Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull

When it goes about the 7th game of the series it is already clear that the game is waited eagerly for. And sometimes it happens so that the waiting becomes even sweeter than the playing. As it is really hard to exceed all expectations and surpass all the previous 6 games. But whatever has helped – the magical number 7 or the devilish number 13 in the name of the game – Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull hasn't disappointed.

Being a detective is not at all the easy job. Even the cleverest Sherlock Holmes who could solve a puzzle with the help of deduction sitting in an arm-chair and smoking a pipe needed to go out from time to time and look for the evidences and catch the suspected ones. And if you're known for dealing with the mysteries and cases that al the other sleuths usually refuse from be ready to get to the places that are hard to find on the map, fix the mechanisms that haven't been used for thousands of years including the stopped-up toilets, feed some people you meet for the first time and don't really find pleasant and many other things that the normal people would rather avoid. But who has said that you're one of them and who has set the standards of normality?

Is it normal, for an example, when a father reads the bed-time story to his daughter and suddenly disappears? Is it normal for the girl to believe that her father was taken by the ghosts as he had been involved in some searches of the cursed treasures of the notorious brigand Phineas Crown. Yep, hardly it may be treated as normal situation. But the stranger it is the more interesting it will be to make the things clear!

You're to meet a lot of characters (about a dozen in general) and to progress through a big variety of hidden object scenes and puzzles.

Actually the story starts when the Lawson family inherits the house in the swamps of Louisiana. Right after they move to a new place Marcus Lawson disappears and your adventure starts. You're to meet a lot of characters (about a dozen in general) and to progress through a big variety of hidden object scenes and puzzles. Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull is a challenging game. To tell the truth if the hint system wasn't so quickly rechargeable it could happen so that personally I would refuse to go till the end as I got stuck rather often. And what is even more precious about help system it gives you an option! When you're solving a puzzle you can get either a series of hints to help you figure it out, or can flat out skip if you give up. As for the strategy guide it is multi-layered: you can get the overall list of objectives, or you can expand one particular goal and view the specific step-by-step.

The graphics are really great and realistic and the soundtrack is of a high class. But all these is nothing compared to the special feature of the game – is the extensive use of full-motion video. Though this technique isn't brand new – that was already used in last year's Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove – it adds an inimitable flavor to the game. The thing that impresses the most concerning the technique is that the live actors are perfectly blended with the drawn backgrounds. The great job was done and it looks even more successful then a year before.

Though the name of the game implies some creepy moments, feel free to play it with kids. You will not meet nothing scarier than some snakes, graveyards and, of course, skulls. There is no blood or violence scenes.

The game is more about the adventures. So the gameplot is slightly more valuable than the typical game play. Actually the actor play adds a lot to the gameplot, but acting and dialog can be a bit stiff.  On the other hand that is not a movie, so don't be so critical about that.

Sometimes the expectations are a little bit exaggerated. Don't be too critical as you can be comparing SEVEN games of the series. The last one is a nice eerie hidden object game. And if you've been tired of the series, don't blame the last of a kind! Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull deserves applauds for both for the plot and the high level of production.

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