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sff: Games Edition - Mystery Case Files mainly.
I'll get the non MCF game out the way first:
Amaranthine Voyage: The Tree of Life. I love the design in this one--it's steampunk. However, they repurposed a spacey game for it, so the base is a crashed spaceship buried in the jungle, with a castle built on top of it! It's a ridiculous mash of periods, and I LOVE it. The game does suffer from bad acting from Real People (photo-realistic), and the one dude tends to just stand around with his bare feet looking confused. You can click to speed up the dialog without losing anything. The mythology backstory is mostly entertaining. Mostly, though, I drool at the buried spaceship.
Mystery Case Files - this is a fairly long franchise that has gone through a couple of different companies since it began.
- Huntsville and Prime Suspects are basic hidden object games, with very little plot or much interest. There's puns and such, but they're pretty bog standard, with not a lot to recommend them.
- Ravenhearst. The series picks up a little, with a plot playing out as you search rooms and find diary pages at the abandoned and falling-down Ravenhearst Manor (named after Emma Ravenhearst, a schoolteacher from Iowa--no, I'm not making that up, I don't know why they went for such a stupid backstory). For anyone who's got even a little Gothic plot history, you know exactly where it is going and how bad things are going to get, but it's still incredibly tense (at least, it was for me. Even though I knew how bad the outcome was). Several Rube Goldberg locks in this one with zero instructions or information on how to work them, which makes them frustrating. It's still only searching for hidden objects, though.
- Madame Fate. Still searching for hidden objects (including 'morphing' ones). There's one RG/puzzle type thing for each member of the carnival, some of them are more elaborate than others (and as with the previous game, zero instructions). This one is a nice time-waster--I've played it three times now, whilst listening to Torchwood audios. It ties into the Ravenhearst arc as Charles Dalimar is murdering everyone and stalking the Detective.
- Return to Ravenhearst. More backstory on the terribleness of Ravenhearst Manor. Kidnap, rape, murder, it's all here. This one has a more linear narrative, and more game-play as you wander through the manor. There are still hidden object scenes and RG devices, but it's closer to the standard game experience. It has a great, tense, atmosphere. However, it all falls down in the final confrontation where the RL actors are just awful and OTT in a way that completely destroys any of the built-up tension. NGL, people in video games should be pixels, not photo-realistic, as that just ruins the entire premise. (but all of the underground locations and such were heart-breaking and disturbing, auuuugh)
- The 13th Skull. Not part of the Ravenhearst arc. This is apparently one of the highest-rated of the MCF games, and is considered the best of the best. I hated it. The RL actors/photo-realistic thing continues here and it is awful and execrable. Like, they cannot fucking act, and it is the WORST, because while most games allow you to read fast and click to the next line, this game requires you to read at the speed of the 'acting'. And it is painful, painful acting. I mean, like, if you want bargain-basement ~magical black people, ~white trash gardeners and maids, and white trash living in trailers and shooting people from their porch, like, this is totally the game for you! But if you want non-stereotypes you are fucking out of luck.
I have no clue what most of the plot of 13th Skull was, because I couldn't stand the acting and clicked through each 'dialog' scene as fast as possible (and there a LOT of them, and you are required to suffer to advance through the game), which meant I didn't get any of the plot information (when you click, the dialog just stops and goes to the next dialog prompt, there's no text to read). Even with the audio turned off, the physical acting was just painful.
This game also suffered from too many "character won't help until you provide a bunch of stuff to them" which was all mundane things like cleaning up trash or finding gardening tools. Fucking dull shit.
It was frustrating, as the atmosphere was nice, and some of the non-mundane parts were interesting. I also liked a lot of the non-people game design! The swamp, for instance, is an utter delight as is the graveyard. But unlike the rest of the series, I don't think I'll ever play this one again. (I will, otoh, play the sequel again and again, as that was entertaining and didn't suffer from the horrible acting)
The extra game was much better - very little acting, though even there, it suffered.
- Escape From Ravenhearst. More photo realism, but the narrative allows clicking to speed it up, so it's easier to ignore. It still completely ruins the finale moments, as the OTT acting is so fucking awful. But otherwise, this was all right--I didn't and don't give any fucks about Charles Dalimar, so all of the "this is why you should feel bad for the evil serial killer" stuff was obnoxious. OTOH, it was interesting to see some of the locations used in Black Crown! That asylum certainly gets around.
- Key to Ravenhearst. This is the first of the Eipix installments, and I'm a little confused as to why everyone claims it went downhill? This was weird and complicated and LONG. I thought it was pretty good, even the voice acting (no photo-realism, thank fuck). I wasn't pleased about the twins, though, I thought that was a bit stupid and a bad choice for the overall mythology (also, I dislike what it does to Rose's whole life not to mention her husband :/ not to mention the extra rapeyness, ugh).
I'm also not sure what to think of the town that shows up and disappears. Not to mention the hundreds of people that are murdered for this one felt egregious and barely-touched on.
- Black Crown. I stand by my initial assessment that this one is entertaining, with a couple of turns and twists that are standard, but still entertaining. There's at least some back and forth mechanics (moving from one room to the next, then back, to complete the puzzles) that gets a little frustrating and repetitive. And there aren't enough of the Rube Goldberg things, but that's ok. The bonus game is a sequel to 13th Skull, but with less shitty acting (the main game is a sequel as well, but the bonus one seems more of a direct link). They did an OK job re-creating the swamp, too.
It was interesting to replay it after playing 13th Skull, and it was also interesting to play Escape From Ravenhearst and see the Asylum.
All in all, I've mostly enjoyed the Mystery Case File games, as long as there aren't real people in them, 'acting'.
