Shadow Wolf Mysteries: Under the Crimson Moon demo (w/ heymdia!)

Big Fish Games and I have the sort of relationship where I never cancel my membership and also they keep sending me emails when I have spent all my credits to tell me that a game in a series I love has just come out and then what choice do I even have except to buy it at once ha ha ha etc. To set the scene, I graduated this week and on the day I arrived back at my flat in my university town after having been away interviewing in London, my girlfriend and I had this exchange:

ME: Ooo, my post is here! I'll just go get ready for graduation and then look.

LAL: WAIT there's a parcel! 

ME: Cool, I'll just be a second and -  

LAL: IT'S FROM BIG FISH GAMES

RECORD SCRATCHING SOUND EFFECT: *would have been used in a comedy at this point*

(It was a Felix the Fish toy for being a BFG member for a whole year, because I'm AWESOME.)

ANYWAY the point is after graduating I also packed up all my stuff and moved to London properly AND had three interviews in the same four day time period so as you might imagine I have spent today mostly lying around on various soft items of furniture mainlining high quality low brain engagement entertainment. It's all hotting up in s9 of Grey's Anatomy, I can tell you! (I am terribly behind, I know, but I AM STILL THE MOST INVESTED.)

But this is not about Grey's Anatomy, or how much I just want to punch Derek Shepherd in his stupid smug face. It's about how I checked my email and this had happened:

SO LET'S TALK ABOUT SHADOW WOLF MYSTERIES: UNDER THE CRIMSON MOON.

At the time of writing, I've played to the end of the demo gameplay so I can't speak as to the length/quality of the game as a whole BUT I have really enjoyed the demo so far! It's available for PC and Mac so anyone can play \o/

The basic premise is that you, Gender Unrevealed Detective in 1897, has been invited to Werewolf Town, southern France, by a lady named Ellis Cote to investigate a series of murders that some people are claiming are werewolf-related. First off, they OBVIOUSLY ARE. As cleolinda says, only people in Dracula don't know they're in Dracula, so the game characters spend a bunch of time being like BUT WEREWOLVES? NO. IMPOSSIBLE! while you, the player who has probably a) played a lot of hidden object games before and also b) has seen the opening sequence in which a wolf attacks a carriage, sit there sure in the knowledge that one or all of these characters are going to get HARD WOLFED before the game is out. I also really love the Gender Unrevealed Detective trope in this style of game because it does let me pretend that I, Meg Heymdia, am really there investigating werewolf attacks for a beautiful lady in Victorian France and LET'S BE REAL HERE, I WOULD BE SUPER INTO THAT.

The demo took me about the 90 minute play time that BFG gives and in that time, there was one Potential Death by Wolf and one Incredibly Suspicious Wolf Attack. I have my suspicions re: who is and who isn't a werewolf but I WILL REMAIN SCHTUM. 

Ellis is the lady BFG are using in their promo work for this game, which strikes me as a v sensible decision bc she seems GR9 so far, if possibly in more trouble than I would like. (x)

A really cool thing about Shadow Wolf: Under the Crimson Moon is that whenever you meet a new character, a Sherlock style interface pops up whereby you move a magnifying glass over the character to reveal hidden clues that tell you little facts about them. For example, the brother of the lady who has invited you to Whereverville, Werewolf Town has dog hair on his trousers, which leads you to deduce that LE GASP he has a doge. 

Sherlock or Shadow Wolf: we just don't know. (We do, it's Sherlock, and I had to go through more dusty boxes than I really wanted to in order to find that dvd.)

Aside from that new detail, the gameplay is pretty standard for a good hidden object/adventure game these days, splitting between receiving items from puzzles or hidden object scenes and then using those items to reach more puzzles or hidden object scenes. There is the option to play a match 3 game instead of the object scenes, which I guess is nice if you like that but I am solidly in the Stubborn I Will Fucking Find This Fucking Crowbar school of hidden object gaming and as such cannot give in and surrender my honour and shame myself, my family, and my cow etc etc etc. I played through the Collector's Edition, which has an achievement system and collectibles that give you facts about werewolves, but I don't know which of those might come with the standard version.

The art is STUNNING, even if the werewolf is a little... less so (think: Remus Lupin as Wolf in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie except on a much much lower budget), and the score is GREAT. It reminds me a lot of the score to the Guy Ritchie Holmes movies, so OBVIOUSLY I was extra sold on the game as a whole. (I love those movies to an extent other people have side-eyed on more than one occasion.)

(x)

Ellis Cote is quickly embroiled in Plot Things and as your investigation goes on, you discover that she suspects her former BFF of being a werewolf. Her former BFF is called Martha and they live in adjoining houses with a gate between their gardens. I am obviously and predictably shipping them hard. Ellis recently lost her fiancè! Martha is so sad that Ellis has fallen out with her for Unexplained [TOTALLY WEREWOLF] reasons! I JUST LIKE POTENTIAL VICTORIAN QUEER LADIES OKAY? OKAY GOOD.

Admittedly I was a pretty easy sell for this game as it is made up of basically all the elements of stories that I like the very best - supernatural story set in Victorian times starring ladies who may or may not want to be making out? YES PLEASE AND ALSO THANK YOU. THAT ASIDE, the graphics run smoothly and well even on my incredibly sad, prone-to-overheating laptop; there's hardly any mouse lag like I find other games have, and SO FAR I have yet to run into ONE STUPID SPINNY DISC PUZZLE, BANE OF MY GAME-PLAYING EXISTENCE. 

A puzzle I have yet to play and am not super looking forward to. Ah, logic, will we ever be friends? (x)

The hidden object scenes themselves do also vary - I've played one scene finding items on a written list and one using items given to you to interact with the scene alongside a couple of variants on those themes just in the demo - which I always really like to see.

(x)

Overall, I'm super pleased with my decision to go back and play the demo and, well, this happened - 

GREAT WORK, ME \O/

- so I'm sure I'll be finishing it V SOON. (<.< and then obviously playing that Dark Parables game, for which I am HELLA EXCITE. The Dark Parables series is one of my firm faves on BFG, alongside the Dana Knightstone and Otherworld games by BoomZap.)

On another note, I'm planning to start the two new series for this blog this week! GO TEAM. I've graduated AND moved house AND recovered my laptop from my flat so I can finally sit down and do longer series. I'll be starting a TV recap series for one of my fave shows (ooooo mystery intreeeeegue) and a readalong of a YA book I've been wanting to read for ages. STAY TUNED and WATCH THIS SPACE and ALL THOSE OTHER GOOD CLICHÈS FOR CONTINUING SERIES. <3