Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart
Game Review

Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart by Inertia Game Studios is their third hidden object adventure game starring the spunky Edwina Margrave. It follows the first two games Secret of Margrave Manor and Margrave Manor 2: The Lost Ship. This time round, the series' already-respectable game quality goes up a few more notches, producing an adventure game of the highest standard and production values.

The game begins as Edwina Margrave is driving through the English countryside on her way to the village where she grew up and where her parents died when she was just six. She wants to know how they died, so she is visiting their old landlady in the hope that the old woman might be able to shed some light on the tragedy. However, just minutes into her visit, Edwina realizes that there's more to this than meets the eye, and gets caught up in a supernatural mystery involving a powerful relic.

Surprisingly, one of the highlights of the game actually occurs at the main menu screen. When you load up the game, you are greeted by a song complete with singing. The song sets the tone of the game just right. It is hauntingly beautiful and the voice is just perfect. It is very likely that you will spend a lot of time staring at the main menu just to listen to this song... again and again. And thankfully, the music in the rest of the game doesn't disappoint as well, providing a subtle and moody feel to this surreal game.

The game itself is like a standard puzzle adventure game, but one depicted in a very beautiful style. Liberal splashes of green and purple transform the game into something with a hint of faerie magic and the supernatural. Your task is to investigate the village and its surroundings, meeting people who will tell you more about the story. You will also be picking up items and jotting down or sketching important information that you come across.

It turns out that there is a curse involved in Edwina's parents' deaths, and she needs to unlock a few Shadowlocks in order to get to the powerful relic behind it. Unlocking a Shadowlock involves a neat concept: you need to find a recipe specific to the Shadowlock, and obtain its ingredients via various methods from all over the village. Once gathered, brewing them at the Shadowlock will do the trick. Be careful though. There is a mysterious beast following you, and its motives are unclear.

Edwina also has a knack for communicating with the spirit world via her dream cards. During the game, she will encounter a large variety of spirits that need her help to escape the curse. Each time a spirit needs help, an interesting minigame will launch. It involves matching symbols using the dream cards. As you progress through the game, the puzzles will become more complicated, with more card combinations and symbols that you need to consider in your attempt to match them all.

There are plenty of other puzzles and hidden object scenes that you would expect from a hidden object adventure game. The puzzles range from pretty simple to complicated, and include jigsaws, pattern-matching, logic puzzles and more. The hidden object scenes are quite difficult, as the objects are hidden pretty well, and a lot of the things you need to find are just outlines that are blended very well into the background. Don't worry if you get stuck though; the 'hint' and 'skip' buttons recharge reasonably fast.

Margrave is a very immersive game, with lots of good things going for it. The high production values, the beautiful music and the engaging gameplay all work well together. You will like the game if you liked other puzzle adventure games such as the Mystery Case Files series or the Enlightenus series. You can get the basic version of the PC game, or you can get the Collector's Edition which includes exclusive extras such as bonus gameplay, a strategy guide, extra puzzles and great artwork. Or get the basic version or Collector's Edition of the Mac game.

Related PC Games at Big Fish Games:

Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart Collector's Edition

Margrave Manor 2: Lost Ship

Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove

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