Our final – yes, FINAL – Casual Collection features a couple of heavy hitters, as Big Fish's own Mystery Case Files and Azada franchises get hotly-anticipated sequels (the latter in the hands of a different but very familiar developer). Of course there's much more than that, as you'll once again have the opportunity to explore eerie accursed towns and haunted palatial homes; travel to and from the past, manipulating the time stream as you go; confront bloodthirsty Knights Templars; match wits against psychotic masked villains; and even scour the frozen Himalayas for evidence of Lovecraft's Elder Gods and their deadly Shoggoth slaves. The themes may be nothing new, but this month's releases include some of the most grisly, disturbing scenarios ever to darken the casual realm. So if you're ready to get your creep on, take your pick(s) of the best from the following lineup:

Page 1: Mystery Case Files: Escape from Ravenhearst
Page 2: Azada: In Libro, The Keepers: Lost Progeny
Page 3: Time Mysteries: The Ancient Spectres, Hallowed Legends: Templar
Page 4: Haunted Manor: Queen of Death, Shattered Minds: Masquerade
Page 5: Death Under Tuscan Skies: A Dana Knightstone Novel, Mystery Stories: Mountains of Madness

Note: Not to be upstaged, The Jolly Gang’s Misadventures in Africa, Red Crow Mysteries: Legion, and Cardboard Castle all arrived in November as well, but each will be getting a full review of their own down the road.

Mystery Case Files: Escape from Ravenhearst
by Jack Allin

The Mystery Case Files series has always been on the cutting edge of innovation in the casual realm, as demonstrated by the ever-evolving Ravenhearst series. The first game was a traditional hidden object hunt, while the sequel was one of the earliest, most influential pioneers in introducing significant adventure elements for a more fully-rounded experience. Now Big Fish’s flagship series returns to the stormy English coast in Escape from Ravenhearst, looking to once again push the envelope in new and interesting ways. Consider the attempt half-successful. Even in a genre overloaded with haunted towns, insane antagonists, and creepy environments, this game blows its contemporaries out of water with its deliciously sadistic settings and truly disturbing atmosphere. The gameplay and accessibility both take a notable step back, however, making for a frustrating adventure at times.

You may have thought you’d seen the last of the deranged Charles Dalimar in Return to Ravenhearst, but you’re lured right back into his snare again along with the ghosts you previously freed. This time your nemesis is determined to make you understand him; to appreciate the torment and pain that drove him to be the monster he is. And boy, is he convincing. Dalimar has recreated the scenes of his life’s most traumatic moments to live through yourself, from a troubled birth in a decrepit hospital to a childhood of servitude to a punishing beast of a mother, followed by his stay at the asylum where he learned to embrace his insanity. If not for the whole “trying to kill and/or capture your soul for all eternity” thing, it’d be easy to pity the man. Considering the perversely malicious villain he became, it’s a credit to the developers that his tragic story feels so intensely human.

But is it ever twisted – gloriously so. Dozens of mannequins were harmed in the making of this adventure, often in alarming ways. There are pregnant women with pulsating bellies, babies to X-ray, drowned limbs sticking out of a bathtub, non-anaesthetized operations in progress, mental patients beating their heads on a wall, and a little boy forever suspended under an automated spank-o-tronic. Not shocking enough? Then how about euthanizing patients or attending to the grotesque, obese woman who demands her nightly toenail-clipping, nose hair-trimming and pimple-popping. Yum! And yet, despite all the disgusting imagery, it’s all very “tastefully” done. You’ll feel horrified but not repulsed… or maybe repulsed but not offended. Okay, some will probably be offended anyway, but this genuinely feels like a staged descent into the mind of a madman. Virtually every scene has some new freakish atrocity, and I was eager to continue exploring. Kudos to Big Fish for pulling no punches, while still maintaining an appropriate level of decorum. This game is not bloody or gory or scary, just wonderfully, relentlessly macabre.

