Who Killed the Truck Driver?
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Classified as an Unsolved Case - Ash and Secrets is a Hidden Object Adventure from the Domini Games catalogue. Available in Collector's Edition format, bundling numerous bonus items to supplement the main game offering, you are cast in the role of an unnamed investigator who is assigned to solve the murder of a truck driver. Adding more than a layer of mystery to this crime, the murder has been committed far from the beaten track and near to the Great Green Reserve and its native Indian village.
In it usual fashion, Domini Games allow you to make adjustments to the game playing environment with volume level settings, full screen viewing and the appearance of special effects. Four different difficulty levels are provided. Featuring different rates of Hint and Skip recharging plus the appearance of help on the Map facility, you can select from Casual, Advanced, Hardcore or Custom options.
An optional tutorial will lead you through various features of the game and introduce you to various tools that can assist in your investigation, Arranged across the base of scenes will be displayed tools consisting of a Journal with sections for Notes and Tasks, Map, Inventory, Strategy Guide and Hint feature. Fly-out indications for Collectibles (Ritual items, Rare stones and Feed bags) and Decisions made are located on either side of the screen where they are available for access whenever required.
As you check out the various scenes and meet different characters featured in the game who tend to deliver their dialogue via a split screen arrangement, you will discover that the truck driver's murder was just the start of your adventure. Among the facts you will discover is that there is a conflict between the local native Indian villagers and a building constructor who is attempting to build a new road that will run through part of the land that currently features the local scared cemetery. As well as being the burial ground, the cemetery also appears to be a dumping ground for the collection of contraband goods plus a place of corruption. Helping to cloud the various issues is the presence of a mysterious element and various totems.
While using a familiar mixture of task-based operations as you visit different scenes featuring overlaid windows and split screen views, the game contains a number of Hidden Object challenges. Their presence will be identified by an outbreak of sparkles. These challenges do feature some repetition in the actual scene being used to display the required items, the required items will show some difference. In some cases you will need to find items and also replace them in the current scene. Hidden Object game play will always give you the option to switch to Match 3 game play if you do not fancy the Hidden Object challenge.
Mini game play tends to make far more frequent appearances. These types of tasks could involve rotating wrenches to fit an arrangement of nuts, set a trail to follow, insert strings on a guitar, set valve values, ride a horse and arrange animal paw prints to lead a wolf to a bear (fortunately their meeting does not end in a fight). A mini game puzzle will give you the choice of tackling an Easy or Hard version of the problem.
Overall this Domini Game title failed to draw me into its story line and was a game that was easy to put down. This clash between the desires of Big Business and the wishes of the current and long time residents of the land can be downloaded from Gamehouse.com where it is available priced at $19.99 or from Big Fish Games priced at £14.80. The game requires a 2.0 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 1.37GB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.
Unsolved Case - Ash and Secrets Collector's Edition | GameHouse
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