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Developed by the team at Grandma, the Mystery Case files - The Dalimar Legacy is a Hidden Object Adventure,  This review is based on the Collector's Edition version of the title which bundles a number of bonus offerings to supplement the main gaming action.  While some of the bonus items are available immediately, others, such as a Jigsaw puzzle, mini games and Hidden Object scenes, require progress to be made in the main game before re-entry later.  You will need to complete the main game before being granted access to a bonus chapter entitled Escape.

The usual selection of adjustments can be made to the gaming environment for different players.  Settings can be applied to the various volume levels used for music, sound effects, ambience and voice with scenes being displayed in full screen mode.  A choice of four difficulty levels is available.  This will let you select from a choice of Casual, Advanced, Hardcore or Custom.  These choices offer different rates of Hint/Skip charging, the use of indicators for active areas and Hidden Object scene presence plus the details shown on a Map facility.

Starting the game, you are cast in the role of the Master Detective who has been assigned the task of giving a talk on the activities of the evil Charles Dalimar.  But matters do not remain so simple.  On arriving at the location to give your talk, you find yourself in an unfamiliar room and discover that you are now inhabiting an earlier version of the body of Charles Dalimar.  You are now in a state where you could be in a position to help undo or prevent from happening some of the past and evil actions of Dalimar.

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As Dalimar was an evil genius who excelled at creating contraptions to carry out his bidding, undoing his various actions and plots will call for a different way of thinking.  Just how do you deal with an adversary who has, waiting at his beck-and-call, an automatic flying machine, a mechanical message delivery system and a robot called Robert,  Wherever you look in the Dalimar residence, you could encounter devices and puzzles that will need solving as you set about rescuing the victims of Dalimar's experiments.  

Aiding you in the completion of the numerous tasks making up this game is a set of tools arranged across the bottom of the screen.  A centrally positioned Inventory will be sandwiched between a Notebook and Tasks list on the left with Strategy Guide, Hint and Map features on the right.  The Hint feature will provide you with a percentage count of its availability whenever it needs to recharge itself.

The game features numerous Hidden Object and mini game puzzles that will need to be tackled.  Hidden Object game will use a variety of ways of displaying required items.  In some cases you might need to manipulate the accompanying scene so that some items will be revealed while other scenes will require found items to be replaced within the scene.

Mini game puzzles can be either a single task or multiple tasks which will need to be completed within a specific order.  In certain cases, a rewards gained in one part will be required in order to complete subsequent sections.

I found it took a little while to get use to the game's reliance on its numerous gadgets in order to get things done but the challenge was enjoyable once I had adapted my playing style.  I downloaded my copy of the game from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99. It is also available from Big Fish Games priced at £15.78.  The game requires a 2.0 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 911MB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.

Mystery Case Files - The Dalimar Legacy Collector's Edition | Big Fish Games

Mystery Case Files - The Dalimar Legacy Collector's Edition | GameHouse