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Death on the Silver Screen
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Available from the catalogue of BlackLime titles, Final Cut - Death on the Silver Screen is a Hidden Object Adventure game that is rated suitable for those aged 7 and upwards. Set in the 1950s, the game casts you in the role of a daughter of a film mogul and inventor, named Morton Wolf. Following the death of your father, you are faced with the bizarre disappearance of your brother and the occurrence of strange events taking place in your father's mansion and deserted film studio.
The game allows you to create profiles so that different people can tackle the tasks involved in this adventure. Adjustments can be made to the volume levels for background music, sound effects and voice dialogue. With this later feature any adjustment hardly seems worthwhile as the only dialogue comes from just two characters encountered during the game. The game also offers a choice of playing in windowed or full screen mode. You can also opt for a custom cursor.
The game encompasses two levels of difficulty. There is a choice of Regular or Expert mode. In the case of the former you get fast recharging of the Hint and Skip features, active zone glimmers and a map showing locations with available actions and objectives. In Expert mode the recharging of the Hint and Skip feature is slower while active zones are not indicated and the map only shows objectives.
The game opens with a cinematic scene involving the use of a strange invention which, as we discovered later, has the power to remove all the memories from a victim. You then jump forward 20 years to the announcement of Morton Wolf's death. When you arrive at his mansion to sort out your father's affairs. You are met by a maid and your adventure begins. Exploring the mansion brings more questions than answers.
Running across the bottom of the various scenes are tools to help you complete your task. Taking up a central position is an inventory holding the items you have collected or are awarded. To the left of the inventory is a diary which automatically records your findings and has sections for a map and objectives. Sitting to the right of the inventory is the rechargeable Hint feature. As usual, as the mouse cursor moves around scenes, it will change shape to indicate when different actions are possible.
As you search for the reasons behind your brother's disappearance, you find numerous notes, discover film posters and expand your search area to include your father's film studio. You encounter a mysterious villain who demands that you find your father's invention which had been broken up into pieces and hidden in various locations. In order to achieve this task you will need to complete Hidden Object scenes and solve puzzles.
The game offers a steady diet of cluttered scenes with a text list of items which will need to be located. If any of the items in the list are coloured orange then some additional action will be required before the object can be selected. This action will require the use of one of the other items in the scene.
A variety of puzzles are present in the game. You might be asked to pre-ordain a route through a maze, organise objects according to their colour and/or shape, rearrange items in the correct order and line-up a light beam to mention just some types. Solving a puzzle will remove a block to your progress.
The game does tend to show its age a little with its lack of widescreen support and very limited spoken dialogue. I also felt the ending could have been handled better. Currently Big Fish Games has this title listed at $2.99. The game requires a 1.4 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 611MB of hard disk space running Windows XP and later.
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