Posts Tagged ‘detective’
The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime Review
Developed by Trine Games, produced by Jowood Productions and published by BigFish Games
A crime wave has gripped the Hardy Boys` hometown of Bayport! Help the Hardys solve this rash of crimes and unravel the Perfect Crime! It’s up to the Boys and their detective skills to follow the clues and discover an incredibly deep plot in this Hidden Object game. Hardy Boys – The Perfect Crime will challenge you with tough minigames and detailed scenes. Can you find the mastermind behind it all and crack the case?
Story: The Hardy Boys are renowned in their home town of Bayport for their exceptional sleuthing skills. Now a case of unconventional theft falls right into their lap. The threads, when followed back, lead to a hugely complicated and ominous conspiracy of fraud and smuggling. Are the Hardy Brothers up to putting the criminals behind bars?
The game is typically hardyish, centering around the (sometimes annoyingly) precocious highschoolers Joe and Frank Hardy, a little around their parents, and a host of personality-less characters in Bayport, including police officers who are always ready to let the boys play the detective. As you play through the game, you’ll find that The Perfect Crime is a misnomer for this game. The plot simply doesn’t have the finesse to match up to the elegant name, and all the underlying swiftness and cruelty it implies. The lack of interesting material in the plot is tried to be covered by some unnecessary complexity that doesn’t work. Still it comes fairly close, and qualifies as an average Hardyish story. Despite the tidy narration, not as awe-inspiring as a point-and-click crime story could’ve been.
Gameplay: However flimsy the plot might be, playing the game isn’t bad (provided you’ve turned off the music). You start off with great expectations from the starting page – designed like a detective’s scrapbook. For the first few minutes, your interest will be well rewarded, for it starts with one of the best aspects of the game – the witty banter between the Hardy Brothers, Joe and Frank!
Then we move on to the Hidden Object part. This part is easy enough, but that’s the start of all the troubles. Instead of “hiding” objects, they’re reduced to tiny faraway objects that would require you to resort to pixel hunting to pick them up at all.
Hints are provided, probably 3 at each level. I cannot be sure, because the number was never mentioned in the entire game.
And yes, some minigames are provided, but it seems the developers were pretty reluctant to put much effort to it. Three or four separate puzzles of nursery stage are replayed again and again, each more brain sapping than the previous in terms of simplicity.
Graphics and Music: The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime scores poorly in this department too. The graphics going with the HOG are incredibly mediocre, with a narrow angle, unimaginative decoration, and low lighting.
And the music? It is totally unworthy. I turned it off after the first few minutes of the game. Trust me, no detective could work properly with those tracks blaring in the background.
Bottomline: The sole point I loved about the game was the dialogues between the Hardy brothers. Their repartee and sarcasm are outstanding and refreshing after each level of tiring gameplay. If you’re a Hardy fan, this game could qualify on your list of Must Play Games. For others, you might want to try it out for the constant leg-pulling and the well-recited plot.
Rating: 
3 Days Zoo Mystery Review
By Realore Studios, published by BigFish Games
3 Days: Zoo Mystery finds five of the world`s most unique animals stolen! Help Anna track down and return these rare animals to her uncle`s zoo. The ultra-picky zoo inspectors are on their way, so you will only have three days to solve this mystery and save the zoo. This Hidden Object Adventure game is full of challenging minigames and dark secrets. Will you be able to capture the crook and save the family zoo?
Story: Animals from your family zoo are getting stolen mysteriously. You, as the zoo owner’s niece, Anna, must take up the duty of finding the animals. But you must recover them in 3 days – or the zoo will be shut down forever!
The premise is short and simple, but both unexpectedly and refreshingly, it opens to reveal one of the most level-headed, seriously enjoyable and closely knit story in games of such genre. It is satisfactorily long, and although it sometimes drags for the game’s sake, you’ll never feel bored.
Gameplay: Just as the eccentric name might suggest, 3 Days Zoo Mystery has a sense of straight-faced humour in every single character interaction – from the biased sheriff to the clown. Sadly, it has been disappointingly underplayed.
