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In 1903 The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was published.  One of the 13 tales making up this collection concerned the story of the Dancing Men.  This same story now makes an appearance as the central plank for the Elephant Games offering entitled Ms Holmes – The Case of the Dancing Men which is currently available in Collector’s Edition format featuring a number of bonus items.

As usual you are provided with a number of options for creating an appropriate playing environment to suit your style.  Volume levels for different audio aspect can be applied and there is a choice of full and wide screen viewing plus adjustable screen brightness.  The game features four levels of difficulty as you select from Casual, Detective, Super or Custom settings covering different charging rates for Hint and Skip features plus the appearance of on-screen assistance.

The game casts you in the role of Sharlotte Holmes, a niece of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.  Keen to follow in the footsteps of your famous uncle, you, as Sharlotte, are extremely eager to accept to take up the challenge of solving a case involving the disappearance of Olivia Cubitt, an heiress, who disappear a shortly before she was due to be married.  Of course Holmes would not be Holmes without Watson and the link is provided by the news of the disappearance being announced by Oscar Watson.

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To assist you in your investigation, the game provides you with the usual elements that are regularly found in such cases.  A tool bar running across the bottom of the screen will feature a centrally positioned Inventory which can be locked in place or left to disappear when not immediately required.  Items stored in the Inventory accompanied by a plus sign will need some work before use.  To the left of the Inventory are Map and Task features while the right side provides links to a Strategy Guide and Hint features with the latter being in the form of an owl wearing a hat.  Further assistance is provided by the mouse cursor which changes shape to indicate when it is in the vicinity of an area that could require investigation.

When exploring locations within the game you need to be on the look out for various collectibles plus magnifying glasses.  Each magnifying glass you find will unlock one of the numerous jigsaw pieces that make up the Secret Room forming part of the Collector’s Edition part of this title.

As you search for clues regarding the disappearance of Olivia Cubitt, you will find numerous items to help your investigation and be faced by a series of challenges in the form of mini game puzzles and Hidden Object game play.  Mini game puzzle action features a variety of tasks.  You might need to repair damaged images; find and follow footsteps; mix required potions and create droplets in hexagons to create a cure.  Other puzzle tasks will involve matching evidence with statements collected from suspects plus working out which order evidence should be placed.

A variety of styles is also prevalent with Hidden Object game play.  You could be asked to find items listed in text format, as silhouettes, as patterns or in pairs.  Sometimes a spotlight will be introduced to help find items in darkened areas.  In other cases you might need to connect words from a story to illustrations in a book.  There will also be an occasion when you will need to spot the differences between two sketches.

I felt the story line in this game was rather slow moving.  Generally the various characters tend to be static and their dialogue with require a number of mouse click to progress through their information.  Sometimes your responses can be selected from a choice with selection affecting the games progress.

I downloaded my copy of this title from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99.  It is also available from Big Fish Games priced at £15.00. The game requires a 2.5 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 2.07GB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.

Ms. Holmes - The Case of the Dancing Men Collector's Edition | Big Fish Games

Ms. Holmes - The Case of the Dancing Men Collector's Edition | GameHouse