Strange Investigations: Becoming Collector's Edition Reviews

[b]Strange Investigations: Becoming Collector's Edition[/b] is point & click, mystery adventure game with hidden object scenes and mini game puzzles. It's the first part of the Strange Investigations series. [b]Plot summary[/b] - Your name is investigator named Dana Strange and your sister Ursula has been kidnapped by an man called 'Artist' in 1951 while you two were hiding in a cornfield from angry stinging bees. You arrest Artist in first chapter, but the story doesn't end there. Rest of the plot follows disappearance of a young student from college of the art, named Isabella Arquette who went missing after helping at the vintage cinema. You soon discover that Isabella has stalker who is greatly obsessed with her, but is he the kidnapper? What happened to Isabella? Or was this part of a greater scheme. [b]Extra chapter[/b] follows the story of a small grocery store owner Denzel Freeman, who is certain that his shop is haunted by a headless ghost. He has tried priests services, psychic and voodoo, but nothing seems to help so he asked you for help. You take the job out of good heart and soon you discover that maybe it isn't ghost at all who are you looking for. What comes to the plot and scenes, i would say it was decent. Story wasn't extraordinary, but it wasn't the worst either. It followed somewhat same path as many of the games of this genre, i mean the catch the bad guy, can't trust no one, make world better again, but it still wasn't badly exact same as some of the games are. Extra chapter and main story had some same characters and places, but they weren't particularly connected to each others plots. I would recommend this game to all age groups for except smaller kids, even if the game itself doesn't contain extreme gore content there is subjects like kidnapping, murder and so on which is not suitable for kids under 12 in my opinion. [b]Game mechanics and game play[/b] was great. No delays in actions, typos, bugs or glitches. You have extra content in lobby, such as like mini games you can play again, place where you see all your collectibles etc. I was surprised to see the strategy guide in the main menu, basically it's a walktrough for the whole game. Haven't seen that before. I don't have to open it if i don't want to use it and if someone wants, they can access to it during the game too. So maybe it is good option to have. Even if i think it's kinda strange for a game to give out solutions like that when you already have hint button. You have 3 difficulty levels in this game and also a custom, so that's really good. I was pleasantly surprised that there was new [b]mini games[/b] that i haven't seen before. I mean they might not be new to this genre, but so far what i have played (and it's a lot), i haven't seen few of the games this game had. Like the one with the green, red and blue photos and the one mini game that was first in this game i think. They weren't too hard or easy, some of the so called 'mini games' were more of a story telling with interactive parts, but since there wasn't many of them it was okay. There was good amount of HO scenes and i don't think single one of them were repeated like some games do. There was find the pairs, find by shape and find by name ones. They weren't too hard since graphics in this game are good and items were fairly visible. There is [b]no steam achievements[/b] available, only in game ones that include your basic ones like collect all collectibles, finish mini game in less than a minute and so on. So there is some you can miss and not get in first game play if you are not careful. You have in game map like usual, but there is no indicator if you have collectible on the scene you could find. They can be easily missed, but i think they are still fairly visible so that if you are not rushing trough the game like headless chicken i think you get them all. I don't know why some game companies do this so that they only have in game achievements and not on steam, it's kind of a bummer since what i like about these types of games is that i can easily get complete games to my profile. [b]Artwork[/b] was beautiful and voice acting wasn't so terrible. Music was decent and didn't get too repetitivie. Got nothing to complain about those. I would say tho, even if this isn't that expensive like for example Artifex Mundi games being 15 euros, i wouldn't buy this at full price. I'm cheap and for a game that i have played trough in less than 4 hours extra chapter included and i won't prolly play this game ever again, i can't justify myself spending over 8 euros, but thats just me. If you get game almost just as good as Artifex Mundi one with 8 euros to spare, go for it. I would wait for sale. Pros • Artwork • Music and ambience • Decent plot • Plenty of HO's that are not repetitive and mini games • Extra chapter Cons • No steam achievements • Price compared to play time Story □ Bad □ Could be better □ Decent ☑ Good □ Enjoyable □ Immersive Artwork □ Bad □ Could be better □ Decent ☑ Pretty good □ Beautiful □ Amazing Soundtrack □ Bad □ Could be better □ Decent ☑ Good □ Immersive □ Eargasm Mini games difficulty □ Toddler could solve □ Easy ☑ Medium □ Advanced □ Hard □ Had to check on google Overal gameplay difficulty □ Toddler could solve □ Easy ☑ Medium □ Advanced □ Hard □ Had to check on google Audience □ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Young adults ☑ Adults ☑ Seniors