All this ugliness sure does look good, too. With an option for high-definition graphics for added crispness, the technical quality matches the detailed realism and artistry, though for some reason the game runs in letterboxed format throughout, even on a widescreen monitor. I groaned at the overused purple hues of the opening nighttime scenes at the now demolished Ravenhearst manor and surrounding coastline, but the locations diverge nicely once you begin to investigate Dalimar’s past. Like the last game, live actors have been integrated into the backgrounds, in particularly effective ways. Dalimar’s face appears on televised mannequin heads to encourage and taunt your efforts, and his past ghostly victims look particularly distressing, imprisoned in liquid holding tanks. The acting is all well done, though Dalimar’s exaggerated performance might be a little over-the-top. Then again, he’s a complete nutjob, so maybe not. Music is kept to a minimum, adding just a touch of discordant ambience at times, while sound effects are convincing, apart from the whimpering cries for help from people you never see or find occasion to rescue.

If only Escape from Ravenhearst were a movie, I could praise it without reservation, but it stumbles badly when it comes to gameplay. The most notable change from previous games is the shift from standard hidden object scenes to “morphing” items this time around, where objects subtly transition from one form to another. Other games have used this technique as a bonus extra, but here it’s the main item scavenging staple. Unfortunately, some of the changes are very tiny and practically indiscernible even when you’re looking right at them. Staring at every inch of the screen for five seconds in the hope you might catch one gets old in a hurry. The morph searches appear right in the main environments, and are quite cleverly explained as the influence of ghosts trying to help you. Mind you, it’s never explained why they need these items collected before they’re able to do so. I’m not so much opposed to the morphing mechanic in general, but a less demanding implementation would have been better. Fortunately, they don’t occur too often, and none are repeated.

Then again, “demanding” applies to the rest of the puzzles as well, as some are very difficult. Codes routinely involve clues acquired from multiple sources, and even then require proper alignment to complete. Even the standalone logic puzzles and minigames are more challenging than usual. Some are quite clever, like a number-based crossword with dice and channeling rotating numbers through a math-based grid, but don’t be surprised to spend lengthy stretches solving a card suit sequencing task or grouping numerical grid tiles. A “simple” memory game spent poking eyes gets ridiculously complicated by the end, and if you make one mistake, you start all over from the beginning. One puzzle in particular is a four-part nightmare. Each task is completely different and none of the steps are explained – no puzzle offers any instructions whatsoever – and though you can solve them in any order, you can only skip the entire thing, not a particular stage. Both a tricky chess puzzle and an absurdly unintuitive sequence puzzle tripped me up, and I eventually gave up in disgust.

If you think you can minimize the challenge with an easier setting, think again, as there are no difficulty options to choose from. In fact, the game goes out of its way to be as unhelpful as possible. There is no hint system of any kind outside of the morphing scenes, and even the journal fails to record pertinent information! Since clues can be anywhere, some of them quite obscure, the least the game can do is note them for later reference. But no, expect to be pulling out your own pad of paper to jot down periodic table numbers and arrow alignments, among others. THIS is a “casual” game? Shockingly, even the strategy guide in the Collector’s Edition is ridiculously obtuse. It consists solely of pictures, and while you can usually figure out what it’s getting at, who wants to work at understanding the help they’ve just paid double the money to acquire?

Oh sure, there’s some “bonus” content in the extended version as well, but it’s appallingly inadequate. Rather than giving you an additional chapter, all you get are a few built-in hidden object activities. The main one involves matching tiny snippets of scenery to their real-world counterparts, which is extremely tough in some instances, while the journal also includes morphing objects to find. Oh, so THAT’s what it’s for! Certainly isn’t to do what a journal is supposed to do. Needless to say, you’re better off with the standard version, since the main game plays out exactly the same either way.

It’s easy to love or hate a game, but rarely do I love and hate the same game at the same time, but that’s increasingly how I felt as I progressed through this one. I relished the sick abominations of a troubled mind, and the production values are second to none in the casual realm. But while I applaud the attempt to try new things, and even enjoyed the morphing scenes for the most part, at least two or three items per screen felt more than a little unfair. And I’m all for meaty, challenging puzzles, but not without any of the user-friendly help options that casual gamers have come to expect. One thing’s for sure: you’ll get your (standard edition’s) money’s worth from the latest Mystery Case Files adventure, as it can easily take six hours or (many) more to get through it all. It’s a thrilling world to revisit, but as the difficulty ramps up, you’ll probably be eager to Escape from Ravenhearst before all is said and done, not always for the reasons intended.