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!

– Big Fish Games

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

Redrum Dead Diary Review

“Rose sees dead people. Unfortunately her visions have landed her in an asylum. You must help Rose to use her psychic powers and ghostly visions to solve a series of grisly murders and thwart the plans of an evil doctor in this pulse-pounding Hidden Object game. Warning: Redrum ^TM is an intense psychological murder mystery intended for mature audiences.”

-Big Fish Games

Redrum (read backwards, it spells “Murder”) is a 2008 puzzle game published by Big Fish Games. And it is every bit as intense, as psychological, as mysterious and as mature as it claims to be.

Story: The story is simple, yet gripping and interestingly presented. The premise is the same as that of Sixth Sense: Rose is a young girl, and she can see dead people. Well, not all dead people – only those killed unjustly, with mortal wishes left unfulfilled. But this gets her into trouble as her super-practical father puts her in custody of the aptly named homicidal maniac masquerading as a child psychiatrist – Dr Sigmund Fraud. From then on, it’s a matter of justice for all the murdered people in town and that of life and death for Rose. Help her solve gruesome evidence less crimes and save herself from the clutches of lobotomy and schizophrenia.

Ambience: Redrum is dark. It is gothic. And it is scary.

The startup itself will send shivers down your spine. The game scores brilliantly on this point – outstandingly vivid and horrifyingly impressive graphics, coupled with haunting, eerie music. And the cases, likewise, are of a different tenor – ghastly. Of them, A Fluid Circus, My Vain Hour and Colt King Iguana are particularly nauseating.

Puzzles: And here we come to a slight drawback – the puzzles are very limited. Basically, they’re of three kinds – hidden object, finding picture parts and anagrams. No- there are no interactive puzzles, which could’ve pepped up the psychological thriller atmosphere. The puzzles do get tough. Sometimes, they use pictures of the human anatomy and you’re asked to pick out a particular bone from hundreds. Trust me, that ain’t easy….

Animation: Animation’s there only at the beginning and end. Not very high class, but that shouldn’t be expected either.

Bottomline: The focal point of the game is its ambience – the music and the gruesome murders and the engrossing graphics. It isn’t much of a psychological thriller…. the puzzles also soon grow tiring. Play it not for the puzzles, but for the vibrant narrative.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Visit Big Fish Games for more info and for the trial version.

Visit Mininova for the full version.