... somewhere along the line I lost the thread of the story.
It was great at first you have a fox helper, but then something happened and you don't have a fox, and after that it's just a jumbled mess and I had no idea what I was trying to accomplish. Oh, and you bring a dead guy back to life, so there's that.
I'll start with the card game you have to play to win the innkeeper's horse... oh, look! Throw down a few cards and boom! You win! There might have at least been a little bit of a challenge... but no, I guess not. Like everything else you have to do, no challenge. Silly voice acting. All the male voices sound like high tenor teenagers and very over-acted. Plot. Figured that one out before I even went to get the mother's medicine. Quite disappointing actually. Based on all the previous enthusiastic rave reviews, I expected something really special. On a positive note, it has really pretty colors.
Another reviewer has summed up my exact thoughts about this game. "Please try the demo, some may be able to get past unnecessary busy work and totally illogical placement of items. I could have given a higher mark for "challenge", but only because of illogic. The last thing your brother says to you on your cell phone is "call the theatre for the address." Your cell phone vanishes and you have to repair a payphone to make the call. Luckily the pay phone still had a PHONE BOOK?! Some reading this may not even know of pay phones or phone books. I'm not sure about a trained detective whose lock box key and part of her safe combination ends up in a public mailbox."
I guess Elephant was trying to do something innovative with this game, but I only found it grody and depressing wandering around a creepy old basement trying to figure out what to do. Oh, well. I about wore out the hint button before giving up.
The only good thing I have to say about this game is that the graphics are clear and colored nicely. The rest of it is just a jumbled mess of finding unlikely objects in unlikely places for use in unlikely ways. If you want to know more, read HeavenBound7729's review.
I kept thinking did I buy this game? I'm betting the rest of the game is very short.
I kind of wanted to find out, as they say, "the rest of the story." But it was all just so much busywork and backing and forthing with none of it getting you anywhere... you're just working and searching and finding with nothing but the barest hint of betrayal to go on, and then suddenly with no warning, the trial is over and you've learned nothing!
Return once more to the haunted grounds of Ravenhearst Manor to uncover new details about this poignant saga. What you find could very well be the final chapter of this riveting story-if you escape.
In this game you only get hints after you find all the ghosts' morphing objects. The first morphing object hunt was easy, because the ghost was showing you what to do. The second morphing object scene is under the bridge, but I used up all the hints looking for the stupid morphing objects. That left me just wandering around trying to figure out what to do next. At that point, I closed the game and found the walkthrough in the old Forums. (I really, really miss the old forums. Oh, well.) So the walkthrough tells me what to do next with the large rock I found. So I do it. And then, just as before, I'm left wandering around trying to figure out what to do with the thing I got when I did what the walkthrough told me what to do with the large rock. So now I have to get out of the game again and go look at the walkthrough. Nope, not going through that again. I just got out of the game to come here and write this review. I own Return to Ravenhearst which came out in 2008. Why I bought it, I have no clue, but it suffers from a different issue with the hints which I won't go into here, but you still have to get out, look at the walkthrough, get back in, etc. etc. etc. Apparently this is a well-loved game so you might like it. As always, try before you buy.
Quoting MMDGaston, "I lasted 8 min. before uninstalling this train wreck. I have zero idea where this game was trying to go as there was sooooooo much busy things to do just to get started. Sorry, not for me." Eight minutes is about how long I lasted as well. I didn't know one thing to do without needing a hint. Definitely not my idea of a fun time. I don't recommend this game.