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With this next offering in its Grim Tales series, Elephant Games casts you in the role of Anna Grey, an investigator of all-things paranormal.  Initially assigned to investigate the break-in and trashing of the content of a souvenir shop, you are quickly faced by evidence that clearly indicates that you are the prime suspect and thus you will need to clear your own name before moving on to discover the real culprit and the reason for the crime.  This is the opening premise for Grim Tales - Dual Disposition, a Hidden Object Adventure game available in Collector's Edition format.

While this title offers a range of bonus features, including an extra chapter and an Expedition, that provide a mixture of immediate items or only those available once the main game has been completed, there is no option to replay Hidden Object and mini game puzzles that you usually encounter with such titles.  Fortunately no similar cut-backs have been made to the adjustment options available with this title.  You can set volume levels for background music, sound effects, environment and voice dialogue plus view the game in full and wide screen modes with special effects and a custom cursor turned on or off as you wish.  Four levels of difficulty are available as you select from Casual, Advanced, Hardcore or Custom choices offering varying speeds of Hint recharge and the use of indicators to identify active zones within the various locations you need to visit.

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Arrange across the various scenes that make up this task based excursion into a combination of worlds, seeped in magic, are the usual selection of tools for a game of this type.  Taking up a central position is an inventory showing the items in your possession.  Items in the inventory accompanied by a plus sign will require some work before being ready for purpose.  The inventory can be locked into position or left to disappear until required.  Situated to the right of the inventory are links to a Strategy Guide and Hint features.  The left side of the inventory houses Map and Task features plus a communicator allowing you to receive information and useful information from your mother's spirit.

These tools, along with a mouse cursor that changes shape to indicate when certain actions are possible, an outbreak of sparkles will appear for Hidden Object game play as you detect and defeat the plans of Lady A.  She is your doppelganger who want to break the flow of magic between world and this would result in the destruction of your world.  Along with messages from the communicator, you will also receive advice and help articles from the Keeper of the Magic who make occasional appearances.

While not included amongst the bonus access section, the game does contain both Hidden Object and mini game puzzles to keep you busy.  Indicated by an outbreak of sparkles, Hidden Object scenes asks you to find items that are listed in text format, as silhouettes or images as well as being represented by Zodiac signs or are available in pairs.  Varied in both content and style, the mini game puzzles could involve logic, hand-eye coordination, as well as searching for a path and having the ability to follow instructions in the creation of magic potions.

While more interaction between your character and the doppelganger would have been appreciated, the game generally ticks all the other necessary boxes.  I downloaded my copy of the game from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99.  You can also download this game from Big Fish Games priced at £15.79.  The game requires a 2.5 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 1.03GB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.

Grim Tales - Dual Disposition Collector's Edition | Big Fish Games

Grim Tales - Dual Disposition Collector's Edition | GameHouse