GENRE: Free to play Puzzle - RPG
PLATFORM: Internet Browsers
DEVELOPER: Wyse Games
OVERVIEW
Based on the TV series “Castle” starring Nathan Fillion as famous murder-mystery author Richard Castle, and his Police Detective partner Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), this free to play MMO is an RPG driven game with puzzle solving gameplay that can be accessed through your internet browser.
KEY FEATURES
- Intriguing murder mystery storyline
- Fun and clever narrative between characters
- Challenging puzzles that grow more difficult with each attempt
- Gather resources and buy objects to decorate the office
- Free to play
- Browser gameplay
GAMEPLAY
At its core the game is a puzzle based MMO with narrative content that advances the overall story-arc as players follow the two main characters, assuming the role of a fly on the wall audience member but partaking in the murder scenes to help solve puzzles. By successfully progressing through different crime scenes players will solve a variety of cases, earning XP to level up as well as Dollars to make improvements to their police station.
THE CRIME SCENES
Each crime scene takes the form of an individual location that is part of the murder case, these can be everything from the initial crime scene such as a bedroom, apartment, and then advance to other locations such as a gym locker room, inside a car and other places. The design of each locations is filled with hundreds of unique objects that you might find in such a place and players are given a list of objects that they must find within the given time limit, these items can be partially obscured, cleverly placed to merge into the scene, small and hard to notice or equally very easy to see. Once every item in the list is found then the players must locate the key evidence, only with this is the stage cleared and the plot moves forward.
XP is earned during a search, an XP bar constantly runs down starting at a 6x Bonus, down a 5x, 4x, etc. to no bonus at all; when a player finds and clicks one of the required items then the Bonus goes back up slightly, so quick successive finds can quickly boost the XP bar up or keep it in the 6x boost bracket. Players earn stars for each stage, with 5 to collect, each star requires more earned XP to unlock in comparison to the last. Players, throughout the duration of a case, may have to return to a crime scene and so will earn more stars through them, however, for each new star more items are added into the room as well as players needing to find more to complete the stage; from the list of 6 each time an item is found then it is replaced by another item, making the stage more difficult.
BOOSTERS
To make searching crime scenes easier players can earn or purchase with premium currency a variety of boosters:
- Pointer – When used this item will highlight a single item that is currently in the players list that they haven’t found, showing them its location
- Multi-Hint – This booster highlights for a few seconds all the items currently in the players list that haven’t been located
- Timer – Adding more time to the clock gives players a little longer to find those much needed clues.
- 6x Boost – This allows players to lock in a 6x XP boost to let them earn Stars easier
STARS
Stars are an important feature of the game and are used to progress the storyline, occasionally between crime scenes the players may need to prep Beckett for an interrogation, or have the lab look over the forensics of a found piece of evidence. Players need to acquire and spend Stars to begin these actions, but must then wait a certain amount of time before it is complete; this time can be instantly sped up for free if it is less than 10 minutes remaining, or players can spend Gold currency.
DOLLARS
Players earn Dollars as they complete cases which can be used to buy furniture and décor from the shop and used to furnish the main police department, buying all sorts of objects and items that will give “Comfort” to the player and level up their account. Players can also unlock new rooms which give ongoing bonuses such as extra resources, currency and more.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENT
Web Browser
