DS - Mystery Case Files MillionHeir

So we bought the Mystery Case Files MillionHeir a couple of weeks ago after seeing it advertised on the TV. I have to admit I had pretty high expectations after the commercial and was hoping for a cool little puzzle game.

The game has both a single player and a multi player option. I have not yet tried out the multi player option so I can't really make any comments on that. The single player option however is made up of a story mode and a quick play. Story mode again has got 3 difficulty levels - Rookie, Detective or Gumshoe. The first time I played the game I went for Detective.

You start the game one year back in time by going to a mansion belonging to Mr Phil T. Rich. You are here given some basic instructions of how the game works and one of your first jobs involves finding a detective badge that you have to clean by rubbing the stylus over the screen and blowing into the microphone. After finding a few more items the game jumps to 6 monts later - Mr Phil T. Rich disappears and you are called in to help find him.

From now on the game is broken into small chapters where you have to investigate various suspects. You do this by finding "hidden" items. You are given a list of objects to find and you scroll across the screen and click it with the stylus once you spot one of them. You usually have a couple of rooms to search through for each suspect with a list for each room. After finding the required number of items from the lists you then have to solve a final puzzle for each suspect. These vary from jigsaws, slide puzzles, memory games and spot the difference plus a few others. All of them a little bit too easy... After investigating all the suspects you are then taken to the next level which is pretty much just repeating the same technique that you have just been using. You are given a list, have to reinvestigate and have to find more objects. A couple of new games are introduced when you get to the final part of the game but these are not really that difficult either.

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed. The game very quickly becomes a little bit repetitive and you can play through it in a few hours. I tried it again on the Gumshoe setting but this quickly becomes frustrating as you have a very limited amount of time to find the required items. If you run out of time you have to start that level over with a new list of items. I have to admit that at first the time pressure of the Gumshoe level made the game more interesting, but the novelty soon wears off when you are searching the same room for the 5th time...

I think that the whole game could have been done a lot better. I don't really mind the whole search and find scenario that you have to do over and over again, but this is where the game could be improved. A bit of a variety to how you have to investigate the different suspects would have made the whole thing a lot more interesting rather than just a repeat of itself.

I have to say that I am a bit disappointed in the whole game. I know my expectations were probably too high, but it just seems like the developers could have done SO much more with the game. I have a feeling that I will not be spending any of my hard earned cash on a Mystery Case Files 2.