Aunty Di Loovyan reviewing with all you regular players in mind, and with a special spot for the ‘move-me-onto-the 21st-century’ players – oldies like me who now have time to relax and learn how to enjoy a casual game or three.
Yes, I agree – the title of this game is decidedly off-putting. Cripes – didn’t we read yarns with titles like this when we were kids? Fortunately, after we have been in Natalie’s garden (Chapter 1), at the art gallery (2), on a boat (3) and in a lighthouse (4), the school (5) we explore in minute detail is nothing like the dreary old ones we knew of yore.
Natalie has been asked by Chad, an old school mate from Hillcrest High, to save him and his girlfriend Kitty from a gang of crooks, which includes a Chad imposter. This task is interminable, which is a rather impolite way of saying that there are hours of challenges here, and real value for money.
The task will involve ingenuity on the player’s part. Hidden objects, true, but the challenge in this game is not to click on lists for their own sake, but to put yourself in the situation and use your experience or your common sense or your intuition to click on objects that have to be used if the story is to progress. You’ll find yourself extinguishing a fire, defusing a bomb, starting an engine and so on. After a time, I felt quite clever and practical – all illusory if you knew me, of course.
The graphics are cheerful (yes, even the smoky hold or the gloomy lighthouse), the SFX are pleasant, the friendship between Natalie and her mates is warm….. Do you get the feeling that I recommend this game for teenagers onwards? It begins with instructions, but the game is so easy to latch onto with a minimum of fuss that it’s more fun to have a go by yourself. There is a range of cursors to guide you to various activities that unlock boxes, magnify objects, indicate which objects to store for later use, and so on.
Which brings me to a confession. I cheated. I went to the Walkthrough. Dear Gamers, I got as far as the Morse Code clue in the lighthouse. It is, unfortunately, one of the puzzles you can’t skip. I tried the darned thing till my brain froze. I scrolled up and down that wretched lighthouse like a yo-yo on automatic. (I’d already mucked around in similar fashion on the boat – so much for my intuition and practicality.) I pressed the hint button (a question mark that once pressed has to unscroll, oh ever so slowly, before you can proceed. Exasperating.) until my finger suffered RSI. No hint to be spied. In retrospect, I think I selected an item or two in the wrong order. And I really wanted to go on with the game. So – cheated. Walkthrough.
But don’t Walkpast this one!!!!
Find Natalie Brooks: Mystery at Hillcrest High at Club Casual Games
