"Mystery Case Files - Prime Suspects" is an entertaining grown-up version of Hidden Pictures or the Eye Spy book series. Each scene is jam-packed with hidden items, some easy to find, some more difficult, all in different scales so that you have to keep challenging your own ideas about what you are looking for.
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The story-line about a missing diamond and the possible suspects was a little hokey and ultimately unnecessary, but it is the thread that ties it all together. The premise is that a diamond has been stolen, and you are searching for clues about who took it and where it went.
You are given the list of suspects, and a group of different locations to search. In each location, you are provided with a list of items to search for, although not a picture of what you are looking for. Each location is chock-full of hidden items, and when you go back to the same location later, you will often be asked to find different items than the last time.
To add variety, there are several locations that have to be examined with the aid of a flashlight in the dark. Limiting your field of vision to the area the flashlight illuminates. There is also a variety of locations that have to be examined with the aid of an x-ray magnifying glass which limits the amount of the screen you can see to its circumference.
To activate either the flashlight or the x-ray glass you must find the battery hidden in another of your designated locations, and you don’t know which one. It adds a nice element, although I didn’t personally like the locations that required the flashlight.
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On each level, you are allowed four hints to use as you choose. Each hint will help you locate a single item by showing you a narrow area to search. You are also not required to find every single possible item on each level, allowing you to miss a few items and still clear a level.
At the end of each level, you are presented with one of three challenges, a matching pictures grid, a word search style puzzle, or a puzzle-shuffle where you re-arrange the given pieces to match a picture. Again, although I didn’t care for the matching pictures grid option, it did provide some variety to the game which I welcomed.
Once you have narrowed the original pool of suspects to the final five Prime Suspects, you are given a harder challenge in order to determine the actual criminal. Having determined the guilty party, you are challenged to find the missing diamond, which is much harder.
Your final challenge is to solve the puzzle box that contains the diamond. Most of the game was pleasantly entertaining, although certainly not overly difficult. The final puzzle box challenge was hard enough that it took me several attempts, and finally a little internet surfing to determine how to solve the box.
The game downloaded a little slowly, but it’s very graphics-intense and ultimately worth the wait. I recommend downloading in the background while you are doing something else. The graphics were very good, making good use of the themes in each location. There were even a few VERY creepy locations that would make you think twice about allowing a younger child to play the game. These locations included The Tunnel of Terror with a nightmare-worthy clown and the Abandoned Hospital with a robotic skeleton, a noose, and a face pressed against the window.
The sound was very minimal. Although there were sound effects associated with the game, the music score was so minimal that we ended up turning down the sound entirely and providing our own soundtrack.
Easy enough for young adult players and interesting enough to captivate an older audience, we played this game together as a family. Please note my earlier comment about not involving a young child due to the creepy graphics and the amount of fine motor skills or detailed mouse-clicking skills needed.
Having solved it, we would be willing to play through the game again, as every time you face a location, you are asked to find different objects.
On a five star scale, we would give this game a 3.5. We liked it well enough to be interested in checking out other games in the series. If you are interested in this game, check it out at Arcade Town where you can Play Now for Free or Download the Full Version.
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Written by KCHarrison - Visit Website
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Extremely happily married Texas woman with two boys and a baby on the way.
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