An island with a mysterious past and you’re the only detective for the job? Well of course, this is MYSTERY CASE FILES: THE MALGRAVE INCIDENT after all. But will you solve the case within moments or be left puzzled to the last? Read on to find out…
As you approach the island where Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident takes place, you’re already feeling copious amounts of doubt and foreboding, not least because of hearing your employer Winston Malgrave’s voice, but because the boat you’re in looks about as buoyant as a stone in a tutu, but with none of the frills. As you gain your first footing on the island, you can’t help but ponder that maybe Scooby and the gang should have been sent to look closer into matters.
Being a hidden object game means that unless you’re prepared to deal with lots of the same things happening over and over, you should already be backing away from this title. Otherwise let the hair-wrenching, teeth-grinding object-finding fun begin! But don’t worry, there’s a good reason as to why you’re searching through piles of random items – it’s one of the few ways that you’ll find items to help you gain access to new areas on the island. Thankfully, the game does attempt to break up the object finding with puzzles that you’ll find scattered across the island, barring your way to new, critical areas and if you get really stuck on a puzzle – you’re allowed to skip them.
Repetition
All the hidden object scenes also serve another important plotting purpose: they’re the only way you’ll find more of this mysterious pink dust that Winston is very concerned with collecting. And the frequency with which the hidden object scenes turn up can be rather frustrating at times, mainly because you’ll often be forced to backtrack to ones that you’ve previously hunted through, and are thus presented with the same collection of objects to stare at intently. Certainly, those with anything approaching a photographic memory will feel the enjoyment drain away as they remember where the lizard was in one collection, having previously been asked to find a snake there fifteen minutes previously.
The way that Winston eggs you on over your radio about his desperate need to pick up more of this dust shows that The Malgrave Incident wears its plot on its hypothetical, pre-rendered background sleeves. Well, that and the ominously filled graveyard with a hulking mausoleum in one corner. The Malgrave Incident is like going out on a date with a Bond villain for the first time, seeing the cat on his lap the moment you get to the bar and his right hand twitching beside a big red button: you know on a fundamental level that before the evening’s out you’ll be doing battle with sharks that have lasers on top of their heads. If only!
Should the melodramatic villainy of the main game become too much for you, you could – could – drag a couple of friends into your living room and play the multiplayer modes. All of these are hidden object-based challenges, varying the manner in which you try to outscore each other in finding the most listed objects. Having based all of the multiplayer off of the main aspect of the game could have been forgiven if there had at least been come co-operative or team-based play available, but there isn’t.
Obviously it’s difficult for a hidden object focused title like Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident to innovate in how you play the game, but what you should be allowed to hope for is a game that keeps its plot and story cards just a tad closer to its chest. Nothing that happens in the game comes as a surprise and what little sense of mystery there is comes from wondering just how insane Winston happens to be.
Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident is not a victim of genre. Instead it victimises you with an overly contrived plot that sucks away all sense of mystery and the joy that you gain from sifting for objects and completing its intricate puzzles.
Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident, from Big Fish Games and Nintendo, is out now for Wii.
Disagree 100%.
This is one of the finest takes on the genre in recent years. The story is trite, yes, but it serves the larger purpose. Mechanically, it’s very accessible. Any fan of the genre will embrace the game; those new to it should find it to be solid title; especially for a system so starved for content.
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Kyle MacKinnon (September 24th, 2011)
If you’ll note in my review, I said that playing it and how you play it (apart from having to revisit the same puzzle scenes) is fine. It is because the game makes so much out of its plotting, its subsequent inability to deliver on something more solid in the story department is why I’ve reviewed this game poorly.
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Emily King (September 24th, 2011)
Of a six paragraph review, but one is clearly focused on the game mechanics while a second focuses on the multiplayer (a joy, in my mind). Is story such a selling point in this genre that an arguably weak one is the lone criteria (seeing no mention of the average graphics anywhere) for giving a game a bad score? That sounds a lot like Peter Nowak’s recent argument (here: http://wordsbynowak.com/2011/09/20/gears-of-war-xbox/). One I can’t say I agree with.
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Kyle MacKinnon (September 24th, 2011)
“Bad” meaning a 4.5 is poor by BJ’s standards. I, personally, would have awarded a 6.5-6.9. I don’t think it’s a brilliant game, but it’s certainly serviceable. I think there’s a lot more to the title than plot!
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Kyle MacKinnon (September 24th, 2011)