Grim Facade: The Message Collector's Edition

Whenever supernatural events are part of a story, mediums are never too far away, especially since in movies their powers actually work. Just like oracles in fantasy RPGs, mediums are able to see fragments of the future and provide other people with clues about what's going to happen. As you might expect, detectives have a lot of use for such information, because it’s much easier to solve crimes when you have extra evidence.

Grim Facade: The Message is part of the long-running hidden object series that focuses on the supernatural and grim murders. While the actual mechanics are not very different from what you may have experienced in previous episodes or any other modern HOPA, there are some unique puzzles in there as well, which should make the adventure a bit more exciting and enjoyable.

The story begins when a medium calls for the main character in order to investigate some dark premonitions, but as it turns out, you are too late to save her. To make matters worse, you are wrongfully accused of her murder as well, which makes your investigation even more difficult. Naturally, there are other interesting events along the way too, so you are rarely bored with the action or the story.

As mentioned before, the underlying mechanics are not very different from what you may be accustomed to, but some of the puzzles push the limits a little bit. This is a great way to keep you engaged, because regular hidden object sequences can only be fun for so long before they become repetitive. The environment plays a major role in certain puzzles, which helps with the overall atmosphere.

Speaking of which, the graphics are pretty dark, given the theme of the game, but the artwork is very detailed and enjoyable. Almost everything you see in the scenes is hand-drawn, and the artists did not hold back when it comes to backgrounds and character design. As always, the cutscenes are a bit stiff and basic, but they get the point across, and they are usually pretty short anyway.

To sum things up, armchair detectives everywhere should have a blast with Grim Facade: The Message, especially since the mystery is pretty fun and convoluted. The gameplay is fun and quite diverse for the most part.

NOTE: This is a downloader for the game. Once run, the application will automatically download and install the game on your computer.

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