Shadow Wolf Mysteries 4: Under the Crimson Moon

Shadow Wolf Mysteries: Under the Crimson Moon
by ERS Game Studios - June, 2014

Series links: Shadow Wolf Mysteries 1: Curse of the Full Moon, Shadow Wolf Mysteries 2: Bane of the Family, Shadow Wolf Mysteries 3: Cursed Wedding, Shadow Wolf Mysteries 4: Under the Crimson Moon, Shadow Wolf Mysteries 5: Tracks of Terror

Available at:
Big Fish as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition



A blood moon has risen over a rural village in Southern France. Wild wolves are attacking the citizens at night as accusations fly about townsfolk turning into werewolves. Is Martha Patio really a werewolf, or has she been falsely accused to cover up another person’s secrets? Examine crime scenes to gather evidence and discover who is leaving strange coins on the victims and why. Your keen observation skills will help you uncover the liars, but be careful who you trust in this small town, or you’ll become the next victim!

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Play the bonus game for more adventure
  
• Unlock challenging achievements and collectibles
  
• Replay Hidden-Object Puzzles and mini-games
  
• Music, Wallpapers, Concept Art, and a special Screensaver
  
• An available Strategy Guide
  

For the Standard Edition

• Walkthrough
  
• Strategy Guide (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
__

Good Solid Addition To A Solid Series****

BASED ON DEMO

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Excellent start. The cut scene animations are great. The pace exciting, and the mood much darker than the previous Shadow Wolf games.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The early video clips are really something special, using both 2D and 3D art to create realistically savage wolves, who then bow down to an even more terrifying werewolf designed to give you nightmares. I’m impressed. The fire wolves are beautiful, but this is no sweet little ‘rabbit’ game. The music fits in well with the scenes, but I do hear a hint of the old ERS tunes sneaking back in. Don’t do it guys! The voices are well done and intonation is excellent. The screams and howls and other ambient sounds from dogs and cats and nasty old owls are all good too.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?
A detective who by now must be the most experienced wolf investigator ever, you are called in on another case involving wolves and suspected werewolves. The issue doesn’t stay cloudy for long. On arrival, you are greeted by above mentioned savage wolves, who immediately cower and slink away when a huge werewolf appears on the roof. There are many threatening creatures around you, more dark than most ERS games, but I like that there are moments where the game simply laughs at its dire pretensions.

The story is a little confusing. At the moment, I seem to be suspecting everyone of being a werewolf, and all of them as victims. You are definitely going to need those detective skills of yours to solve this case. Luckily, you’ve brought the latest in cutting edge technology (1897-style) with you to field test it.

GAMEPLAY
What are you testing? An analyser that identifies unknown substances. When you receive some unknown ‘stuff’ into inventory, open the analyser and put the muck in it. Ask a few simple if stupid questions about the substance, and get your answer. You’ll then discover that is exactly what you needed most!

There is another new technique we use in this case. On greeting each new character, we keenly observe them using our magnifier, and find pieces of evidence – blood-stains on clothes, missing jewellery items, etc. While we are doing this, the character is held in stasis in sepia tones – I guess that symbolises time standing still.

The puzzle component seems to be more HOPs than others, and they are of several sorts. There are find multiple related items (such as metal), progressive silhouettes and replace items. You visit them twice each. As an alternative you can play a matching game which resembles mahjong but is actually a style of game I’ve never seen before. Personally, I found it a bit fiddly and preferred the HOP.

Adventure side is fairly straightforward, I had no real use for the directional hint, although I did use the interactive jump map a few times as a kick starter for my brain. You have a notebook that holds story notes and details of your investigation. There are 3 modes of difficulty. No black bar tips in the hardest. Some of the puzzles have a casual/harder toggle for them. I saw nothing outrageously different, but not boring either.

CE BLING!
The collectibles are simply pieces of evidence – a torn page, a posy of herbal flowers – that take up residence in a nicely displayed section. Each relates to werewolves folklore, and there is info given on it. The achievements are fun. They are the standard, but you have to crack open the rocking shield in front of those you’ve won, discover the figurine underneath, and then look up the creature in the bestiary (book with a paw print on it), where you get a description of its supposed character, strengths and weaknesses. The usual gallery items plus replayables.

COMBINED IMPACT
I enjoyed it. Will certainly buy it. But I’m not over the moon (groan). And I find the way certain concepts seem to coalesce in the minds of a few developers at the same time weird. I’ve just finished a review of an Eipix game, Dead Reckoning, which uses almost the same technique of collecting ‘evidence’ from the person under suspicion. How the heck does that happen?

I recommend this game!