Adventures of Mortimer Beckett: Part I

My latest obsession for almost a year now has been computer games, especially the genre of Hidden Object Games (HOGs). The biggest source of HOGs so far is Big Fish Games. One series of games that I really enjoyed playing was the Mortimer Beckett series. This game has been developed by Paprikari Productions and published by Gamehouse.

Let's get technical and go into the system requirements for installing the game:

- Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista
- 500 MHz or faster Processor (800 MHz for Vista)
- 128 MB RAM (512 MB for Vista)
- 16 MB Video Card with 3D Hardware Acceleration
- DirectX 8.0 or better (9.0 for Vista)

Unfortunately, this game is not available in the Mac version.

The game starts off with an introduction to what Mortimer Beckett is up to. He tells the story of his adventure in comic book style. You, as Mortimer, can create a profile to store your game so that you can come back to it later. This game is a single player game, as in only one player can play this game at a time.



Mortimer Beckett is a three part series, the first of which is Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of the Spooky Manor.

In the first game in the series, Mortimer Beckett, a young smart adventurer, is summoned by his scientist uncle to help him rid of the ghosts that are haunting his manor and have disrupted his pet project, a mysterious machine hidden somewhere in the Manor.

This game involves an investigation in a ghostly setting where you are supposed to look for broken objects scattered in various parts of the manor and return them to their original position. It has 30 rooms to explore and test your object-searching skills. There are also quite a lot of mind bending puzzles, which are not too difficult to put you off the game and not too easy to be taken lightly.

The graphics are very good, there are minute details that have been taken care of in the premise of the game. The spooky manor is really spooky and also very messy, adding challenge to finding the objects. You can leave a room if you get stuck in it and get back to it later. If you find an object in a room, it is not necessary that it will be used in the same room. Each level offers you 10-12 hints. The best part of the game is that there is no time limit to the game. Take as long as you want.

All things said and done, there are some things to keep in mind while playing this game:
- Use the hints carefully, because, though it may seem there are many hints, they can get over pretty quickly.
- Do not click unnecessarily too many times as this may lead to ghosts disturbing your search.

All in all, it is quite an enjoyable game, suitable for all age groups. It is scary, but not too scary for children. If I were to rate it, maybe I should do that too...I would give it a 4 out of 5.