Art of Murder: The Secret Files

Art of Murder: The Secret Files offers us the opportunity to find the FBI inspector Nicole Bonnet, the eponymous heroine of the series at a new survey. But if the previous games we were accustomed to remain more or less masters of our progress in the game, it adopts the recipe now classic hidden object games by adding tables overloaded and small puzzles in the form of mini-games . Do not expect to truly act on events like an adventure game, since everything is basic, accessible and simplified. The title offers a scenario which, if it remains commonplace, at least has the merit to exist and to give some weight to our various actions, which is not always the case in this type of game Nicole Bonnet therefore investigate the death of an undercover agent and kidnapping a professor emeritus by Mexican drug traffickers ...But where the component from the Nancy Drew series was able to interest the player by offering a smart mix between investigation and hidden objects, Art of Murder mostly just to dip into each concept, haphazard. Throughout history, you go through so many places, in the form of static arrays. Clicking on these characters, you automatically trigger some dialogue sequences without staging or dubbing, telling you what to do and sometimes allowing access to a mini-game. The second component of the game is obviously looking for things pure and simple. Faced with an array composition overloaded, it will be to find the objects shown in the bottom of the list screen, sometimes in limited time. This first step is unrelated to the investigation as such, and would therefore tend to fall even as a hair on the soup ... Fortunately, a second step will ask you to find objects related to the scenario in the same environment. Specimens and then compare DNA samples, a dozen gears to run an old mechanism ...The search for these items proves frustrating, the fault tables too dark to be easily readable and enjoyable to watch. The difficulty seems unnecessarily bodied with this device, which does not make these sequences very enjoyable. However, the game is lax, as it allows you to click a little chance, you simply penalizing blocking your cursor a few seconds if you abuse ... a system of indices to be used sparingly also helps the player stuck in him revealing the location of one of the objects. Some tables may perform time-limited problem, but definitely not insurmountable. This part "hidden object" is seen supplemented by the presence of small puzzles certainly classics, but introduces a welcome diversity. It can then create sketches, restore some documents torn, replace some machinery according ... what are those puzzles available that will really advance the story, usually by releasing a new place to which Nicole will move automatically. Technically correct and have a great resolution for a game like this, the graphics suffer cons by a lack of atmosphere and charm evident. It is the same for music, pleasant but generic. In the end, Art of Murder: The Secret Files is a hidden object as having the merit of proposing a scenario that, if not very original, underlying some mini-games that dot. Finding objects in itself is basic, but the mixture of these activities as well as some fairly automatic progression in the story of drug dealers will no doubt please a few regulars like that.