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Developed by Domini Games, Criminal Archives - Murder in the Pages is a Hidden Object Adventure game set in the city of San Francisco.  I have been looking at the Collection's Edition of the product which adds a number of bonus items to supplement the main detective based action.

Domini Game's usual options are available for creating the gaming environment to suit your style of playing.  You can set various volume levels for the game's audio aspects, opt for full or wide screen viewing with brightness adjustment plus a custom cursor.  When playing the game there is a choice of Casual, Advanced, Hardcore or Custom difficulty settings offering different rates of Hint/Skip recharging and the notification of active areas.

The game casts you in the role of an investigating crime reporter.  You are approached by an old friend, called Damian Crow, who happens to be the author of several novels featuring a murder victim. Damian has recently discovered that three of the murderers featured in Crow's story have been duplicated in real life.  Your friend asks for your help to investigate and solve the murders.  This is the start of Criminal Archives - Murder in the Pages which is split into three separate sections as you investigate crimes that feature murder, conspiracy and a soul-binding ritual.

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Running across the bottom of the various scenes are tools to assist you.  Taking up a central position is an Inventory holding the items you gather.  The Inventory can be locked in position or left to disappear when not required.  Items in the Inventory accompanied by a plus sign will require some work before they can be used.  To the left of the Inventory are short-cuts to a journey with Notes and Tasks section plus a Map which I rarely used.  Short-cuts to a Strategy Guide and recharging Hint feature plus a step-back scene option are located to the right of the Inventory.

Also available are a pair of pop-out features.  The pop-out on the left provides updated information on how many of the Collectibles items you have found.  Depending, on the stage of the game, these items could be signed photos, book, clippings, flower pots or badges.  The pop-out on the right records the decisions you have made at influential stages of the game.

Often while exploring the different locations visited during the game, you will encounter overlaid windows and a split screen approach.  Overlaid windows are generally used to highlight an area that might contain a required item or be used to carry out a task.  When other characters have dialogue to impart, this is usually delivered within a split screen view.  Sometimes you will be given a choice of responses or a decision as to what action to follow.

As part of your investigation during the three sections of the game, you will need to tackle mini game puzzles and Hidden Object scenes with both formats offering a choice of playing conditions.  With mini game puzzles you could opt for an Easy or Hard version.  You might be required to rotate an image so that a ball drops to the bottom, reform an image in different ways, play a Solitaire type game, untangle a cord, arrange flowers in order or create a path to a destination.

The choice with Hidden Object game play involves sticking with the default game or switching to Match 3 action.  Hidden Object game play could require you to look for items listed in text format, as patterns, images, pairs or riddles.  You might also need to replace items in a scene.

At times the game's story line felt a little stilted and forced.  The game's characters always seemed remarkably calm and unworried even those involved in the middle of a triple murder investigation.  I downloaded my copy of the title from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99.  You can also download this game from Big Fish Games priced at £15.23.  The game requires a 1.7 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM running Windows 7 and later.

Criminal Archives - Murder in the Pages Collector's Edition | Big Fish Games

Criminal Archives - Murder in the Pages Collector's Edition | GameHouse