After a long wait, Big Fish Games present us the newest Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove Collector’s Edition game! Once again you play the nameless Master Detective following the trail of a group of missing graduate students.

The game is more or less a point-and-click adventure where you move freely between different areas, pick up items to add to your inventory, and figure out how to use them to solve puzzles and unlock new locations. As a hidden object adventure game, you navigate this strange town with the mouse. 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. But be careful with random clicking as it is penalized. Clicking on too many wrong items causes the screen to begin icing over. Even the mouse pointer collects ice, and becomes sluggish.   

Most hidden object scenes must be revisited, i.e. repeatedly mined for more tools to solve puzzles. Backtracking through every previous location in the game looking for hidden object scenes that have been reactivated is probably the most tedious aspect of an otherwise very good game. Honestly, as for the puzzles Dire Grove perhaps fails to meet expectations as they are quite ordinary. Although there are some nice brain-teasers here, much of it is pretty familiar. 

Of course, the biggest twist in Dire Grove is video. You’ll find video tapes scattered throughout the game, which make the atmosphere more impressive. The game may boast its wonderful detail graphics but the music itself is a little too arrogant and random at times. See you own eye after all.

27, November 2009