Ever wondered what a detective goes through in his job? Well, you are about to find out. Playing as a grizzled private detective named Arthur Christie in Artifex Mundi’s latest point-and-click adventure, Ghost Files: Memory of a Crime, you are tasked with solving a mystery that greeted you out of nowhere. Arthur has lost his memory and wakes up next to an unknown dead man. From here on, you take control of Arthur at this unfortunate time in his life. In addition, a serial killer called The Executioner is on the loose, and it’s your job to bring this killer to justice.
A moment later the building is surrounded by howling police sirens. And all this before the sun even reached noon. The day began lousily and chances for improvement are slim - so now he has to start his own investigation and prove his innocence. For this detective, Christie will need to recreate his lost memories and immerse himself in the dark reality of a murderous and dangerous serial killer.
Ghost Files: Memory of a Crime begins with a truly creepy opening scene featuring a sinister masked figure whistling gleefully before executing a man in cold blood; the main protagonist loses consciousness while witnessing this act. Awakening in the dark basement, with the dead body nearby, the only memories he possesses are hazy. The only thing he knows for sure, thanks to the presence of a wallet, is that he’s a private detective known as Arthur Christie – no relation to Agatha. As the police arrive outside, you’ll need to make an escape and find the culprit to prove the innocence of ex-copper Arthur.
It leads to an intriguing set of events as you go on on the hunt for a serial killer, involving more death and revelations about how the private detective became embroiled in this mess. The tale also benefits from a selection of twists along the way, with layers and layers of mysteries being revealed as you uncover new clues and mysteries in this captivating hidden object crime game.
The game packs visually beautiful puzzles and challenging crime mini-games generously throughout to create an amazing hidden object game experience. You’ll pinpoint the killer by collecting hidden objects, piecing together fragments of objects you’ve found, and utilizing your forensics kit. There are also the occasional fisticuffs. Buttons appear representing your left and right fists, and then they light up in a sequence you’re meant to repeat.
With Arthur having a background in the force, the game enables a few cool activities to be implemented seamlessly into proceedings. These make you feel as if you’re a CSI veteran as bullet cases are compared, fingerprints are taken and hair is placed under the microscope in order to study the DNA. The latter of those is something akin to a memory game, which sees you trying to spot matching molecules across hair and the DNA records, and is quite fun. It’s merely a case of rotating tiles to create a picture, but there’s a relaxing vibe when completing them and eventually they get more complex without being too difficult.
The mini-games present in Ghost Files: Memory of A Crime is intellectually challenging in the way it makes you decipher codes, play a stealthy arcade game, and figure out sliding block puzzles. What’s good is that a couple of fresh ideas are brought into the mix as a result. In collusion with the mini-games are fairly logical inventory-based problems, meaning you have to pick up anything and everything in each location. You never know when you’re going to require paper clips for breaking out of handcuffs, or cheese to appease a rodent.
If you enjoy these free games, you will love this list of our 10 Best Hidden Object Games!