The game unfolds not as Anna setting off right away to bring the perpetrator to book, but rather by she taking the most common method – informing the police. Such sensible steps build this game to be a very good homely tension-free detective game.
As you follow up links around town, moving from suspect to suspect and unearthing mind baffling clues, you’ll also have to do many of the townspeople’s chores for them – like stacking the dishes, serving food, arranging rooms, etc.
3 Days: Zoo Mystery has an added feature – it allows you the use of a Magnotron. What is the magnotron, you may ask. It is a brand new invention by your town’s scientist – it can make objects disappear into a parallel universe! The scope of its use is very limited, but nonetheless, it is a very interesting addition to this bright and cheerful game. And it also gives a chance to the Sheriff to barge in with one of his funny comments whenever you try to make his desk disappear!
Graphics and Music: No complaints on this point at all. Clear, soothing graphics and entertaining music – 3 Days Zoo Mystery makes sure it is perfect on each point.
Bottomline: This is one of those rare Hidden Object/ Adventure/ Detective games which does everything right and leaves no room for complaints. This game is a must play.
Rating: 
Download the full free version from AdnanBoy!
Righteous Kill 2: Revenge of the Poet Killer Review
By Overture Films, published by BigFish Games, 2009
As an investigator in the NYPD, hunt down a copycat killer and try to stop a rash of murders across New York City! Work through multiple murder scenes, collecting evidence and clues, and examine the items in exciting forensic based mini-games. Put all the clues together to determine who the new Poet Killer is before another victim is found, and decide who to trust as the suspects begin to include those inside the police force.
Story: Drugs. Illegal weapons. And a righteous murderer with a poetic inclinations out to make everyone pay. Detective Erica Dean doesn’t need any more to confuse her as she tries to make sense of the series of brutal killings that plague New York City.
A more dangerous and sophisticated plot than the first Righteous Kill that starts brightly but drops pace into the first few chapters and reduces to the same idiocy that was the main fault of the original Righteous Kill game. How long can you watch unworthy incompetent detectives who constantly miss clues about 10 times in each location and get dragged on a noose by the murderer?
Righteous Kill 2: Revenge of the Poet killer also suffers from the shadowy ghosts of the first story. In fact, the general premise is exactly the same – plenty of evidences planted overwhelmingly against one person (note: it is never explained how such farfetched evidence could actually be planted), then the detective starts going after an inconsequential object (in this case, a cheap pen) and then the tides turn in the direction of a completely different person. Only thankfully, this time the antagonist isn’t an obvious suspect.
Clearly, the plot could’ve been way better narrated and included the involvement of the detectives in some way. Otherwise, the story is almost all about one man’s thirst for vengeance – and the official force’s total ineptitude in stopping him.
Gameplay: Finally, Righteous Kill 2 brings some detective feel with it. Now besides finding the same items in a considerably larger variety of locations, you also have to interact with certain elements of the locations to further unlock new objects.
Innovations have been added here and there. Like in find the difference puzzles, you’re not given the traditional nearly identical versions of the same picture – instead, you’re given 4 pictures of the same point taken from different angles. The old fingerprint finding puzzle from Righteous Kill 1 is given a new polish – you’re given powders of different colours for different objects. The game’s definitely spiced up! The internet hacker trapping game has been extended into three levels; however, the light background turns out to be a distraction for this minigame.
The new minigames that have been added strongly resemble those in CSI: New York or Women’s Murder Club. One is “reconstructing the face”, done in a very callous way compared to CSI: NY – it isn’t even a minigame at all in the end. The others include the alchemy-like forensic lab testing games found in Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet. They’re interesting, and unlike WMC: DIS, kept short and only whenever necessary (which is rare, given that you’ve no detecting to do).
As for the actual playing part, you are given a GPS enabled cell phone by Sergeant Vasquez. You flit around New York from one location to another using this. The number of locations, I presume, is slightly greater than before, but they’re still repeated shamelessly.
For those that have trouble finding the items, the new unofficial hint system has been added – you can click on an object in the Hidden Object list to see its silhouette.
