Mystery Case Files: Cross Fade is the newest game to bring back the Master Detective in a series that spins 22 games, not counting a small handful of spin-offs. Does it measure up? Let's find out.
Story/Plot:
Cross Fade starts on the cliffhanger the previous game, The Harbinger, ended on. The Master Detective wakes up and finds out key moments of their past have been altered. In order to save their life, and time itself, the detective must fix what went wrong, while thwarting some of their previous villains while once more.
Almost from the start, this is also when the story goes downhill. Almost every 'novel' idea this game purports to do has already been done in the series, often much better. Disruptions to the timeline? Done that. Facing off against old villains? Been there. It can be nice to revisit older games, but MCF relies on it to a criminal degree by this point.
This game's story has two big problems that I've railed on in previous reviews. The first is the series really needs to decide what it wants. Originally, the Master Detective was a faceless protagonist, but the fourth game revealed the detective to be female from the backside including hairstyle, and a couple spoken lines. Later games allowed the player to choose a gender, or force it to be male. This game goes the male route; frankly if they made the detective a genderfluid shapeshifter, that at least would clear that up even if I prefer the female detective.
The second is the retcons and plotholes. These have gotten ridiculous, and especially noticeable to long time followers of the series. Changing studios certainly hasn't helped; if anything, in some matters it made things worse.
Central to a lot of these is the Delimar bloodline, and seriously, give it a rest. In the early days, I used to like their appearance, but more often than not they are a guest star if not the central villain. Any appeal is long lost, especially when it muddies the waters even further. I mean, when Dr. Who is more consistent with their lore, then something is off the rails.
Beating the game unlocks a bonus chapter which gives you further details from a different character in the story as well as gives some vague hints what the next game in the series may hold.
Visuals:
I personally found the visuals in Crossfade rather lacking. While they are serviceable for the story, nothing really stands out. Of course, any paranormal story is going to rely on things being dark, but you could at least rely on a few backgrounds to really stand out in previous games. None of that is here. I wouldn't be surprised if the studio was only allowed a small budget, and would explain the visuals.
Gameplay
I think as you can tell, I'm pretty down on this game. If there is any positive thing to it, it can be in Gameplay. As a Hidden Object Game, Crossfade has elements of point-and-click, hidden-object screens, and minigames.
The point-and-click is just that. If you find an item, you put it in your inventory, then bring it out when you come across an appropriate situation such as bringing scissors to cut a rope. Occasionally, you may have to fix an item in your inventory screen before using it, which at least adds one more layer to the game.
Hidden Object Screens are simply that; static screens where you have to find a number of items from a list at the bottom. Most items can be found immediately, and disappear with a click, while others may have one or two steps to reveal them...such as breaking a mirror to find something hiding behind it. Weirdly, I think Crossfade has the fewest number of Hidden Object Screens I've seen in the series yet.
Finally there are the minigames. These are a variety of small games which vary up the gameplay. Some are logic puzzles, while others rely on you to click your mouse button in quick succession. The difficulty of these vary, but veteran players of HoGs will recognize them and be able to get through them fairly quicly.
Finally, if you do get stuck, the game does give you hints to find hidden items, or to skip puzzles after a bit of time passes.
Sound/Music:
Though there isn't many spoken parts, the game does have voice acting. Given how little there actually is, you would think the quality would at least be decent...but most of it is subpar. There were a couple of times I thought they must have pulled someone off the street and given them a few quarters before sending them on their way.
There is also background music, and it is competent, but certainly nothing stands out. I've seen games use royalty free music which was more memorable.
Difficulty:
As with most recent Big Fish Games, you can choose your difficulty in Crossfade. There is the normal 'Hard-Medium-Easy' settings as well as personally customizing it. You can choose to shorten the amount of time it takes to refresh hints, or to skip puzzles, etc. In this regard, I have to give it a thumbs up.
Extras/Achievements:
Does this game have any extras? As mentioned, beating the main game unlocks a bonus chapter. Additionally, there are two collectibles; Clues and Puzzle Pieces. Finding all of these gives a minor bonus at the end; finding all the puzzle pieces gives you a bonus wallpaper if you wish to use it. Additionally, as this is the collector's edition, you have access to the music, minigames, etc. in a separate menu.
This game has in-game achievements as you cross certain thresholds like finishing a chapter. Unfortunately, there are no Steam achievements for those interest in such things.
Recommendation:
So would I recommend this game? As you can guess, the answer is no. Big Fish Games could remove this entry, and no one would even notice. If anything, it is just another indication of how far the series has gone downhill. At this point, the only thing that might help is to do a hard reboot on the series. So why do I play it? For some reason I'm now more interested to see how the series fails than anything else.
Is there any point I could recommend it? I guess if a person wants to waste a few hours, and wants to take a stab at some of the minigames. Even then, only get it on discount if you have money you want to burn. Otherwise, I'd try something else. Big Fish Games actually released other new games that I would recommend over this mess.
