Gail On Tech

Casual games: Mystery Case Files — Ravenhearst

Ravenhearst is another hidden object game that I’ve been playing recently. The mission in this one is to explore the very cluttered Ravenhearst Manor to uncover the truth about a tragic love story that occurred in the rambling mansion over 100 years ago.

The game commences with the discovery of Emman Ravenhearst’s diary, which gives her personal account of events as they transpired more than a century ago. Unfortunately, just as you get into the story, you find that have been torn out, so to find out how her story ends, you need to search the mansion for those missing pages.

As you find all the objects in a particular level, which is no mean feat as they are very well hidden, you have to solve a puzzle and these are quite challenging.

For reasons I can’t quite put me finger on, I didn’t enjoy this one as enjoyable as the Mystery Stories game I reviewed recently.  I think it’s possibly because it was set in a wide variety of locations, so there was a bit more variety in the search pictures.

There’s also a little less flexibility with getting hints, although there are no time penalties for excess random clicking, so there is a little more room for trying your luck in that manner if you get stuck finding a particular object.

One good feature of these hidden object games is that the lists of objects to be found change each time you play, so they have an impressive shelf life for the money.

There are very few limits on age eligibility when playing these games (this one is recommended for seven year olds to adult). Because they are largely observational, they’re suitable for the whole family, but some objects on the search lists may need a bit of explanation — I had no idea of what a spigot was in one of the Ravenhearst puzzles  and had to Google it (it’s a tap, if you’re wondering).

And a word of caution: don’t play these games on a small screen, or you’ll go blind and insane!

Mystery Case Files — Ravenhearst

RRP: $19.95