Graphics and Music: Righteous Kill 2 doesn’t have as clear and bold graphics as Righteous Kill 1; the hidden objects are also more devious to find. The makeshift animation and the deceit in the name of providing original clips from the movie – which incidentally include only cars driving by – just as in Righteous Kill 1, are enough to drive one mad.
The music is thankfully fine, perfectly accentuating the atmosphere of thrill and suspense in the game.
Bottomline: The plot is better presented and although thoroughly confusing and at times, meaningless, it has some dregs of believability. Neither is it as shallow or predictable as before. The poems are well placed enough to be impressive. Now if only the animation didn’t want to make you boil your head in soda water, the game would’ve been mighty fine. But as it is, a story of a cocky yet “the best” detective making mistake after mistake, this is just an average or slightly above average game.
But a better game than the first one. If you like Detective games and engrossing hidden object games that require your undivided attention for a few hours, play this one.
Rating: out of 5
Righteous Kill 1 Review
By Overture Films, published by BigFish Games
Step into the shoes of Erica Dean as she investigates crime scenes in New York City. It`s a man hunt for a vigilante on a killing spree through 16 locations containing over a thousand hidden objects. With the help of Sergeant Vasquez, Erica will use clues she collects in a number of detective-themed mini games. Inspired by the motion picture film, Righteous Kill features clips from the movie and 15 animated levels.
Story: A vigilante is out on loose – taking his revenge on all the perpetrators of crime against women who can never be brought to book. He leaves behind enough evidence, but is hard to catch as a slippery eel. Things take a turn when it is found that the prime suspect himself was convicted for domestic assault. Detective Erica Dean must sort out why such a man would want to turn vigilante – or if indeed, he is the wanted man.
A short comment on the story. I’ve never seen the movie, so forgive any unsolicited comments – but the story in the game is unmitigated rubbish. About 30 times in the game I had to stop and think – how could the game be so dim? With a farfetched plot of planted evidences, and an unworthy cocksure detective in miniskirt who misses all the main clues everywhere, Righteous Kill has one of the worst presented stories in recent times. Mind, worst presented; the story had better capabilities, as exploited in Righteous Kill 2.
Gameplay: The hidden object games in Righteous Kill are pretty interesting and easy – at least you don’t have to search every single pixel. The graphics go a long way to help – clean and colourful. Pity there are only about 15 or 16 such locations that are played over and over again.
The rest of the puzzles include exactly three – fingerprint finding (using a duster), catch the signal (the game of trapping the player in alternating chances within the board) and find the differences. That’s all, and that’s what is repeated again and again through 15 or so chapters.
Graphics and Music: The Graphics, as I said, are clean and not very cluttered. The game includes some clips from the movie – a total of 10 seconds, actually. The rest is some sort of horrible animation with still pictures of the characters bobbing around a still background. A proper animation sequence would’ve done much to spruce up the game.
Parts of it are cool, I must agree. Like the part where 10 bullet shots pierce the screen when the game is Loading.
The music suffices, suffice to say. But in the end, there is no detective atmosphere in the game.
Bottomline: If you try to play the whole game, you’ll soon feel bored. There are the same 16 locations, same objects in each location when you click, and most of the locations don’t have any connection to the murders. The storyline, as you’ll see, is absurdly predictable, and repetitive. It could’ve been wrapped up in half the length.
All in all, Righteous Kill is a moderately enjoyable sort of game, the enjoyment coming in most cases from the easy hidden object part. In vain I searched for a single spark in the entire thing. Recommended only for the fans of the movie, otherwise skip this game.
Rating: 
Righteous Kill Quick Review
I have never seen the Righteous Kill movie, so it is impossible for me to judge the game by the film standards.
As a standalone, the game functions above average. There are a few footages as narration, and others where frozen character faces are dragged from one end of the screen to another to imply animation.
The game seems easy and fun. The plot isn’t worth thinking about, it has a convenient feel of a Hollywood movie crime, so I guess it must be following the film itself. The music is good.
But the hidden object part draws your attention. It is easy to find the objects and it is, as I said, fun playing this game. Quite different from most hidden object games, perfect for the casual gamer, with no stress included.
Verdict: Try this game out at least, if not for the plot, if not for the hardcore secret agent feel, even if nothing, the hidden objects part is truly decent here.
