Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst

Ravenhearst Manor is a cliche old abandoned manor filled with secrets piquing the curiosity of many including me. The wondering doesn’t last long as Emma Ravenhearst’s diary shows up providing clues that could finally crack the manor’s secrets and mysterious tale.

Step into the shoes of Master Detective to search for clues in 32 rooms to find the diary’s missing pages, which hold the key to the sinister manor’s story. The rooms contain puzzles resembling I Spy where you locate the missing items to bring you closer to finding another diary entry. Beware! The missing items surprised me a few times, as they weren’t always what I expected. These surprises kept the hidden puzzles from getting boring as they take up about 75% of the game’s puzzles.

These puzzles grabbed my seven-year-old’s attention. He wanted to sit with me and find all the items. Not only did I get to enjoy a game with him, but also he’d ask what a “pick,” “bamboo steamer” or other item was. He was practicing reading and learning new words. It was a nice change of pace to have him learning without the word “homework” entering the picture.

The game even captivated my three-year-old. He may not have helped find missing objects, but he loved watching me play. For this mom, the game took the guilty out of this “guilty pleasure” since the kids took an interest. As soon as I started playing Ravenhearst, I didn’t stop unless I had to. I played the game in two days, staying up past my bedtime to finish it - and I’m strict about getting my sleep.

After finding a specific number of hidden items for the level, I ran into a jigsaw puzzle (a simple one, thankfully) to access another page of the diary. In between hidden objects puzzles, you enter a crime scene with a puzzle (known as the “door puzzle”) that stands in the way of your unlocking the door. When I encountered my first door puzzle, I was - apologies for the unavoidable pun - puzzled.

I was still perplexed at the different style puzzle from what I had been playing to this point. It finally clicked - I needed to figure out the buttons, objects and tasks to complete to get the key to open the door. From then on, I completed most of them. I gave up on several after too much time passed. I wish I had known about the BigFishGames forums for this game, which includes a Door Puzzle sub-category. I want to go back and figure out the ones I missed, but unfortunately, it means playing the game all over again.

Each level contains five hints. A few tips: When getting a hint, don’t click the screen again until you finish reading the hint. I wasted a few at the start of the game before I caught on. Also, avoid wasting a hint until you’ve answered and completed the previous one. Otherwise, an unsolved hint will appear again until you solve it.

Desperate times call for calling the professional puzzle solvers’ hotline. Taking advantage of this takes you past the puzzle without seeing its resolution. When I took this step the first time, the game confused me. It took me to another hidden puzzle, which I later realized was the first hidden puzzle you get after completing a door puzzle. Calling the hotline was like a non-event. It’s a good and bad thing that the game skips over the door puzzle solution. Good - you might try it later, bad - you might not have time to play the game to get back to that point.

Using the hotline takes away all the remaining hints for the level and five minutes on the clock. Oh yes, there’s a clock counting down as you work your way around the manor and through the mystery, but I opted for the easy way. The game offers two modes of play - Detective Mode, which has normal timed play, and Relaxed Mode, which offers extended time.

This beautiful graphics-based mystery will hook puzzle lovers of all ages. The sounds enhance the game offering a more shadowy feel to go along with the images and story. The game took me eight hours and I only know that because it reports the time spent at the end.

The free trial lets you play for one hour by real-world time, not the game’s time. Prepare yourself as the hour goes fast as it did for me, but don’t worry - if you run out of time and buy the game - you pick up where you left off.

System Requirements

• Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
• Pentium III 700 MHz
• RAM: at least 128M

[tags]games,pc games,Meryl K. Evans[/tags]