Cate West: The Vanishing Files
Adventure Games, Hidden Object Games, Puzzle Games February 21st, 2009
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
Loading ...
Cate West: The Vanishing Files is your typical hidden object game and even with the few varieties in game play, doesn’t really resemble much the trend in hidden object games these days. There are no scene puzzles and no inventory items, equating to less interactivity for each level of the game; however, it focused more on something even new players can relate to – a gripping story revolving around a simple yet addictive game play.
Cate West always has this recurring dream about her dying father being cradled by her then young mother. One thing needed to be said about Cate is that she has an unusual gift of vision, therefore indicating that this is no mere dream but something that really happened in the past. And now, that ability is about to be tested against the Vanishing Files, a collection of baffling criminal cases that has one thing in common with one another – all of their clues vanish without any obvious trace. Help Cate help the local authorities crack the cases, and put you a step closer into solving the mystery of her father’s death.
Each stage in Cate West: The Vanishing Files is composed of five parts. A stage solves a single case and catches the criminal behind the offense after completion. Each part of a stage corresponds also to a specific variety of hidden object game play. And if you’re thinking that this will become too redundant a game, in my case, I didn’t even notice the pattern since I’m too engrossed in wanting to know what happens next to the game’s whole story.
To summarize, the first part of the game follows a traditional hidden object game play where you find items listed in each scene and Cate will then use her visionary powers to trace up to four key items that directly points to the criminal. The second part will have you find the broken pieces of the key items, which will then be used on the fourth part of the investigation process.
The third step is a bit off to the sequence, but this is where you locate the perpetrator’s hideout. Match the difference between two scenes and you’re magically transported to the suspect screening stage. All you have to do then is to use Cate’s word clues to locate the correct criminal from the list. Afterwards, you help the chief of police apprehend the criminal in court by putting back the crime scene as what was depicted on two separate images.
Honestly, Cate West: The Vanishing Files is quite a long game but because of its good storyline, you won’t notice how time flies when you’re playing it. As a matter of fact, the developers are very much confident about this storyline that they even provided a separate ending depending on how well you played the game. This gave the game a much needed replayability, something neglected on most hidden object games.
Cate West: The Vanishing Files also suffers from some problems also familiar on most hidden object games. For one, it’s not quite as innovative and follows only a linear story line. There’s some pixel-finding involved too, but nevertheless, it’s still a good game to try out.
Cate West: The Vanishing Files Download
Welcome to Casualicious dot Com! If you liked the review, please support us by subscribing to our RSS feed through your favorite reader or more conveniently, through Email. Thank you for visiting and have fun casual playing!
This game actually came out over a year ago, and it offered a lot of new stuff compared to other games back then.
Ahh yes, my bad. That’s why the game seems very familiar. I read about it from PlayFirst’s website a few months back. It just got released from Big Fish when I wrote the review since that’s the version that I actually played.