"Mystery of the Ancestral Estate" is the third game in the Secrets of the Dark series. Like the first two it is a hidden object game. Screens have a list of objects that need to be found. Each object found is struck off the list. Items gathered during your journey are stored in an inventory. These items are then used to solve puzzles in the hope of obtaining a piece of the house's lamp. As before light and dark needs to be manipulated in order to discover items and puzzles that need completing. Puzzles need to be solved and vary in difficulty. Hints can be used to find hidden objects, to provide assistance as to what to do next or to skip puzzles.