Other Sites

Genre: Puzzle

Developer: Big Fish Games

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X, 64MB RAM

Price: $19.95

Demo: 10.6MB .zip

MCF (Mystery Case Files) Huntsville advertises itself as a sort of sleuthing game, where one must assemble the clues to solve a series of crimes. This initial description was appealing to me, as it likely was to other gamers, and I started my review with eagerness. This kind of game is usually reserved for a larger-scale release, because it typically requires significant human scripting, so I was curious to see how they could pull it off in a shareware version. And they didn't. Didn't even try. MCF Huntsville is not what is says it is. However, to say it does not match this description is not to say it is a bad game, it is just that, as sometimes happens with shareware games, the "sleuthing" is a bit oversold. To the point: it is an engaging game, but one with no sleuthing required.

What MCF Huntsville requires, though, that is similar to crime scene investigation, is keen eyesight. It is a clever two-part game of searching pictures for images, and of careful picture matching. For those of you familiar with the "I Spy" books, where a photograph of a three-dimensional scene hides countless items of different sizes and shapes masquerading as other items and fitting a specific theme, the first part of the MCF Huntsville is familiar. Once you log in as your invented Private Eye pseudonym, you are given a brief welcome to the town. You then accept your mission—really your only option from the title page, and just a front for starting the timer—and you are introduced to two or three locations in the town of MCF Huntsville; such as a fire station or the barbershop. Once you select it, each location is revealed to be a photograph of the inside of a place that resembles a fire station or a barber shop, crammed with dozens of additional items that may or may not be at home in that place. Watermelons, for instance, show up unexpectedly throughout the game, as do lizards. You are then asked to locate and click on eight or ten particular items in that location in the first part of the provided time. The hunt is on.

It is not uncommon to find yourself searching around a horribly cluttered desk and office floor for a flask, a tiny bottle, two pinecones, a horseshoe, a screwdriver, and similarly random objects. You will sometimes find them as part of the wallpaper, on a shelf, on the floor, or as a drawing on a vase. Sometimes you uncover the object, at others it is the word itself. Sometimes in the foreground, sometimes in background, the "clues" can be at times childishly simple to locate. But the real challenge is when you've found the easy ones, and your list is still four items long. Sometimes the object for which you search is hard to identify visually (I had particular trouble finding a wood plane which turned out to be part of a door and (that most elusive visual image) the time machine, which was sitting on the floor in the foreground. This last one proved a great challenge largely because it was in a room with no fewer than a dozen clocks. That, and I've never seen a time machine. (Which, by the way, did not include a clock on the outside, and looked too small to climb in. But now I'm clearly nitpicking.)

Of course, with the timer running and with several locations to search, one cannot dwell forever on the few items remaining on the list. At this time, there are a couple of options: switch to a second location (leaving the finishing touches to later) or utilize one of three "hints." A "hint" in this case involves the computer pointing out to you one of the remaining items on your list. More like a "gift." I recommend using these sparingly, for several reasons. First, the three hints must last throughout each "mystery," and second, I find it is easier to scan for five items than two or three. I found success reserving my hints for those last few CSI-caliber clues, like the pool cue that was part of a wooden bar, half-hidden behind the menu containing my list of items to find. (This kind of handicap is not common to each screen or case, but happens often enough to make it wise to hold on to your hints until very near the end of your search.) Also, there's no penalty for using a hint, so when you find yourself down to your last four items, cashing the hints in makes good time sense. You will want to save time for the second part of the game.

Once you have located the clues in all of the locations for that case, you are taken to a screen containing a small picture matching one of the locations you searched, and a larger, scrambled picture of the same place. This second picture additionally contains a "criminal" in the act of committing a "crime." You now must select picture squares from within the grid and switch them with each other until each locks into the correct position to reveal the full picture, and the crime is solved. This part sounds simple, but is complicated by the time factor, most of which was used while searching for items off the list.

MCF Huntsville is a good game of its type, and is engaging and challenging at times, though the early levels pass by pretty quickly. Its replay value is average. Certain items have a habit of turning up in the same places, so when they appear on your list in locations, they are a cinch to find. After just my fourth case, I had one or two items repeat at each re-visited location. I can imagine, though I do not know for sure, that this number would increase with more gameplay. I find it especially fun to play with others, and the value of additional eyes would increase as the number of items increases with the time pressures.

Download the free demo.