Inside a sprawling, decrepit manor set amidst a once-beautiful lawn, young Magnolia Lawson sits curled up against her father, listening with rapt attention to a bedtime story about notorious pirate Phineas Crown. Her eyes widen with alarm when he reads that Crown’s ghost lurks in the swamps to this day, waiting to punish those who dare seek the fortune he has hidden there. She asks if ghosts are real, and is reassured to hear a firm ‘no’, even as an unseen entity storms into the house, heavy footsteps clambering up the steps to her room. As a terrified Magnolia looks on from her hiding spot under the bed, her father opens the door, the edges of which are now aglow with an unearthly brightness. A scream shatters the quiet of the night, and then he’s gone, sucked into a blinding wall of light.

And thus the action shifts from the icy, abandoned Celtic village of Dire Grove to the foggy, rain-drenched bayous of Louisiana for the latest episode of the Mystery Case Files series, 13th Skull. A chat with Sara Lawson reveals that her husband Marcus was obsessed with finding the lost treasure of Crown, who’d retired to the estate after a life of brutal pillaging. Investigating the rambling manor and its unkempt grounds reveals numerous mysterious contraptions that crank out keys, documents and pieces of Crown’s treasure map. Meanwhile, the game world expands to include the rundown town and reptile-infested marshes edging the estate, as well as a medley of cantankerous locals. This allows for a lengthy, interesting blend of intriguing story, attractively-stocked hidden object screens, intelligent standalone and inventory puzzles, and interactive conversations with ‘real’ characters, all set in an indolent, haunting Southern ambience. As the case unravels over more than a hundred unique, exquisitely-drawn screens, the simmering swamps belch out long-buried secrets, exposing the truth behind the legendary treasure, though you’ll also need to trudge back and forth through some less-inspired busywork along the way.

At the start of the game, Sara hands over the tattered treasure map that Marcus had been trying to decode. A tutorial on locating the other pieces scattered by her dog eases the player into the game, covering the basics of collecting loose inventory items as you explore, as well as searching hidden object screens, each of which yields one useful item to take with you. Once the map is reassembled, you’ll need to begin interrogating other characters. Questioning the housekeepers leads to both mundane tasks to be performed and invaluable clues to the secrets of the ignominious past that the manor still jealously guards. Rooms, furniture and various artifacts are all rigged to hide elements critical to locating the treasure, a quest that is intrinsically linked to discovering what seemingly unfortunate fate has befallen Marcus. The map illustrates the layout of the neighbourhood and is essential to the resolution of the mystery, but it cannot be used to navigate the expansive game world, thus lacking a functionality which would have greatly reduced the considerable backtracking necessary.

The quirky housekeepers insinuate that Marcus may have fallen prey to dark magic or hungry critters, while Magnolia maintains solemnly that her father was abducted by the ghost of Crown. Clues around the manor make it impossible to dismiss outright either the lore of the treasure or the existence of the supernatural, though as indications of foul play emerge, it soon becomes obvious that there is more than a curse at work, adding more names than just Crown’s to the list of suspects. A motley crew of locals, including a benevolent voodoo priestess, an attractive dive bar owner, a smarmy gambler and a discontent hick couple, are drawn into the case, which they help and hinder as they please. Most often, they trade information for practical favours that suit their personal interests, leading the protagonist to eventually grumble about the lack of any evidence of ‘Southern hospitality’ whatsoever in that area.

The interactions with these locals, however, count among the most interesting aspects of this game. For starters, all the characters are played by real actors, their video footage embedded seamlessly into the illustrated game world. This live-action feature elevates the game’s immersiveness above that of its casual peers, and even most full-fledged adventures. The conversations, while limited in topics and specific order of enquiry, aren’t purely passive either. Often the characters interact directly with the player, handing over or taking quest items in a pleasantly realistic fashion. The acting is decent and the cast well-suited to their roles; besides the Lawsons, who have recently moved from Ohio after inheriting the estate, the rest are distinctly Southern in speech and attitude, suspiciously derisive about ‘outsiders’ and downright smug about their mystical heritage.

13th Skull is extremely structured in its short term goals. At any time, there is only one core objective listed at the bottom of the screen, along with depictions of any objects required to complete it when applicable. Initially the game is quite linear, with exploration limited to inside the manor, but even this isn’t as restrictive as it seems, as the entire game world serves as an inventory repository, with various items becoming active hotspots as new objectives are begun. This requires paying attention to each scene and keeping mental notes of objects that may become useful in future, a demanding task given the length and scope of the game. Over time, as the story and puzzles become more complicated and there is greater flexibility of exploration and item collection, the game shakes loose from the confines of being a ‘hidden object adventure’ to compete almost directly with the traditional genre.

The inventory challenges range from serious to trivial to downright ridiculous, including cleaning a choked toilet. A number of tasks, particularly those done for the housekeepers, are unimaginative and unnecessarily prolong an otherwise sleek game. Several hidden object screens are also repeated to procure objects that may just as easily have been collected from the main environments. Besides these, there are numerous standalone puzzles, clever and attractive in design and mechanics, and usually clear in logic and definition. Many are assorted jigsaws: tiles, sliders and disjointed pieces to be set in sequence. Then there are math challenges, Minesweeper-like logic tasks, as well as complex inventory-and-logic combinations.

Many puzzles use randomly-generated numbers and patterns, and difficulty levels vary noticeably. A few are really simple if your investigation has yielded the relevant information, while some, like a full-blown game of checkers or a rotating puzzle with five balls to be set in certain orders, require considerable expertise to conquer. Not all obstacles are intellectual; at least one – de-weeding a garden – demands some dexterity that may frustrate players who don’t enjoy rapid-action games. There are a couple of obscure puzzles in the mix, more due to vague or missing instructions than actual difficulty, such as one involving the keys and chords of a piano, or another using chains and coins. All puzzles can be skipped, though that eliminates the possibility of winning the ‘award’ reserved for completing all of them.