Check out Big Fish Games for more info.
Real Crimes: Unicorn Killer Review
Help rookie FBI Agent Jennifer Lourdes, and veteran detective Alan Michaels catch the infamous Unicorn Killer! Track down the murderer, Ira Einhorn, as you bring him to justice in this exciting Hidden Object game. Travel all around the globe and explore important crime scenes. Based on a true story, Real Crimes: The Unicorn Killer, takes you on the long-running chase and extradition of this dangerous criminal!
What a shock! And just the sort of shock I don’t like! Here I am, thinking that the game is taking a really interesting turn, and suddenly – “The End.”
Story: Ira Einhorn, the peace activist of the 60’s and 70’s, had killed his girlfriend and hidden her in his closet for two years before police finally got onto his scent. But his high profile political connections saved his ass as he flitted out of America around Europe with no one to touch him. Now, years later, the young detective Jennifer Lourdes arrives on the scene, ready to battle it out with Einhorn “the Unicorn” one last time and try to throw him behind the bars!
Gameplay: The story is actually mighty fine. It is matured, and is boldly undelined by the power-politics of the modern world. But the problem is this storyline leaves no scope for you to play, to use your detective powers. Neither is there a plot within the game – not even the semblance of that in the entire game. This is a hidden object game, with you playing as Jennifer on either Detective (without timer or random click penalties) or Rookie (both timer and penalty) modes. For most of the part, you’re following your senior detective Michaels to learn about Ira’s past. It could’ve been the prologue, with further chapters to follow when you do your own detection. No such luck. The game ends with the prologue itself.
Puzzles: This is a hidden object game. The hidden objects are remarkably well-hidden in wide angle views of the locations; it gets harder in the night locations. There are 5 or so Chinese Go puzzles hidden at places which, though unorthodox to be included in a hidden object game, are quite easy to solve. The other puzzles involve mini- games in the forensic lab like matching the fingerprints and match-and-pair. The fingerprint business is the only tough puzzle around. Just like in baseball, each wrong guess causes a “strike”, and three strikes mean you lose.
Ambience: The game, however small in its gameplay, is outstanding in its graphics and animation. Especially the animation. Who would’ve expected FPS level animation in a hidden objects game? Yet it is so, smooth, high-level, believable animation! – a real pleasure when you compare this with the scratchy animations of most puzzle games.
Real Crimes Unicorn Killer is somewhat moody in its music. Each country has its own traditional music to go with it. But, hey developers, please change the error sound next time, it hurts the ears when you click on wrong places!
Bottomline: Again, an unexpectedly short game. The levels are fast-paced and small, action packed with serious lines and proper characterization of the criminal. Hardly 20 such levels on, you find yourself putting handcuffs on Einhorn. It transpires in the end that the heroine of the game is just a brainless amateur who has a tendency to mouth loud words but ultimately dangles around on her superior’s tailcoat. Play this only if you like short political-based hidden object games. Real Crimes does not have much uniqueness of its own.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Real Crimes Unicorn Killer Quick Review
Now this seems a fresh sort of hidden object game. Set in 1979, it has the 70’s periodic feel as you chase across a complex criminal across Europe. The political shades are expertly blended, so the plot looks honestly good.
The rooms are held at long shots, fairly spacy, not cluttered with items. Maybe that is why it is not always easy to find the 10 hidden objects. Short-action packed levels along with unique, peppy score for each setting…. If you like political detective stories with serious characterization, play Real Crimes The Unicorn Killer.
See Big Fish Games for more info.
Affair Bureau Detective Game Review
Now this is quite a surprising, off-the-track, intriguing new short game – Affair Bureau.
Use your Hidden Object skills to help Alex solve mysterious crimes as he begins his own Affair Bureau! After getting bored with following cheating spouses, tracking down lost jewelry, and finding stolen cars, Alex has decided to take on more serious crimes. Investigate freshly discovered crime scenes in this charming noir-like detective story. Find the clues to close the case and capture the crooks!
