November 13th, 2009

Free Online Detective Games

It is five o'clock in the morning. Only the darkness lies awake with me. The lights are turned down low all over the house and my cat is sleeping. I am kept awake by important business. What now?... What will it happen?... Will I fall asleep on the chair? Will I, maybe, hear something in the cracking of the dawn? Will I hear the howl of a wolf?... Of course not, I live in a flat far away from the Zoo. Then? The night placed a hunger for mystery in me. So I shall find some enigma or murder games.

Accompanied by a track that seems taken from "Pulp Fiction", "A Case of the Crabs" is a mystery game with a cabalist good design: it is made to look like a comic book rather than a short funny game.

The "Nick Bounty Mini Mystery" has everything placed in order and more: it has screenshots from the game, hints on how to use the hint page and how to get through some parts of the game, a forum, extra bonuses: Interview with Jason Ellis: The voice of Nick Bounty, Interview with Mark Darin: Director, Producer and head of Pinhead Games and A brief history of Nick Bounty. It seems that Nick appeared in 1986 in a sketch created for a high school drama. The character became popular when Otter Productions transposed it into video. The company created a trilogy of movies. Ten years after the original movie, Nick Bounty made his way to a new medium: the video games. "Nick Bounty: The Tale of the Vengeful Curtain Rod" is also a point & click adventure game, made for the Amiga computer system.

The game is pretty fantastic, I would say. For a flash game, it has everything a mystery game should have. You can move, look at the objects, get them, use them combined, talk to people and even shoot. Plus you have great lines. It has a classic point & click interface, with black and white graphics. The mystery murder game is fully compatible with Mac, PC or Linux and you do not need to download it to play. One more thing: it is vocalized by talented actors.

After a, introduction, the game begins when a local seafood salesman who brings a package to Nick Bounty. He has the ability to solve the most intricate cases, but he has to work for a paying client. Nick always searches to solve crime cases, even if they do not exist. Like, when Arthur Griffen, comes to bring him the package, Nick thinks that the package has something to do with a murder. He than figures out it is just a crab package. But still... Arthur comes in, talks to Bounty and for no reason, he drops dead, releasing the crab the box contained. Checking things out, the detective sees Arthur was stabbed and he takes the knife, plus the crab and other things that are not nailed down.

After finding a clue mentioned on the box - its provenience, Nick goes to the docks, where Bill is polishing the barnacles. The latter tells Bounty to go away. In Hints, there is the question "Why will not Bill talk to me?". The answers are: Hint 1: "It could be your breath", Hint 2: "But that is not it. He is just busy. You will have to get his attention somehow". Hint 3: "Maybe putting something in his bucket would get his attention". Hint 4: "Something like a crab". Hint 5: "Use crab with the bucket". So you put the crab in Bill's bucket. He starts talking to you and if you ask him about the crabs, he complains they are very itchy, but you can get a special shampoo to get rid of them. He also says he used to see Arthur Griffen often at the docks, with his boat, but since he started hanging with "the guys in the fancy suits", he stopped coming. A clue! With a threatening bored tone, Nick says he has heard enough and takes his crab back.

When the city map is revealed, you can save the game and later pick it up where you left off by clicking the "Load" button.

Murder mystery games are games wherein there is a crime recently done and you are the one who must investigate it, in order to find the killer and to solve the mystery. At the West Virginia Flash festival, the "A Case of the Crabs" took the "Director's Choice" award recently, for being an outstanding entrant. It also got nominated "Best Independent Adventure" by The Crow's Nest, "Best Indi Adventure" in The Inventory Magazine's Reader's Choice 2004 and The Corw's Nest awarded them with Best Indi Adventure Music.