Mystery PI The Vegas Heist is the second Popcap Mystery PI (the first being Mystery PI The Lottery Ticket) game brought to us on disc from Focus Multimedia. Search for hidden objects within environments that wouldn’t look out of place on TV program CSI to solve the crime. Your challenge is to recover $4 billion in cash that was stolen from a new casino.
Installation of the game was simple and quick – no manual necessary. What few instructions there were, were displayed clearly on screen and I think I was playing the game within two minutes of opening the box ! The opening menu allows you to first create your player then “solve the Vegas heist” . For gamers new to the genre in the “game options” menu you can select unlimited hints and relaxed time mode where you aren’t playing against the clock. Once you’ve set your preferences it’s time to play.
The opening game screen provides you with two locations with a selection of items to find in each – progression through the game will provide more locations per investigation. Some examples of the hidden objects screens include a back alley, health spa, country club, dressing room and counterfeit bill giving a broad overview of Vegas life. The graphics are very clean and crisp and within each screen, along with the list of hidden objects, a key and poker chip are concealed – collect 25 of each to unlock unlimited mode.
Having lists of items to find can be tedious so items such as “vampires enemy” (garlic) , “total of nine” (total number of dots on a domino) and “dinner to go” (takeaway box) keeps the old grey matter alert. However if you haven’t played hidden object games before look out for favourite tricks of the developers eg “bat” could be a cricket bat or the mammal and varies from screen to screen. Also colloquialisms or Americanisms can be potential banana skins (one of the more simple ones would be clothes pin = clothes peg) however, as hints are quite bountiful it shouldn’t cause too much of a problem.
Mini games break up the searches and mainly consist of rotating pieces until they are in place, swapping puzzle pieces until they are in their rightful places, rotating and dragging pieces from the side onto their places on the board, and word search.
After each section of the investigation the player will be awarded a score depending on time and hints used this is an opportunity to move up the ranks in PI and gives great replay ability value trying to improve on your score.
Mystery PI The Vegas Heist certainly provides high quality graphics a great replay ability factor and the choice of unlimited and creative hints will entertain novice and the more experienced gamers for hours.
I have to put my hands up and plead guilty to downloading the 60 hour trial on a casual gaming site but possessing the hard copy of the game does give a greater sense of security and it’s vista compatible .
Visit focusmm for more info
Marks out of 10
Sound:7 – nice music score but could have had more of a Vegas soundtrack
Graphics:9 – excellent very crisp
Gameplay: 7 – like to have seen more of the story throughout game
Lifespan: 9 – Ageless you’ll revisit on a regular basis
Top Star goes to the use of creative hints
