Official Synopsis
Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident follows a wealthy recluse named Winston Malgrave who claims to have made an extraordinary discovery. His private island is home to a strange dust that may have the power to cure many of the world’s ailments. When he requests the aid of the master detective of the Mystery Case Files detective agency to help him save his beloved wife, Sarah, he opens the door into a world of shadowy intrigue and closely guarded family secrets. Is there more to this eccentric client’s case than meets the eye?
Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident is not a unique flower in a puzzle-heavy genre. If you’re starring at the title not knowing what to make of it then look no further than two similar games it certainly seems to mimic; the first is a game called Myst and the second is a game called 7th Guest. While both aren’t exactly the same as Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident, they do share similar elements. For example, 7th Guest did a spectacular job with creating an incredibly creepy environment, even though the puzzles inside the game were very easy to deal with. The game was story heavy and it mixed sophisticated animation (at the time, at least) with very odd/terrifying video that made up for the lack of puzzle difficulty. People loved the story, animation and video, which pretty much was a pass for the rest.
As for Myst, it was less animation/video and more still pictures. While that may not be enough for most people, the real strong point of the game laid with its incredibly fun puzzles. PC folks absolutely ate this game up by the droves and it became one of the best selling titles of the 90s — before the first-person shooters, The Sims and World of Warcraft took the PC world over.
Anyway, getting back on track, Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident is a combination of both games, but that doesn’t necessarily make it great.
The story is a strong piece, as it carries you from point A to point B and will be the reason you swim through the frustration to finish the game. Knowing that Winston Malgrave is out there and that something horrible has happened on this island you’re exploring certainly makes the journey interesting. Again, it’s a very strong part of the game and it is the driving point for the entire experience. For example, there were places on the island I explored where some of the most malcontent looking situations appeared to be brewing. One such place was the Malgrave Manor, which sported a bed that had a wedding dress laying on it with burnt out candles surrounding the dusty cloth. I know now why this was there, but seeing that for the first time simply made me want to obtain more information about what the hell was going on in the game.
Shifting gears to gameplay, the main piece of the puzzles (no pun intended) was an object finding venture. To gain dust that Malgrave is looking for you will have to go to specially marked places in the game (marked with sparkling purple, precious dust) and basically look for specific objects in a pile of random objects. While slightly animated in this portion of the game, onscreen you will find a list of objects and then you simply point with the Wii remote to pick those objects out. If you get stuck you have a magnifying glass on the bottom right that gives you a hint on where the object you’re looking for lies in the picture. Each time you use the magnifying glass it becomes unavailable for a short period of time. While I have no problem with the finding objects in the picture type gameplay, I do have an issue with the ease of the task, the random pointlessness of the objects in relation to the story and the fact that there isn’t any real punishment (other than loss of gameplay time) when using the magnifying glass hint option. I think that using the magnifying glass more than three times should warrant some sort of punishment. I’m not sure what that could be, but there has to be a real consequence somewhere along the way.
Anyway, that’s about nearly half of the gameplay in this title. You will explore the island and run into these sparkly dust areas and go right into the object/picture finding task. Again, while the task isn’t that bad when it comes to figuring things out, it does feel rather pointless and forced into the overall story.
So, is this world all easy-peasy? No, this world has its frustrating moments. Many of the puzzles in the game will give you no clues before you encounter them. For example, once you’ve made it into the Malgrave mansion you will come upon (through various methods) a garden area. Inside that you will find a small house that won’t allow you in without figuring out a puzzle on the outside door. The puzzle has no real pattern to it and gives you almost no direction when it comes to starting it. You get various colorful objects that are embedded into squares, including a blue button (one you can find on a shirt). You will literally stare at the puzzle trying to find some jump off point to it, so you can continue. If you don’t have your wits about you this can grow into a very frustrating experience. Regretfully, you will find about 5-7 of these moments within the game where you will just stare, guess and hope for the best. It can be incredibly frustrating.
On top of this frustration, you will also find moments where you have collected objects through various means and when you go to use those objects they will just reveal another puzzle that you have to get through before you can be rewarded for your efforts. For example, there is a portion of the game where you are required to find a tragedy mask. Once you place that mask where it needs to go a door opens… to reveal a puzzle. It’s like doing your homework, turning it in for a reward only to find out that you have to do one more piece of homework before you can finally get that reward; it’s a bit unsatisfying, disheartening and frustrating. Again, all these moments are driven by the strange and enticing story. So, in some respects, the juice is worth the squeeze. Puzzles aside, let’s discuss how you get from place to place in this game.
