Posts Tagged ‘MumboJumbo’

April 29th, 2014 Featured, PC, Reviews 3 Comments »

Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can

Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can Boxart

Developer: MumboJumbo
Publisher: MumboJumbo
Platform: Amazon, Big Fish Games, MumboJumbo, Steam

Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can is an unusual point and click title. As with many modern games of the genre, your main goal is to solve a handful of puzzles alongside hidden object segments. Interestingly, the hidden object aspect is really downplayed in favor of a bevvy of puzzles and an overarching story that spans centuries.

You play Angelica Weaver, a special agent on the Chicago police force. She’s on the trail of a murderer who appears to be mimicking a series of historic London slayings. Because of Angelica’s unusual ability, she is able to actually travel to the past and connect the clues to help solve the modern day crime.

Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can Featured

The story is unique but unfortunately Angelica is not the most interesting protagonist. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by Nancy Drew’s game persona, but Catch Me When You Can’s lead feels a lot more self-serving. Once she “solves” mysteries there is a distinct pleased gloating in her voice and words. It’s weird how she stops to praise herself in the midst of a murder investigation, but maybe I’d praise my own intelligence too…

Puzzles are not too difficult for the most part, although there are some cumbersome sections. Piecing together 30 pieces of a dress (without a reference image) is one of those moments. Thankfully after a minute or so of time these puzzles are skippable. Hint chances are also very numerous. Still, I just don’t find the mystery all that intriguing. The biggest mystery to me is Angelica’s obsession with dreamcatchers. That, and the fact that the game is called “Catch Me When You Can”.

Score: 2

2 out of 5 alpacas

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January 31st, 2014 Featured, PC, Reviews No Comments »

Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy Review

Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy Boxart

Developer: MumboJumbo
Publisher: MumboJumbo
Platform: Nintendo DS PC – Big Fish Games, Steam

The Midnight Mysteries series consists of four hidden object games. The first is The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy, and so far, is the only one I’ve played. As the name implies, your focus is on the famed writer. The “conspiracy” in question is his death. To this day there has never been a definitive cause cited for his unusual predicaments surrounding his death. Midnight Mysteries takes the slant that Poe was murdered – and it’s your goal to figure out who did it.

Gameplay itself is primarily hidden object style. This means that you’re presented with a static screen cluttered with objects and your goal is to find specific things. Unlike most hidden object games, this one sometimes provides strange names for items. I’m not sure why this was done, but it doesn’t enhance the experience any. For the most part, objects are hidden in plain sight very fairly, although a few items sometimes get squished into the very corners of a screen. I wouldn’t look there much, leading to some usage of the hint system.

Hints are plentiful and come in the form of birds. If you see one, just click on it and a new hint will be added to your system! Hints actually just reveal the location of an object. If you get stressed and start clicking frantically, you’ll lose the ability to see the outline of objects for a brief period of time. These outlines are useful when the game gives you a weirdly-named object, or you simply want to see what exactly they’re asking for. Overall, there’s little to stand in the player’s way.

Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy Featured

The biggest issue I had playing The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy was simply that it runs at 800×600. In fullscreen, it made things fairly ugly, and in windowed mode the window was too small. I sometimes had to lean closer to the screen in order to view everything on it. This is all a shame since the visuals are quite nice most of the time. My best solution is to lower your computer’s screen resolution while playing so it’s easier to view the object-filled scenes.

There might be a story in this game but it’s barely important. All I cared about was finding all the objects with as little help as possible. Doing so took around three hours, and it was acceptable. It wasn’t the best hidden object game ever, but the Midnight Mysteries series shows promise. I’ll play the next three soon.

Score: 2

2 out of 5 alpacas

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