On to the games now, and first up it's the Mystery Age series, if you can call a game and its sequel a series. The first game is about the Black Rain (nothing to do with the Michael Douglas film of the same name) which has taken hold in their village. You supposedly play as the young daughter of two shamans, one of whom has gone away to try to stop the evil which has befallen the place. Unfortunately he did not succeed, so you and your mother need to follow in his footsteps and do what he couldn't. This game is based on drawn scenes, as opposed to the rather more photo-realistic other games you'll usually find in this genre. You are given some freedom while trying to solve the mystery; in each scene there are parts of items missing, and when you've found all parts of one item, it is magically repaired and can be used to find the next complete item in that scene. You may only have one item in your inventory at a time, but the game decides that for you, so no need to worry about having misplaced an item you'll need later on.
Its sequel, Mystery Age: The Dark Priests, takes place some years after the original, and you are now a shaman yourself. This time dark priests have taken hold in a village you hold dearly and they're trying to bring back the evil you expelled in the first game. The graphics have improved slightly, and now you may keep several items in your inventory at once, utilising them in other scenes from where you found them. You will end up walking a lot between scenes (luckily quickly achieved by just clicking your mouse) as you try to unravel the mystery and solve puzzles (many involving finding pieces of keys by solving other puzzles).
The two games are a bit cartoony, but fun diversions. Hidden Mysteries: Salem Secrets is not cartoony, however. It's the late 1600s and there are rumours of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Since you are an inspector, you inevitably end up there, looking for four girls gone missing. The place soon unravels a whole plethora of enigmas and it's your job to figure out what on earth is going on there, as everyone else seems to have gone into hiding. The game offers a lot of freedom, and sports a map you may use to find your bearings (unfortunately there is no way of knowing which direction you're facing, so the map ends up being merely an indication of the general area you're in). A nifty feature of the map is that it glows every so slightly in areas where you may find new clues (in the form of finding hidden objects).
Another feature is the "Tasks" page of your "Journal", where the game collects all the things you need to figure out before moving on; very handy during the middle of the game when you've visited a lot of new places in succession and have forgotten which inventory items you may find use for where. The "Tasks" section also offers hints, if you want them. So basically you won't get stuck (unless you're incredibly thick, but then it's hard to believe you'd be playing such a game in the first place, as it must be very frustrating). The game is photo-realistic as such, but as with most hidden objects games a lot of the objects you're supposed to find are hidden in very silly places indeed. How these games are supposed to take themselves serious, I don't know.
The last game on the list is Mystery Chronicles: Murder Among Friends. It starts out with the death of your cousin and his wife, and the disappearance of their children. You may choose between a timed or a casual game. Either way, you'll have plenty of time to finish each chapter (seven in all), unless you're blind, in which case it would again be very strange that you should be playing games such as these.
Another photo-realistic game, this also features slightly annoying background noise (knocking on doors, musical interludes and other varieties which may drive you mad if you've been stuck for the past eight minutes trying to find a sodding strawberry in an all-red scene). This game does not offer much freedom, though; technically, you may from time to time choose between going to one location instead of another, but it will lead to the same conclusion and, perhaps, frustration. They've thrown in some puzzles for good measure, but this doesn't help the fact that the game is linear, predictable and short.
Typically you shouldn't need more than a handful of hours to finish any of these games, and the replayability is awfully limited. The only game of the bunch I could possibly recommend at the moment, would be Mystery Chronicles, based entirely on the fact that it's half price on BigFish Games this week. The others are not worth it, unless you have way too much money.