This series was originally for the PC, which players used a mouse and keyboard to navigate. It is incredibly difficult to translate that onto the Wii Remote. While not nearly as frustrating as the puzzles, the actual controls of the game hinder you a bit when playing. You move the Wii remote in a limited direction (up, down, left, right) and place the cursor in a certain part of the screen to move. For example, if I wanted to go back the way I came in a room I would have to place the cursor at the bottom of the screen and wait for the arrow icon to change to a three-triangle icon that points down. This has more of a closer relationship to Myst in terms of controls. The problem with the Wii Remote is that it’s not as smooth or accurate as a mouse on a table. You can’t easily point in the down direction and accurately get what you want out of the remote. There were several times during the game where I accidentally went ‘back’ or went ‘forward’ when I was trying to point at an object. It’s a bit frustrating in terms of controls and it doesn’t make sense in 2011 to do it this way. Having the ability to maintain your control scheme is one thing, but for a console the world works a bit different. Had Big Fish Games actually given the freedom for the players to walk around using the directional pad and not having to rely on hot spots on the screen then the experience would have been ten times better. I’m just not sure that the point-click method of movement in the game was the right choice, even if it’s only to maintain the integrity of the series.
Washing some dark clouds away, the presentation of the game was actually pretty smooth for a Wii adventure. Going into the game there was some dread that this would be like Myst in some respects, where you would have still pictures that you merely point-click things. Not to take away from an epic like Myst, which worked really well in the early 90s, but imagining a game in 2011 where you would click on still pictures is like imagining owning a Ferrari and choosing to walk everywhere; it just wouldn’t make sense. You also get moving animation when you’re walking in and out of places (and looking right, left, up and down). Movement aside, Big Fish Games did a splendid job on the visuals, for a Wii title, where you get tons of details around you in the environment and creepy visual moments where you physically will feel uneasy in certain areas. For example, when you enter the main town for the first time in the game you will see empty homes, broken signs, a ripped up poster with a human skull on it and several other indications that something went terribly wrong and there was violence. It’s detailed to the last cobble on the ground and just creepy as hell. Big Fish Games did a great job with immersing the gamer into the environment and creating this broken world where you never feel fully comfortable. When you encounter Malgrave for the first time it does feel a bit ‘picturey’, but there’s good lighting, well-placed mouth movement for the dialogue and, again, just an uneasy feeling.
So, the game in this respect is more like a 7th Guest than a Myst.
One thing you will enjoy, which Steve Schardein would kill me for if I didn’t mention, is the beautifully haunting soundtrack that was created for this title. It waves in and out like a ghastly spirit floating above you the entire time and changes accordingly with the situation. In addition to this, you also get some pretty fantastic sound effects that will, at times, get on your nerves when it is deemed appropriate. For example, going back to the room that contained Sarah’s dress, there is a noisy humidifier in the room that will make you want to turn the volume down a bit. It’s jarring, but necessary because it reminds you of how uncomfortable you need to be during your investigation. You will find several moments like this.
So with an unbelievably fun story, great presentation, so-so controls and plenty of frustrations, is this game fun? Here’s where you’re probably going to scratch your head a bit. Because the story is so strong you will find yourself sucked into the game pretty well. Regardless of difficult puzzles or frustrating controls, the urge to continue the story will be the driving point to make this title fun. You want to know what happened to the town and why Malgrave is so secretive about his intentions. You will want to know what happened to Sarah, regardless of how many hours you sit and look at a puzzle like the RCA dog does to a record player. You will find yourself beaten and bruised mentally just to get to the next stop, and insanely enough you will enjoy it… to an extent. So, in short, the game is fun and it’s not fun, and some days it’s just torture. Having beaten the game I can safely say that you can conquer it, if you have your wits about you, in about 2-3 days. If you throw multiplayer and the mini games were you have to collect items as you drudge through your adventure then maybe a little longer.
Regardless, the game is a bunch of frustration mixed in with a great story and great presentation.