Mystery Case Files

I’m a fan of this game franchise. There’s just something about solving mysteries and puzzles that appeal to me. Not only do I get to practice analytical and comprehension skills, but I also get to work on my creativity and problem solving ability. The franchise’s individual installments also contain a lot of trivia and fun.

I first encountered these games in my friend’s laptop many years ago. I played Hunstville and Prime Suspects. Then I got my own copy of Ravenhearst and spent countless hours solving the mystery of the haunted mansion. I wasn’t able to play Madame Fate, but I did get to play Return to Ravenhearst, the fifth installment. Dire Grove and 13th Skull are the sixth and seventh installments, respectively, and they were released on December 11, 2009 and November 10, 2010, also respectively.

As the games evolved, so did the level of difficulty and the number of different types of puzzles to solve. In Return to Ravenhearst, there some levels and puzzles where I got stumped and literally spent hours trying to figure out what to do. Sometimes, I “cheated” a little bit by reading walkthroughs, but I generally I avoided reading entire walkthroughs so I’d get to enjoy working out the problems and challenges presented.

Escape from Ravenhearst will be the eighth installment and it’s due to be released on November 25, 2011. I haven’t even finished Return to Ravenhearst yet because my laptop crashed more than a year ago. But I’ll get back to it eventually. Then, I’ll tackle this latest episode of the Mystery Case Files!