft. Although the stories and situations can be repetitive, they do take a bit of thinking and analytical problem solving. If looking to escape the stresses of a long day, this game can definitely work to achieve that sense of serenity.