Story: Alex Strong is an ex-police officer, presently a private detective running his own agency, the “Affair Bureau.” Suddenly, he receives a shocking news: his life is in danger! Alex must figure out why as he runs for his life!
Look out for the characters’ past printed at the bottom of the screen before every chapter. They’ll give you a clue to solve the mystery yourself!
[Warning: Spoilers]
The plot is very small, as is the game. It banks on the good old red herring to surprise you. And it pulls it off quite successfully. Possibly, the developers were stuck without a story, then decided on a silly plot (the Affair Bureau plot would’ve been definitely silly had it been developed along the lines of detective stories); finally, they had this grand idea to add interest and innovation to the game by this story which is based purely on narration.
Nevertheless, the game abounds in small glitches. If Bill Strong vanished only a year ago, how come Alex knows so little about him? And if William Strong was, indeed so completely detached from his family, why the hell would he care to give his son such a grand birthday surprise? Again, supposing William really did love Alex, which father would risk ordering goons to strike down his son with a baseball bat?
But otherwise, the execution is just perfect! There are small hints strewn around the game – such as the easy leads supplied by Tina and Bill – but I overlooked them as imperfection in the script. In fact, the game maneuvers it so well, that no suspicion crossed my mind even when I read the mystery bomber’s To Do list!
Puzzles: For a short game, Affair Bureau is rich in good quality puzzles. The hidden objects are easy to find. The minigames are all true brain teasers and time-consuming.
Gameplay: You play as several characters: primarily as Alex, but also as Tina, Bill and Vinn. Hints are available only one at a time, but chances are, you’ll hardly ever need the hints – the objects aren’t hidden away very deceptively. Thankfully, Affair Bureau is devoid of a timer.
Ambience: As I wrote in my !!!quick review!!!, the animation is surprisingly good for a hidden objects game. The proper animations are present only at the beginning and at the end. The scenes are minutely detailed and pleasant to the eye.
But the music – oh, the music! I thank God on bended knee that it wasn’t loud. I seriously had to keep my earphones down everytime the in-game music came up. The music justifies itself only during the last cutscene, where it at least is not irritating and even fits snugly into the situation.
Bottomline: Except for maybe its tiny length, I have nothing to complain about Affair Bureau. Even the clichéd plot is marvelously implemented. Play this; it’ll be an interesting change from serious gaming. And plus, it has high replayability due to its cheerful locations.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Affair Bureau: A Quick Review
This game from Big Fish seems pretty good. Animation unexpectedly eye-catching. The only complaint is the music – got me a headache at the location of the dock. Thank God it’s not very loud. The plot isn’t very sinister. The puzzles are easy.
Verdict: I’d say Play it. The plot might just twist off into something good. At least, if nothing, the game is well above average or boring.
The Hollow by Agatha Christie: A review
When I first picked up the Hollow from the bookshelf, it was only because of the Hercule Poirot marking on the side. Wow, a new detective story, I thought. Little did I know then what it was about.
For the Hollow isn’t really a detective story. Of course, there is murder, but there is no mystery. Maybe this is Hercule Poirot’s book, but he’s absent except in a few scenes. He doesn’t solve anything; like the wise old man he is, he stands back to let human nature take its own course.
The Hollow is a singularly compassionate study of human nature. It dwells at length on the murdered man, who, even in death, was “more alive than the living”; his mistress, and his seemingly dimwit wife. The characters are not just grey – they are of various patterns that are ever changing like the Rorschach inkblots; of different colours that blend together to form iridescent hues that finally take the tinge of blood with the doctor’s murder. The hero is an adulterer, the culprit is the one fighting for justice, yet sympathies flow different ways than expected – such is Christie’s magic.
Poirot himself is absent except in a few scenes towards the middle of the book – indeed, the book could’ve done perfectly well without him. He just acts as the connecting link, the one who explains the curious workings of the characters in a sympathetic light. When Poirot becomes redundant in his own book, you can guess how good the story must be to stand on its own. Actually, this should’ve been classified under Christie’s romantic novels rather than detective. The poetry in the book is fast-paced, deep, pondering and vivid with images of hope in the darkness of jealousy and hatred. Don’t miss this.
Rating: 
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