Art Of Murder: Secret Files

Ang Art of Murder: Secret Files is a causal IHOG all the way through. I believe the Art of Murder: Secrets of the Lost Kingdom is also a causal game. At some point City Interactive decided to continue the series as causal games. They have said they will not be making another Art of Murder adventure game. There are quite a few fans of the game who are upset about this decision. I am not sure what their plans are with Chronicles of Mystery. I don't know whether the one coming out is adventure or causal. They seem to be very quiet about it. It almost seems at times that the NA game publishers seem determined to make us adventure gamers knash our teeth in frustration.

hatshepsut

Ang after doing some checking with City Interactive, I found that the next Art of Murder is indeed a HOG causal. The next two Chronicles of Mystery Secret of the Lost Kingdom and CoM the Legend of the Sacred Treasure are also HOG casuals.

hatshepsut

This is very sad news!!! Very sad indeed..... Go talk to them Hat

I will winfrey I was disappointed with their decision. I thought that both series were improving and I enjoyed the game play of both.

hatshepsut

You are welcome Ang. I wish the news had been better but their decision seems to be final at this point anyway. I am a little about the decision because after looking at some forums both series seem to have a lot of fans.

hatshepsut

Isn't that how all adventure game puzzles are solved?

I am sorry for your frustration Ang. I did have to laugh because that's the same scenario I have gone through with some adventure puzzles. I think there are definitely some adventure puzzles that just aren't solvable unless you pound your mouse on the desk a dozen times and pull half your hair out. ( and then of course you need a smarty pants child to walk by and say 'I think you need to do this or that' . Puzzle solved. )

hatshepsut

That is very frustrating Ang. It sounds like they should definetly stayed with making the adventure games.

hatshepsut

I don't know where you are in the game Ang but here's a video walkthrough. Maybe it will help. AoM Secret Files

hatshepsut

It has been known for about a year that the Art of Murder, Chronicles of Mystery and for that matter City Interactive has abandoned the adventure genre in favor of the Casual route. Much like the Agatha Christie series and (IMO) the Sherlock games will too. Very soon it looks like the adventure genre will be eaten up by the Casuals and relegated to Cult status with the only games being produced by the independent developers. Which is OK by me since the their games are proving to be much better than the big developers.

the Sherlock games will too....

All I can say is "I'm glad I have a few to be played games !!!"

Yes there is at least one Sherlock Holmes casual game. I am not sure about the one that is development now but I think it is an adventure game.
Thankfully we do have Indies that bring us great adventures.

hatshepsut

I'm moving along with the trend to IHOGs, maybe on the principle of "If you can't beat them, join them." Or whatever! Anyway, just before I found this thread I ordered Art of Murder Secret Files from Interact (above link) and I thought at the time that I had read somewhere that it was an IHOG, which in my case is what I wanted. Main reason is because the last 2 AoM adventure games were impossible for me to finish. So I'm willing to take a chance on this one, seeing as how I liked the first AoM adventure very much. I'm sort of loyal that way.
As for Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles, I played the Collector's Edition (Big Fish Games) and liked it a lot. So much that I hope they make more of them.
Giving another point of view a chance here.

Hi AngDMC,
Oops, I think I came on too strong about liking IHOGs, but I feel sort of defensive about Casual games. On thinking things over, I know I would be disappointed if I ordered an IHOG and it turned out to be an RPG. Or if Lost Horizon had turned out to be HOG instead of adventure, I shudder at the mere thought.
I'll be happy to help with a gears puzzle as they are among my favorites, even though they can be frustrating, but I can keep trying long after I would have given up on other types of puzzles. Gears, pipes, gridlock, I like them all.

I won't be playing AoM Secret Files after all. When I installed it today I found it didn't install correctly, part of the game is missing from the screen. The left edge is off the screen almost an inch and I had to click blindly to finish the portrait of the guy with the mustache, beard, dark glasses, and cap. I did get it done finally, but decided it was too much work and no fun, so uninstalled the game.

mindysue did you do a reinstall ? If that didn't fix the problem did you try changing the screen resolution ? That might take care of the problem.

hatshepsut

I know that trying to reinstall a game that fails to install correctly the first time is one thing to try, but I don't have the patience for it. I don't know how to change resolutions or other settings and don't want to fool around trying to learn in case I make a major blunder and end up with my computer not being able to play any game. I guess I have a big hang-up about this because way back in the early days I can still remember when a friend phoned Tom and asked it if was okay to make a certain change and Tom replied, "Only if you no longer want to use the computer!" Computers weren't very user-friendly back then and it was easy to delete part of the DOS. I'm not sure that is still true today, but I'm not taking any chances.