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9.3 neato burrito
As I type this review the weatherman has just announced the arrival of the first snow of the year. It's chilly outside. And windy. If you're lucky enough to be sitting in front of a fireplace or even a wood-burning stove, throw in some logs and fire it up for Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove. Trust me. There's more ice and snow in this game than in all the frozen chicken dinners of the world!
In the course of preparing the dissertation for her doctorate in archaeology at Strayer University (one of those diploma mills with tiny campuses dotted across the U.S.), graduate student Alison Sterling is excited to discover that a recently unearthed artifact in North Yorkshire, England has lent credence to the legend of Dire Grove. According to the legend, two thousand years ago four Celts accidentally used some magical talismans to open a portal between the world of the living and the frigid world of the dead... Fearing that the iciness of the abyss would freeze the entire world, they closed the portal the only way they knew how: by shoving a sacrificial young woman into the gap! Thus was the world saved, however the young woman became a banshee and has sought ever since to reopen the portal and doom the world to the same raw, bitter pain she has suffered for thousands of years.
With the unearthing of one of the four talismans, Alison realizes that the legend of Dire Grove might possibly be true - not simple Celtic myth and folklore as everyone else in the academic community - myself included until I played this game! - always assumed. With three of her friends, Alison embarks on a trip to Dire Grove in Hambleton, North Yorkshire, England to research the legend and interview Patricia Anderson, the curator of the Dire Grove Historical Heritage Society. But things go horrifyingly wrong when the temperature of the tiny hamlet drops, and drops, and drops!
Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove, from Big Fish Games, is the long-awaited next adventure in their hit hidden object game adventure series. I was chomping at the bit to get ahold of this one, and so was everyone else I know in the casual game world. Once again you play the nameless Master Detective, on your way back to the office after solving the mystery of Ravenhearst Mansion. However you're quickly caught in the same snowstorm that made victims of Alison and her friends. Following footprints from their abandoned rental car to the equally abandoned Dire Grove Bed and Breakfast, you begin finding VHS tapes left behind by the students... a record of their discoveries that immediately reveals (a) they need your help badly and (b) it's Mystery Case Files time!
As a hidden object adventure game, you navigate the cursed town of Dire Grove with the mouse. Every location has one or more exits; when you mouse over these hotspots onscreen the cursor changes into an arrow; clicking moves you through the exit into the next location. The mouse is also used to examine interesting bits of scenery, clicking either shows the object in more focused detail or pops up a simple text message describing it. Either way, the cursor becomes a magnifying glass to let you know something can be examined. Glints and sparkles of light may call your eye to interesting clues, and many sparkles shimmering in a group indicate a hidden object sequence.
You have an inventory to hold all manner of seemingly random tools and portable discoveries which your Master Detective hunches inform you might come in handy as the mystery progresses. As in the previous Mystery Case Files games, most of these inventory items are gathered in hidden object scenes, with one being turned up at the completion of each scene. However occasionally an inventory item can be acquired by poking around outside of a hidden object scene.
The hidden object game sequences are typical for the genre. Your Max Headroomesque crime computer gives you a list of twelve items to locate in a jumbled assortment of miscellany. Clicking on an item removes it from the scene and from the grocery list at the bottom of the screen. Once you've found them all, one will be revealed as a useful tool and added to your inventory. If you can't find an object, your crime computer can give you a hint and point out a single object's location. It dispenses as many hints as you like, but takes one minute to recharge between uses.
Random clicking, the old standby of hidden object game fans the world over, is sadly penalized. Clicking on too many wrong items causes the screen to begin icing over. Yikes! Even the mouse pointer collects ice, and becomes sluggish. Alison's friends were frozen in place after too much random clicking - beware you don't suffer the same fate!
Most hidden object scenes must be revisited, i.e. repeatedly mined for more tools to solve puzzles. Thus the number one course of action when stuck (and you don't know where to go to next) is backtracking through every previous location in the game looking for hidden object scenes that have been reactivated. In fact, you must do this whenever you open up a new location, and it's probably the most tedious aspect of an otherwise very enjoyable game.
Inventory puzzles require you to use an item in your inventory in certain scenes (or on neighboring items in your inventory). The scrollable inventory panel appears when you mouse over the bottom of the screen, and using an item is as simple as dragging it onto where you'd like to use it. You can expect to get a lot of messages like "Unfortunately, that doesn't work." or "That's not the best use of that item." or the very confusing "You can't do that. Yet..." when your solution doesn't quite match what the developers had in mind. Things are quite silly indeed because almost every single hidden object scene has half a dozen tools which would make quick work of many of the game's obstacles, but you have to wait until your Master Detective gut feelings finally add the needed wrench/rope/pliers/thingamajiggy to your inventory.
