DinerTown: Detective Agency

Aid Bernie become a real police detective! Become a police detective!

Something`s not correct in DinerTown! Assistance Bernie the Bookworm campaign for office the DinerTown Detective Agency as you hunt for vital clues in greater in effect mysteries and come upon who stuck their finger in all the jelly donuts and who`s been partying be fond of a rock 'n' roll asterisk with the zoo animals. Habit the items you discover in the law-breaking scenes to not wide spatially your inclination of suspects and ID the culprits as you search out the merriment in this lighthearted spoof on traditional Hidden Object games.

Operating System Windows XP/Vista, processor 1.2 GHz, RAM 256 Mbytes, DirectX 8.0, HDD space 63 Mbytes

Oh, that Bernie the Bookworm. Don't be fooled by his meek visual aspect -- he has the goods to become a savvy sleuth. After reading an ad in a magazine, Bernie orders a police detective gear and with the assist of his acquaintance Flo (of Diner Dash fame), he sets out to solve more than two twelve mysteries plaguing Diner Town.

Such is the premise behind PlayFirst's DinerTown Detective Agency, a little used hidden object game (HOG) with fun deduction elements and many mini-games. If my weekend with this game (and my three kids) is any suggestion, this downloadable puzzler is worthy if your clock time -- and mouse-clicking finger.

The game is separated into two modes: Fib and Freeplay. With the former, you tin can choose to play the game with a clock time constituent -- therefore you must work out the puzzles before the timepiece runs out -- or in a relaxed mode with no clock time pressure sensation whatsoever.

Game-play in DinerTown Detective Agency is divided into four opening device components:

• Bernie arrives on the subdivision of an act of a play to solve a closed book, which begins in an inside or outdoor point in space. You be acquainted with a person or an object the training of soldiers to march with "HOG" games: you must scour a busy scene to discover a quantity of items on a inclination. These items are listed along the left-hand position of the protective covering and usually are cleverly connected by kinship to the surroundings (which isn't usually the case in HOGs) so in a schoolroom you might be asked to discover a opening into something puncher, marker, rulers and a broken swinging barrier to a hamster coop (tied to the mystery). Click on the items and it's crossed off your inclination. If you click incorrectly too many times it'll reduction of amount clock time off your timepiece, and if you demand a hint you tin can click to acquire one (but the round fastener for clothes takes a twosome of minutes to replenish). Players tin can also discover a police detective badge per storey, which adds 5 minutes to the clock (or gives you bonus points in the relaxed mode). Most scenes you'll child's play through have got two unlike rooms, so you tin can click between the two to find all the items listed. Sometimes you'll be given a visual representation to search for (such as three parts to a two people considered as a unit of scissors rather than the unit of language "scissors") and you must also usage the token in the subdivision of an act of a play when you're done, be fond of an escapade game.

• The second game-play constituent is also tied to the HOG subdivision of an act of a play. Bernie also has accession to special tools to assist him discover evidence, whether it's a magnifying drinking glass, fingerprint implement with hairs, eyedropper, and so forth. These tools must be used to discover sure items on the protective covering. This is a clever summation to the game, sure, but I found there was no hint as to where to usage them, therefore I found myself clicking all over the protective covering (you won't be penalized for doing so) until I perceive sound the "chime" that confirms I found a evidence. Again, a beneficial thought, but the capital punishment is disappointing -- and logic doesn't appear to child's play a customary activity of a person either as I clicked on a locker, weights and not the same items you cogitate would have got fingerprints in a gym but they weren't there (but a CD was on the dry land of an fish tank and mixture of flour and sugar and eggs frosting near an creature cage?)

• The third component is a accumulation of mini-games you tin can child's play to assist puzzle out these mysteries. They might be in the pattern of jigsaw puzzles, matching two like pictures and not the same puzzles. One I enjoyed early in the game was a chalkboard brainteaser in the schoolroom, where you must pull against a resistance and drop-off icon cards on the correct pillar and arrangement of people side by side in a line based on their hue and image (e.g. all blueness on one arrangement of people side by side in a line and all animals move in the same column).

• The final examination portion of the game is when you try out to not wide spatially down the someone under suspicion tilt with what you be familiar with a person or an object so at a long distance about who was at the law-breaking, coupled with info provided by informants. For illustration, you volition acquire three facts -- such as the culprit likes pink, cares for animals and hates smoking -- and then you can click "yes" or "no" for three suspects given what the informants recite you (e.g. "Karma has a part-time chore at a vet clinic," so you be acquainted with a person or an object she cares for animals, etc.). Once you cerebrate you have got enough info you tin can peg the guilty one and see if you're correct.

DinerTown Detective Agency delivers a quantity of laughs as Bernie solves these wacky crimes throughout the urban center. Plus, fans of PlayFirst games volition realize many well known faces including stars of not the same PlayFirst clock time direction games or customers seen in Flo's diner (Diner Dash), at weddings (Wedding Dash) or driving into parking space lots about town (Parking Dash).

While not without defect -- we already touched on the faulty "tool" mechanic, there are some signs the game was rushed such as spelling or grammar areas (e.g. "Coco has an surprising knack for...") and the deduction component part of the game -- where you must click off "yes" or "no" for the three remaining suspects -- doesn't acquire any more challenging as you progress, therefore becomes a tad repetitive.

Overall, however, we found the game enjoyable with its multiple game-play elements, attractive stories and characters, and indefinite but relatively small number game modes. At the very least, fans of HOGs or risky venture games should download and child's play the free 60-minute trial.

edited by Isabella Jones

July 28, 2009