- Beautiful Hidden Object Scenes.
- Live-Action Video Footage.
- Explore Dangerous Dire Grove.
- Immerse Yourself In Mystery.
Product Description
The Celtic legend of Dire Grove has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries. Considered a fairytale, its telling was meant to frighten small children into staying in their beds through the night. A recently unearthed artifact in the United Kingdom, however, proves the dark legend to be true! Use your wits and Hidden Object talents to follow the trail of a group of missing graduate students in Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove!… More >>
Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove
Tags: artifact, celtic legend, centuries, dark legend, generation to generation, graduate students, hidden object, mystery case, video footage, wits
#1 by L. Epstein on June 24, 2010 - 6:25 pm
I just stayed up all night finishing this game (and at my age that is saying something). I made a big mistake downloading it late in the evening and then deciding to “just see what it’s like”.
Well what it’s like is a very strange conglomeration of Highlights for Children, a teen puzzle book and “The Blair Witch Project” toned down to a tolerable level. There are your basic object seek sections that are extremely simple. Then there are some harder puzzles that while not exactly obvious are couched in some pretty intense scenes. The collection and use of objects is not so obvious which was one of the best parts of the game. The last part is the collecting of the BWP-like video tapes and while some commentators here stated that you don’t have to watch them in order to complete the game, they do contain some key information.
Prepare to do a lot of back-tracking and make sure you check the whole screen with your cursor as some areas are not at all obvious. The graphics are beautiful, the music suitably creepy and the overall effect is immersive and well-done. With all the walking around took me about eight hours to complete and clearly it was gripping enough to keep me up all night. For the seven bucks, I felt like I got my money’s worth.
So if you want a beautifully rendered, medium-level puzzle experience with a mildly horror-oriented motif that won’t occupy your every waking moment for the next two weeks, this is the game for you.
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by PCCnyc on June 24, 2010 - 9:05 pm
Maybe hyperbolic, but I really feel this is the best game I’ve played so far.
It’s a hidden object game where finding objects and gathering an inventory is a lesser aspect of the game. More interesting and challenging is what you have to do with the inventory you collect. There are several locations to explore and you have to go back a few times to most of them. You really need to think what inventory object to use and how to use it when you encounter a situation or problem in a location, and inventory picked up much earlier in the game may not come into play until well into the game.
The inventory objects are not just located in the hidden scenes, but in some of the locations; for example, all the VHS tapes are outside the HO scenes. I admit to checking a blog walk through after playing for a length of time just to make sure I had found everything and performed all the tasks.
The mini games are also top notch and include a maze-like alphabet game that I thought was especially clever.
The storyline involves four grad students searching for the truth about a Celtic legend in the town of Dire Grove. As others have mentioned, you collect about 18 VHS tapes that tell the story in snippets of what has happened to the students. I didn’t find the short films as scary as four scenes involving each student that occur within the game itself. But no spoilers on that! The whole game takes place in a snowy environment that I found particularly immersive for some reason.
My only regret is that I didn’t know there was a deluxe version of this game before I got the standard version. Although I usually have no desire to replay a game that I know the conclusion of, I have to say I would consider buying the deluxe game after some time passes. That’s how much I liked this game.
One last thing. There is a text “guide” that comments on your actions in the game. There are three modes, one of them being “sarcastic”. I set it to that, but had to change it because it was so insulting!
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by Claudia Burt Green on June 24, 2010 - 10:51 pm
I just loved this game. My husband thought I had gotten lost all weekend. I just had to solve it and it was worth it. The graphics are amazing, the story line interesting(but impossible) The puzzels were interesting. All in all a great game. I am back today looking for more games in this style. Of course when I look I discover that I already own most of them. Enjoy!
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by squeaks1111 on June 25, 2010 - 12:06 am
I actually waited to download this game to when I wasn’t home alone. It definitely had a more frightening edge to it, like “Blairwitchy”. A great game, love Mystery Case files, the “Return to Ravens…” is still my favorite. This was a short game, a few evenings and completed. However, it was well worth the money. I could have done without the video segments. They were painful to watch, difficult to hear sometimes, and a wee-bit blair witch in some parts. But if its blair witch, where they are holding the camera and then it switches to another shot that is like their is a camera crew. That bugged me. Overall a great game. Nice mix of hidden object, clues, and puzzles. Recommend.
Rating: 4 / 5
#5 by Ellen Hickey on June 25, 2010 - 1:05 am
I loved this game and couldn’t WAIT to get home to play it, day after day. The graphics were great, the story line compelling, and the actors in the live clips, surprisingly good! I didn’t need a guide or a walkthrough to finish it and it kept me interested and engaged for a total (for me) of six leisurely hours of play. I will now be buying the rest of the series but I can only hope they were as good as this one. The one negative to this version…apparently, from reading about this game, there are 50 morphing objects that one can collect, but this version did not contain that feature. I’m not sure if that’s only available on the collector’s edition, but I would have liked that. I’m not sure though, that the difference in price ($6.99 vs. 19.99) would justify that additional piece.
Rating: 5 / 5