Murder, She Wrote Review

Jessica Fletcher - made famous on the TV series by Angela Lansbury - is a mystery writer who somehow always gets involved in murder cases in the quiet town of Cabot Cove (and there seems to be a lot of murders in such a "quiet" town!). In this hidden object game, you get to follow Miss Fletcher as she searches for clues and interviews suspects in a series of murders, each one more mysterious and intriguing than the last. And it all begins with her wanting to buy some lobsters and stumbling upon the dead body of a lobster boat captain...

The gameplay in Murder, She Wrote unfolds very much like an episode of the TV series, with many elements being faithful to the show. Each case begins with a story and dialogue which nicely set the scene, including the seemingly-coincidental incidents that lead to Miss Fletcher being the one to discover a dead body. (Thankfully these intro scenes do not end with cheesy CSI-style oneliners).

After conversing with the ever-present Dr. Hazlitt and officer Metzger, you quickly get down to searching for clues at the murder scene. This is where the hidden object puzzle bit of the game comes in. You get to search for clues relating to the crime, and hopefully discover items that might lead to the identity of the murderer or the motive for the crime.

As expected in advanced hidden object games, not everything is a straight-forward point-and-click to find a hidden object. In this puzzle, you might be tasked to find a tape recorder, which is in a secret compartment covered by planks, which needs to be opened with a hammer or crowbar. To make things more tricky, some of the objects in the hidden object scenes animate and move when you highlight them. Unfortunately, most of these are red herrings that are not related to your actual task.

The hidden object scenes also have a Murder, She Wrote feel to them. Ever-present is Miss Fletcher's trusty typewriter. Unfortunately, it looks like the typewriter isn't doing too well. All the names of the hidden objects appear to be missing the vowels! You could just guess what the object names are, or you could search the scene for the missing letters that will make your hidden object list easier to read.

Every so often, you will find an object that will trigger a cutscene. For example, finding a box of toothpicks might lead to a cutscene between Jessica and Mort where Jessica says "Oh, a box of toothpicks! Mr. X was chewing on a toothpick when we spoke to him earlier. We need to go talk to him again!"

Some objects that you find will also trigger additional mini-puzzle games that will need to be solved to progress through the story. As befitting a murder mystery game, most of these puzzles involve riddles and logic games that will test your mental agility.

One possible gripe about the game is that you sometimes have to visit the same hidden object scene more than once. This might be boring to some players, but the developers have handled it quite cleverly. The first time you visit a scene, it might be to discover the murder weapon or some motive for the murder. The second time, it might be to discover whether anyone has come back to tamper with the evidence. After all, the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime!

The look and feel of the game is pretty good quality as well. The drawing and animation project the right mood and atmosphere for a murder mystery. In addition, the voice-acting in the game has gone way beyond expectations. Every intro scene, cutscene, dialogue and event in the game is accompanied by full voice-acting (and the voices are pretty believable too).

So if you want to be an amateur detective and help the town of Cabot Cove solve its many murders, then come be a part of Murder, She Wrote! Get the Mac version here.

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