Early in the game the detective undertakes a complicated and barbaric plan of sledge hammering through a second story bathroom floor (and waterpipes!) to gain entrance to the locked ground floor office below... instead of simply breaking the office door window! Can I have a little less needless contrivance with my puzzles, and a little more simple ingenuity? (By the way, if you're stuck and can't figure out how to turn off the water spraying from the broken pipes, swing the chain in the garage a few times.)
Puzzle locks are included, but there aren't nearly as many as in previous titles. All are skippable.
I'm very pleased to report that Dire Grove is the first Mystery Case Files adventure to step into the modern age with a screen resolution of 1024x768! The upped resolution adds more oomph to the now-familiar spectacle of decay of the Mystery Case Files universe. Though I no longer believe Mystery Case Files is the king of the hidden object game hill, no one does dust-speckled sunlight spilling over mildew and dilapidation like the artists at Big Fish Games. Many scenes are animated: snow falls on your journal, trees flex in the wind, animals shift and stir in the landscape, and of course a horrifying bansee flits about the haunted windows of Dire Grove! (Take my advice, you're always safe from banshees on the second floor of a house or apartment with no balconies. I've been in my new place for nearly three weeks now and absolutely no banshees have howled into my window during the night.)
There are sixteen "found document" VHS tapes to find and watch on your crime computer. No doubt inspired by The Blair Witch Project, these short video cutscenes feature Davie-Blue Bacich playing Alison, other professional actors as her friends, and do a decent enough job of selling the game's "students in peril" setup.
Only a few misspellings/grammar mistakes and the frequent need to retrace one's steps mar an otherwise excellent hidden object adventure game. Watch out for silly puzzles that force you to do things the way the developer's want you to, instead of any alternative solution. Special kudos to Somatone Interactive Audio for their impressive sound design on this title. The creaking floorboards and clicky-clunks and soft shuffling noises (not to mention all the howling wind) make an already enjoyable game a chilling experience. My favorite piece from the musical soundtrack features piano notes playing in reverse.
If you can't find the third coin for the vending machine, make sure you've visited the museum gift shop! (It's easy to miss, just to the left as you enter the museum.)
Note: This review was of the special $19.95 "Collector's Edition" of the game, which offers an ingame strategy guide and bonus achievements to unlock, such as a "Change Is Good" achievement for finding all fifty shape-changing/morphing background objects located throughout the game's scenery.
Download Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove
Well, I just finished the Collector’s Edition and I think I probably should have waited for the regular version of Dire Grove. I haven’t done any of the extra stuff yet, actually I don’t know where it is yet, but I don’t think it will be worth the extra 13 dollars.
I liked the game a lot, and it was fun, but the writer needs to work harder making the puzzles. When I found the lantern and got it lit, I headed straight for the basement. But the game STILL told me I was too afraid of the dark to go down there!!
I hate when you solve a puzzle and your solution makes sense but the writers force you to use a different solution!
Also, I had some items left over at the end of the game. A pair of snowshoes and some potato chips. Maybe they’re used for bonus Collector’s Edition stuff or for finding the Big Fish Games felix things. Either way I thought it was odd because all of a sudden the game ended and I thought I had more puzzles to solve.
Well, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. I also bought the Collector’s Edition and thought it was great all the way through. I especially loved the graphics, the sound effects and, well, just everything about it. It just ended way to soon for me!!! I loved the videos too, that was really a nice touch.
I think the game is one of the best ones. it was too short for me as well and i also agree the videos were a nice touch.
the potato chips can be fed to the wolf to unlock the second felix fish, the snow shoes are a riddle to me as well.
Hi, I would like sone help to find there deicere. SO I can unlock the door the the cabin in the woods. I could real use sone help. Thank’s
Hi, I would like sone help to find there deicere. So I can unlock the door to the cabin in the woods. I could real use sone help. Thank’s
Hi, I cloud use some help to find the deicere, so I can unlock the door to the cabin in the woods. thank’s
It is either a game of call of duty 6 or a puzzle of beautiful graphics and sound of dire grove is a big brake from the every day life of too much gore i loved dire grove a nice brake from to day of good story telling game of myth of gods of history puzzles with graphics and sound like the days of Myst’s so don’t let me down make more games like this!!!! love em