In Mystery Case Files: The Revenant's Hunt, you arrive in Avondel, a small town in Vermont with a big mystery. A prominent artist has been murdered, and as you begin to dig up more and more facts, you find some of the locals are not what they seem.
Things seem to revolve around a deadly crash that happened years ago. There are secrets galore, and wait! Was that a zombie bent on revenge? Some childhood urban legends arise in this town, and we find out that the Revenant is stalking those who haven’t been too nice in times past. You see the body, you hear the stories, but people are lying and things are getting more and more mysterious as you delve deeper. It should say something that the local authorities don’t want to get mixed up in this. In fact, there are no authorities around whatsoever. The pressure falls on you to make sense of this mystery without running into the Revenant.
The graphics are well done as you enter Avondel during the autumn season. The falling leaves are a nice touch and symbolic of death and things dying – a perfect setting for this murder mystery. One of your jobs is to kick up ten piles of leaves to find morphing objects – a nice touch. The graphics are realistic – from the twisted dead tree where the body is found to the crows floating around in the sky. Flickering candles and soft colored glowing lights add a nice touch.
The ambiance is subtly spooky. It’s night, with a big fat autumn moon hanging in the sky. The purple hues are perfect and you make your way around the area, finding clues and objects you may need. Crickets softly chirp and crows – another good symbol of death – are cawing in the background.
The hidden object puzzles are nice – challenging and interactive. Some of them happen more than once in different places, but there’s quite a bit to collect, including pieces of a letter that, once put together, will help you to solve the mystery.
There are also nine lore cards to collect about the legend of the Revenant, which assists you in understanding the history of how all of this began. There’s a map that helps you move quickly as you may need and a journal, so you can keep track of all the crazy facts.
There were some things that slowed me down a bit in this game. The puzzles were mediocre, and some didn’t have any ties to the theme. Also, it threw me a little when I happened upon the body by the tree, with the man’s friend babysitting it. The body had been there quite a while (the Queen knew about it while before the task was assigned), which seems like a long length of time for it to just sit there. Incidentally there’s also crows picking at it when you arrive (ew). A little weird, but ultimately, I went with it, and focused on the task at hand: solving the mystery.
For the most part, Mystery Case Files: The Revenant's Hunt is a great game – delightfully mysterious with a zombie-like serial killer on the loose. You eventually begin to solve the mystery, and discover more and more about the Revenant. If you like a spooky mystery complete with a wandering zombie, then this is a good pick.