PC Game Review: Mysteryville is the Cat's Meow

"Mysteryville" is a fun game of hide and seek or I Spy for the computer. You will spend each round looking for a series of items. At some points you need to find as many of one item as you can, other times the game changes and you need to locate different things in order to progress.

"Mysteryville" was made by Big Fish Games and is one of their puzzle-type games. Until recently I was not aware of this game. I came across it at Arcade Town and thought that it would be something that I would be interested in checking out.

While I am not a fan of the downloading and installation process of most games, this one was a snap. It did not take too long before the game was installed and I was learning the story of "Mysteryville".

The game begins with you in the lead role of Laura Winner. Laura is the ace reported at Countryside Life Magazine. She has come to "Mysteryville" about the same time that the town's cats begin to disappear. As a journalist you begin to investigate the story of the missing cats and in order to investigate you end up exploring the town. You will question residents and examine the details of the town and people in order to find the felines that should be prowling the town.

Your main objective in "Mysteryville" is to find items that have been buried in the rooms you are in. The items are packed around the room so some things will be obvious and other things will be harder to find. Of course, some of these town's people are packrats so you will have to go through plenty of junk to find what you are looking for.

There are a total of 21 areas in the game. In each area there is the possibility for a new puzzle type. In every single area you will have to solve different puzzles that involve you finding the items you are told to find in order to further the game. Occasionally you will be on the hunt for cards and candles and other times you will be finding items from a shopping list setup.

It gets interesting at times when the lights go out and you're left to find things in the darkened rooms. You have a flashlight, but it tends to be much more challenging in those moments without the lights.

Once you click an item it goes towards your total so that you can progress if you manage to clear the round. Sometimes you will need to click things at random to find what you are looking for, but if this is done too frequently you will be penalized so be careful!

As you go through the levels you get to know the people in town. Mysteryville ends up being quite entertaining. The one downside I found was that it lacked the competitive edge you might find in other games. Rather than being punished for losing a round you just continue to restart it until you beat the round. There is no starting over or anything like that. However, all of the positives in the game make up for this small fault.

The graphics are beautiful and extremely pleasing to the visual gamer. The sounds were intriguing and though at times repetitious they did not bother me. In fact, they seemed to fit perfectly with the game. Finally, the puzzles in the game are enjoyable enough to be considered addicting. The reason I say they are addicting is because as the story moves along you want to know what is going to happen and why the cats are missing. You truly want to solve the puzzle in "Mysteryville".

There is roughly six to eight hours of game play though I did not time the entire experience so this is a give or take assumption. Once you win if you play again you may not find the game to be very different so there will be some that win the game and never play again. However, I found it enjoyable enough to consider playing it a second time or when I have some spare time to kill.

Bottom Line/Scores:

Download/Installations: 5 out of 5 - Both the download and installation were simple. I had no problems and was playing soon after the download.

Graphics: 4 out of 5 - The graphics were very pleasing to the eye, which is one of the first things I look for in a game.

Sounds: 4 out of 5 - Despite some repetitious moments I found the sounds to be intriguing and to further the story.

Overall Game Play: 4 out of 5 - Mysteryville provided some good, clean fun. Based on game play I would say this game is worth buying.

Total Experience: 5 out of 5 - I was entertained and even though it was not my absolute favorite game it was worth playing.