Review: Cate West – The Vanishing Files (DS)
I love Hotel Dusk and the Phoenix Wright titles on the DS. I am convinced that Nintendo’s small but perfectly formed system is tailor-made for the “Detective” genre. There have been some great movies, such as the film noir classics starring Bogart and Cagney, but there’s nothing quite like reading a good book before bedtime. The size and shape of the DS goes hand in hand with the genre and with the right combination of characters and plot great things can happen. Cate West: The Vanishing Files is a good, although watered down, addition to the genre.
Cate West has visions. Not just any visions. Cate can see things most others cannot. She is one of those people who claims they can hold an object and sense details about whoever has used the item. I like to think of these people as bullshit artists but I believe it’s more politically correct to call them “Dark Jedis”. For seventeen years Cate has been haunted by a vision of her murdered father and with the killer’s identity unknown she is determined to solve that mystery.
Official game description: “A series of unsolvable crimes dubbed “The Vanishing Files” have paralyzed the city. The police turns to novelist Cate West, whose visions might just be the key to solving the mystery. Use Cate’s powers and hunt down the clues to uncover the link between her father’s murder and these crimes…and an unexpected connection to the Biblical legend of the 3 Magi.”
My translation: “A series of actually very solvable crimes have been confusingly dubbed “The Vanishing Files”. The Police failed to track down Jessica Fletcher so turned to Cate West, an equally unsuccessful novelist, for help in solving the mystery. Make use of Cate’s unparalleled talent for spotting hidden items, spotting the difference between two images, and playing Guess Who. If this all sounds too much for you don’t worry as the person behind the mystery, like all good fictional villains, will provide you with simple riddles and helpful clues along the way.”
The extended description claims there are five gameplay types but all are variations of “spot the difference”, “hidden objects”, and “Guess Who” unless conversations which you have no control over are included. Don’t let my sarcastic tone fool you. I found this game to be a fun but shallow experience. The “Guess Who” sections work well enough and the other two are fine apart from one DS-related flaw. Finding hidden items on the small DS screen can be a pain in the ass and it doesn’t help that the graphics are low resolution. The game itself attempts to make up for this problem by providing an almost unlimited number of attempts, other than the 30 second penalty for randomly clicking the screen, as the time limit to complete each mission is ridiculously long.
The music is repetitive but okay while the use of speech for just the opening word of each sentence is baffling. The story is no more than your run of the mill mystery and the characters range from cute (Cate) to bland and/or annoying (pretty much everyone else). Cate West lacks the style and humour found in Phoenix Wright but surprisingly, once you strip away those desired factors, you are still left with something reasonably solid and presentable.
7/10
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