Strange Cases The Lighthouse Mystery is one of a new batch of hidden object games to be published on hard copy and released by focus multimedia. Originally released as a download from Bigfish games, The Bigfish games manager will set up and install the game once you insert the gamedisc.
The story follows agent Claire Ellery trying to uncover the truth behind her ex FBI partner’s (Tom) apparent suicide.As Agent Ellery begins her investigation she discovers that Tom has left a trail of clues for her in the form of cards. You must follow the cards to solve Tom’s untimely demise.
Starting at the murder scene you discover the first card leading you to explore Tom’s apartment for a further clue. Having a good mix of hidden-object hunting and elements of standard point-and-click adventuring, The Lighthouse Mystery is definitely a solid and enjoyable title.The trail leads you through a variety of locations, each with numerous environments contained within. Eg when you go to investigate Tom’s girlfriends house , you get to search the garage, the backyard, the cellar and bedroom. The contrasting locations include Tom’s batchelor pad appartment, his girlfreinds homely house,a kind of hunting lodge and the ultra modern office building with it’s deepest recesses.
In all the locations, Claire has to find a Tarot Card. There are three different types of cards, each with a different style of clue: Blue cards have a list of items, green cards display silhouettes of objects to be found and brownish cards show broken items of which you must find the pieces.
Each level can contain as many as three hidden cards, one of each type. The scenes aren’t too cluttered with random objects and the items that do appear don’t look too out of place. While the hidden object scenes are actually done well, I found some of the items were a bit hard to pick up as the action areas around them seemed to be very small however, you really need to go mad clicking on them before you get a warning about multiple clicks this will induce a “cursor penalty” that sends the pointer spinning out of control for a few seconds. As for hints, you aren’t going to need too many but the hint timer refills at a decent rate and you are not restricted by the number of hints available.
The puzzles I found to be enjoyable and just testing enough but you’ve always got the option to skip these if you like. The game also includes a bit of point and click gameplay this is acheived after searching the different scenes within locations and earning a vital item to further your investigation.
The graphics are pretty impressive with lots of different styles adopted for the varying locations and even the cutscenes are beautifully depicted – I wasn’t tempted to skip any and was genuinely hooked on the story
Summary
Strange Cases The Lighthouse Mystery is a classy hidden object title with basic point and click elements which have been combined very nicely. The game is solid, well presented with challenging puzzles and some collecting and usage of inventory items. The different types of searches dictated by the cards keep things fresh and interesting. All in all, Strange Cases: The Lighthouse Mystery is very impressive stretching beyond the usual HOG limits. It’s fun,challenging,has a gripping story (for a HOG) and looks great. Definitely worth playing and I can see myself revisiting this title.
