Dark Tales [6] (Edgar Allan Poe’s):
(The Fall Of The) House Of UsherStory: Join Detective Dupin in solving another Edgar Allan Poe mystery. This case will take you both to the home of the Usher twins. The twins suffer from a unique and strange ailment, leaving them totally weak all their lives. Each suffers whatever befalls the other. Now, the sister has gone missing from their home. It is critical that the missing twin is found before both suffer some misfortune.
Developer: ERS
Curiously Creepy Case*****FIRST IMPRESSIONS
One of the lovely things about this series is that each story stands alone, and is sufficient in itself, while they also linked by the illustrious career of the famous detective M. Dupin, and of course, ourselves. With each new mystery our role has grown, and this investigation finds us with not only our own office, but a lab as well, where we must analyse vital evidence! [Note: I suspect this is a CE only extra]
SIGHTS & SOUNDS
Beautiful hand painted graphics, clear and colourful, with excellent cut scenes. The acting is very good, in particular the melancholy twins are very convincing. The locations are richly detailed and varied, a delight to the eye.
The soundtrack is great. The series signature tune is joined by jaunty but mild music, then with sudden startlingly loud and unexpected crescendos. Some delightful violin and piano pieces. The voiceovers are nicely done, although some of the accents were a little too broadly American for my taste.
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
We have been called to the estate home of the Usher family by their doctor. The last survivors of the family are twins who have been ailing all their lives with a mysterious illness. As well, each suffers whatever befalls the other, and they are both continually weakened by that. Now, Roderick is deathly ill, and Madeline has disappeared! It is up to us to find answers before the twins bring about the Fall Of The House Of Usher. The back story is delivered to us in various ways, some character reminiscences, combined with sepia animated sketching.
GAMEPLAY
Fun stuff here! There are a lot of things to do and to find. The HOPs come in several flavours: interactive word list, riddles, silhouettes and multiples of, one is a diorama – and that’s just the demo! When you return to a scene, it will be with a different search method. If you wish, you can play an very intriguing Match-3 game that is easy to learn but fun to master. Definitely good. There are easy puzzles, some with a new twist, not very many of them so far. You can make some of them more difficult by choosing that option within the puzzle.
As with all the Dark Tales, this game is not very hard, but we can customise it. For help, we have an interactive map and directional hint. There's the journal, which was left behind by a previous investigator. He took photos, so matching them to the scene they are in gives us valuable pointers about where to go next. A message written to us on the backs are compiled here too. At one point, even the Usher’s black cat gives us a nudge in the right direction. We can also take photographs of locations for ourselves for our office photo album, and which can be saved as wallpaper.
Early in the game we come upon a “Reborn One”, who takes the role of the normally cute companion (but we already have M. Dupin!). Certainly not cute, it is interesting and visually striking. Its particular skill is to ‘create life’.
CE BLING!
The beta doesn’t tell you a lot, but we do know we have the location photos we take ourselves throughout the game.
There are achievements that are attractively and imaginatively displayed in our office. The collectibles are a fine and fun twist. We need coins to purchase equipment for our crime lab. We will find these in toy houses scattered about the game.
Yes, I said, TOY HOUSES, yes, I said IN. These houses are our collectibles. We can look inside them with the magnifying glass and among the miniature furnishings are our coins. The lab is, I believe, a bonus game, where we will have to sort out 3 suspects by analysing the evidence of a crime that is not part of the main game. Just a little overtime, you might say.
COMBINED IMPACT
I’m officially hooked on the remarkable M. Dupin, and am sure it is only a matter of time before the detective agency becomes a family business. So I am necessarily biased. But this is an exceptional game regardless, delightfully dark. Although all of Edgar Allan Poe’s are creepy, Dark Tales usually haven’t been. This one is the creepiest yet, sometimes scary, often startlingly unexpected. Also lovely, involving and intriguing. And most of all, fun.
Try It Here! 
He's my number one favourite character, with Sooky in Dying for Daylight my next. Don't get to see a lot of her. 
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