From Interview to Murder
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"It Happened Here - A StormIt Happened Here - A Storm is Brewing is a Hidden Object Adventure title developed by Elephant Games. I have been checking out the Collector's Edition format of the game which comes with a number of bonus items to supplement the appeal of the main game. While some of the bonus items can be accessed immediately, others, such as Hidden Object sessions, mini game puzzles and a bonus chapter, require appropriate progress to be made in the main game before you can access their content.
When playing the main game, which casts you in the role of a journalist called Emily, you are allowed to adjust various volume levels, including voice dialogue delivered as the story line progresses plus select full or wide screen viewing. The game can be played in a choice of Casual, Advanced, Hardcore or Custom difficulty level.
As mentioned earlier, you are cast in the role of a journalist who is invited to interview the famous author Jessica Hollingsworth. She is an old friend of yours and, unfortunately, she has been ill recently but you feel you can handled any problems that may occur. As most of the game will take place within locations based in Jessica house and outside garden, I could not shake the feeling that these scenes had more of a touch of a stage theatre appearance about them.
Running across the base of these scenes are the various tools that are made available to the player. Arranged from left to right, these tools consist of a Map, showing locations for your current position, where tasks are available, blocked placed, unexplored areas and where Collectibles might be located plus an Inventory, Strategy Guide and a rechargeable Hint feature. You will also be provided with access to a mobile phone to contact others at appropriate times and capture photos of information that might prove useful. This phone is situated in the top left corner of the screen and will flash when it requires attentions.
After arriving at Jessica's and meeting the various other characters who are sharing her residence, your journalistic skills immediately detect at atmosphere of conflict. It isn’t long before this feeling is strengthen somewhat by the discovery of a dead body. With little response from the local police force, you find yourself switching from journalistic mode to that of a detective as you set about to solve the crime which surely must be murder.
In your change of role to that of a detective, you will encounter the usual features of exploring areas, moving between locations, questioning other characters, gathering evidence, and encountering overlaid windows. Evidence must be gathered and suspect questioned to arrive at the truth. Your investigation will also involve tackling mini game puzzles and Hidden Object scenes.
While some of the mini game puzzles will need to be solved in order to enter blocked area, they can also provide access to the discovery of evidence. Once found evidence will need to be linked to a possible theory as to how and why the crime of murder was committed. Offering a variety of tasks, the mini game puzzles could involve arranging a collection of items by colour and purpose, travelling through a maze while avoiding contact with rats and reassemble documents that have been torn to shreds. If you wanted to get anywhere in Jessica's house, then you would need to solve a puzzle.
Identified by an outbreak of sparkles, Hidden Object game play presents a mixture of scene types. There is also various methods used to list the required items. The scene could be based on the content of a drawer, cupboard or even a book etc with the required list being presented in text format, as silhouettes, images, as parts of the scene or looking for pairs.
You can download this game from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99. It is also available from Big Fish Games priced at £14.89. The game requires a 2.5 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 825MB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.
It Happened Here - A Storm is Brewing Collector's Edition | GameHouse
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