Amaranthine Voyage: The Tree of Life. I love the design in this one--it's steampunk. However, they repurposed a spacey game for it, so the base is a crashed spaceship buried in the jungle, with a castle built on top of it! It's a ridiculous mash of periods, and I LOVE it. The game does suffer from bad acting from Real People (photo-realistic), and the one dude tends to just stand around with his bare feet looking confused. You can click to speed up the dialog without losing anything. The mythology backstory is mostly entertaining. Mostly, though, I drool at the buried spaceship.
Mystery Case Files - this is a fairly long franchise that has gone through a couple of different companies since it began.
- Huntsville and Prime Suspects are basic hidden object games, with very little plot or much interest. There's puns and such, but they're pretty bog standard, with not a lot to recommend them.
- Ravenhearst. The series picks up a little, with a plot playing out as you search rooms and find diary pages at the abandoned and falling-down Ravenhearst Manor (named after Emma Ravenhearst, a schoolteacher from Iowa--no, I'm not making that up, I don't know why they went for such a stupid backstory). For anyone who's got even a little Gothic plot history, you know exactly where it is going and how bad things are going to get, but it's still incredibly tense (at least, it was for me. Even though I knew how bad the outcome was). Several Rube Goldberg locks in this one with zero instructions or information on how to work them, which makes them frustrating. It's still only searching for hidden objects, though.
- Madame Fate. Still searching for hidden objects (including 'morphing' ones). There's one RG/puzzle type thing for each member of the carnival, some of them are more elaborate than others (and as with the previous game, zero instructions). This one is a nice time-waster--I've played it three times now, whilst listening to Torchwood audios. It ties into the Ravenhearst arc as Charles Dalimar is murdering everyone and stalking the Detective.
- Return to Ravenhearst. More backstory on the terribleness of Ravenhearst Manor. Kidnap, rape, murder, it's all here. This one has a more linear narrative, and more game-play as you wander through the manor. There are still hidden object scenes and RG devices, but it's closer to the standard game experience. It has a great, tense, atmosphere. However, it all falls down in the final confrontation where the RL actors are just awful and OTT in a way that completely destroys any of the built-up tension. NGL, people in video games should be pixels, not photo-realistic, as that just ruins the entire premise. (but all of the underground locations and such were heart-breaking and disturbing, auuuugh)
- The 13th Skull. Not part of the Ravenhearst arc. This is apparently one of the highest-rated of the MCF games, and is considered the best of the best. I hated it. The RL actors/photo-realistic thing continues here and it is awful and execrable. Like, they cannot fucking act, and it is the WORST, because while most games allow you to read fast and click to the next line, this game requires you to read at the speed of the 'acting'. And it is painful, painful acting. I mean, like, if you want bargain-basement ~magical black people, ~white trash gardeners and maids, and white trash living in trailers and shooting people from their porch, like, this is totally the game for you! But if you want non-stereotypes you are fucking out of luck.
I have no clue what most of the plot of 13th Skull was, because I couldn't stand the acting and clicked through each 'dialog' scene as fast as possible (and there a LOT of them, and you are required to suffer to advance through the game), which meant I didn't get any of the plot information (when you click, the dialog just stops and goes to the next dialog prompt, there's no text to read). Even with the audio turned off, the physical acting was just painful.
This game also suffered from too many "character won't help until you provide a bunch of stuff to them" which was all mundane things like cleaning up trash or finding gardening tools. Fucking dull shit.
It was frustrating, as the atmosphere was nice, and some of the non-mundane parts were interesting. I also liked a lot of the non-people game design! The swamp, for instance, is an utter delight as is the graveyard. But unlike the rest of the series, I don't think I'll ever play this one again. (I will, otoh, play the sequel again and again, as that was entertaining and didn't suffer from the horrible acting)
The extra game was much better - very little acting, though even there, it suffered.
- Escape From Ravenhearst. More photo realism, but the narrative allows clicking to speed it up, so it's easier to ignore. It still completely ruins the finale moments, as the OTT acting is so fucking awful. But otherwise, this was all right--I didn't and don't give any fucks about Charles Dalimar, so all of the "this is why you should feel bad for the evil serial killer" stuff was obnoxious. OTOH, it was interesting to see some of the locations used in Black Crown! That asylum certainly gets around.
- Key to Ravenhearst. This is the first of the Eipix installments, and I'm a little confused as to why everyone claims it went downhill? This was weird and complicated and LONG. I thought it was pretty good, even the voice acting (no photo-realism, thank fuck). I wasn't pleased about the twins, though, I thought that was a bit stupid and a bad choice for the overall mythology (also, I dislike what it does to Rose's whole life not to mention her husband :/ not to mention the extra rapeyness, ugh).
I'm also not sure what to think of the town that shows up and disappears. Not to mention the hundreds of people that are murdered for this one felt egregious and barely-touched on.
- Black Crown. I stand by my initial assessment that this one is entertaining, with a couple of turns and twists that are standard, but still entertaining. There's at least some back and forth mechanics (moving from one room to the next, then back, to complete the puzzles) that gets a little frustrating and repetitive. And there aren't enough of the Rube Goldberg things, but that's ok. The bonus game is a sequel to 13th Skull, but with less shitty acting (the main game is a sequel as well, but the bonus one seems more of a direct link). They did an OK job re-creating the swamp, too.
It was interesting to replay it after playing 13th Skull, and it was also interesting to play Escape From Ravenhearst and see the Asylum.
All in all, I've mostly enjoyed the Mystery Case File games, as long as there aren't real people in them, 'acting'.
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Shadow Lake (which I just finished playing) also has the unskippable dialog and acting. However, Shadow Lake has a much better cast (I mean, to be fair, I have had a thing for Lea Thompson for forever, so I'm probably cutting her more slack; and also, she was sitting down most of the time which seemed to work better?), so it wasn't as frustrating.