This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
Natalie Brooks knows when something strange is going on and this time it involves a friend of hers called Chad Robertson. Arriving to meet with her old school classmate Chad at his art gallery Natalie discovers him tied up in a basement while someone has taken his place. What follows is a thrilling journey to rescue Chad’s girlfriend Kitty while stopping a woman who is in league with a gang of criminals. As the clues come thick and fast all evidence brings Natalie back to her old, abandoned school Hillcrest High…
Natalie Brooks: The Treasures of the Lost Kingdom (2008) wasn’t the best HOPA ever but with its none too taxing puzzles and amusing characters it was a fairly likable game. It was an improvement over the first game anyway. To create a good sequel you need to build on your best entry, not your weakest one. The third game Natalie Brooks: Mystery at Hillcrest High (2009) removes Geoffrey and that Steven Segal villain, with the whole story played much more straight. This proves to be detrimental to the third game as it takes out what made the second game enjoyable. It could be said however that Mystery at Hillcrest High if anything builds on the original game Natalie Brooks: Secrets of Treasure House (2008). The third game not only includes a few references to the original but also includes a character from it when the game wasn’t great to begin with. Chad and Kitty don’t have much of a personality. Chad might as well be Geoffrey without the wit and intelligence. For some odd reason Chad doesn’t bother to wear shoes either when he clearly has opportunities throughout the game to do that so he can’t be smart. The plot itself isn’t that engaging either this time revolving around theft and duplicity involving Natalie Brooks’s old school which serves only as a place for a particular revelation in the story to occur. In terms of gameplay the usual puzzles are here and this time there’s a welcome increase in hidden object scenes. What I did also like is there are places for more interactivity other than the usual “pick up and use here” solutions. What I mean is at one point you get a spot the difference puzzle with 180 degree rotation! Puzzles aren’t too difficult but there are issues. For instance there’s quite a few times where you try to use a hint to know where to go next yet the hint system gets confused and starts pointing in a different direction every time but cannot solve a puzzle for you or tell you where to focus your attention. It needs a lot of work. The other major issue concerns one particular puzzle where you have to turn the handles of a clock to match what is on a photo. Logic would dictate that since it says 9.15pm on the photo that means you need to turn the clock to that time. There are no other hints given as to any other time it could be. Nope, the correct time is in fact 6.00pm although where you get that number from is anybody’s guess; I had to use a walkthrough to find that one out. Apart from the usual hot spot hunting difficulties gameplay remains mildly enjoyable and the music is nice which helps.
I’m still trying to figure out why it’s called Mystery at Hillcrest High when the school only has significance in the middle part of the game. I wouldn’t say it’s better or worse than the second game. The third game has so far been the last and while it’s not the worst game to go out on the lack of humour and a faulty hint system combined with some errors in the puzzles prevents this game being a real winner. Strangely the game is mostly playable even with its issues and it has some nice touches here and there yet it won’t stop the player feeling detached from the convoluted story and uninteresting characters. Now there’s a mystery Natalie should be solving!… Expand
