In 2018 I found out how to (legally) get free Steam games. Either from a site where you have to do a few things to get the game's key or just a game that's free on Steam for a limited time. Mountain Crime: Requital was one of those games I got for free and I actually didn't play it until now. Now that I think about it, I don't think I played any of the free games I have. I... might be a hoarder...
Mountain Crime: Requital is a 2011 hidden object mystery game made by Alawar. I've never really played anything like this before. The closest I can think of that I played within the hidden object genre (very loosely) are the NES Where's Waldo games and books along with I Spy books. Kind of weird saying I "played" a book. I guess Mountain Crime: Requital is my proper introduction to the hidden object video game genre though. By skimming through Alawar's catalog, you can see they mainly make hidden object games designed to look like something from the 90s. Either that or they're just really cheap.
In Mountain Crime, you play as the buff Dr. Phillip White as he goes to help his new patient who just had a heart attack. Why he called his personal doctor and not a hospital is beyond me. The patient, Mr. Grey, is staying in the recently reopened White Wolf Hotel. During this exposition cutscene, one of my minor complaints come up: the voice acting. Even though it's hilariously bad, which usually doesn't bother me (just look at Resident Evil and the PS2 version of Shadow of Destiny), but when the developers put "fully-voiced characters" as a reason for you to play their game, it just seems off. Maybe the acting is bad for the 90s feel? Another thing I noticed in the first cutscene is that Dr. White tells Mr. Grey he doesn't need directions to get to the hotel because he has a map... and then proceeds to ask a random guy for directions... By the way, this game takes place in 2011. At first, I didn't think so, but it does. Is Dr. White too cheap for a TomTom?
Anyway, there's a really bad storm happening and on the way to the hotel, a landslide breaks the bridge to get to it. The game finally starts and you can control the idiot doctor. More on his idiocy later. After the tutorial (another "key feature") in that area finishes, you go across the bridge and reach the hotel entrance. I guess Dr. White jumped across the large gap... If you try entering the hotel, Dr. White comments on how he's afraid of the dark. So our first objective is to turn on the hotel's power; which leads to the first puzzle. 
You have to fix the fuse box and to do so, you have to find a button and a fuse. The fuse is easy to find (even though it isn't very visible), but the way you have to find the button is through one of the most repetitive and annoying things the game has. To find certain items, there are screens where you have to collect specific objects. First off, sometimes these objects are hidden in ridiculous places on the screen. I know I'm not the most eagle-eyed person, but come on. It feels more like you're trying to clean a room than anything else. Even more so when you come back to the same areas multiple times. I noticed later on that these are pieces to get the item, but really it makes no sense and just makes the game more tedious. I guess it's the game's way of filling its hidden object game quota.
Let's fast forward a little. You find a paper in Mr. Grey's room with a list of names of kids who evacuated a fire at the hotel when it was an orphanage in the 80s. Once you pick it up, the phone starts ringing and the person on the other end tells you that "the game has begun". Oh no! Someone screamed! We have to go help them. So you go to the west wing and... oh my... the character models look really bad. Oh yeah, there's some guy on the floor dying.
The sheriff, Jack, is also staying in the hotel (why didn't he try to turn the power on?). You tell him you're a doctor through the choice options that don't matter, and he leaves you with the dying old man. When you check on the old geezer, you find out that he was bitten by a snake. For some reason, this part reminded me of The Adventure of the Speckled Band.
Fast forward some more and we meet Katherine (why didn't she turn the power on?). Wait... Is she burning evidence?! Now she's a suspect. More dialogue, fake choices, puzzles, and you eventually get your bag so you can help the old guy. Unfortunately, the killer went in Dr. White's bag and swapped his snake venom antidote (why does he have this?) with poison. 
Well the old guy is dead and with the poison swap out Dr. White will keep his doctor's bag with him this time rig-- and he leaves it on the floor... Ladies and gentlemen, this is a great example of the good doctor's idiocy. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he had the poison, to begin with, and was too dumb to know the difference between an antidote and a harmful substance with the cliched skull and crossbones symbol on the bottle. Ugh.
Well the old guy is dead and with the poison swap out Dr. White will keep his doctor's bag with him this time rig-- and he leaves it on the floor... Ladies and gentlemen, this is a great example of the good doctor's idiocy. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he had the poison, to begin with, and was too dumb to know the difference between an antidote and a harmful substance with the cliched skull and crossbones symbol on the bottle. Ugh.
Oh well, let's go tell Katherine. She wants some tea, so let's get her some... from my patient's room... I think we all know what's going to happen to her anyway. When we find a phone, we call the police for help, but they can't come until the storm clears up. There's also a choice you can make during the call that doesn't matter. I actually played the first half of the game a few times to test the choices and none of them make the other characters respond with anything different. We return to Katherine's room and... Well, you'll have to play the game to know what happens next (if you're that interested). I already went over enough of the plot as is.
Even though I mentioned things like the crappy acting and the bad character models, they actually do work well with the 90s motif. Even the cutscenes look like they'd fit well in a PS1 FMV. If I'm being honest, none of that really bothered me too much. The art isn't great, but it gets the job done. The music isn't always there, but when it is, the tracks do a good job of sounding spooky; even if it's a little over the top. There's no way to get a game over. When you click on a non-interactive part of the screen during the hidden-object puzzles, the screen fogs up and stuns you for a few seconds and then you can continue. You can even skip most puzzles if you spend too much time on them, which eliminates any sense of urgency or consequence. This is technically a mystery game, but not by much. Don't expect a well-written cast of characters that you interact with a lot so you can get to know them and use your own deductive skills to figure out who the killer is. In fact, the cast is very meager. There's even a hint toward who the killer might be with the smell of almonds, but it's only mentioned twice and not even when there's a character around. Your clues for who the killer might be are articles you find around the hotel about the fire incident.
Pros:
+ The history of the hotel is interesting.
+ The retro-esque quality is nice if you want nostalgia.
+ The hints recharge fast.
+ You can skip most of the puzzles.
+ Most of the puzzles are challenging.
Cons:
- The voice acting is bad.
- It's very easy to not know what to do.
- The ending isn't very good at all.
- No replay value.
- No alternate endings.
- Even though one of the key features is "interactive conversations", there isn't really anyone to interact with.
Final Thoughts:
I went into this game fairly blind. Mostly because it's not a popular game. I'm interested in anything with a mystery factor, and this being a murder mystery really caught my eye. Like I said before, I haven't really played any hidden object games before this, so I wouldn't know if they're all like this or not. Do I recommend Mountain Crime: Requital? Not by a long shot. It isn't terrible and could've been a good game, but there's not really much to keep you invested. There's no cast of interactive characters, no suspense, no consequences, foreshadowing, and the ending isn't satisfying whatsoever. Hell, there's not even a "thanks for playing" screen. The only good things would probably have to be the non-hidden object puzzles and the hotel's history. I'll probably have to play more games like this to get a feel for what the genre has to offer, but Mountain Crime: Requital is a game that I really didn't like very much. It's even on PS3 for $15 while it's only $2 on Steam. If you're really interested in the game for whatever reason, then watch a YouTube playthrough instead of actually paying money for this.
So I've actually been working on this on and off since August 29th. I just haven't been feeling too great mentally and couldn't really bring myself to revise all of this at once. As of writing this, I want it to be out by Friday, September 18th. Anyway here's my original afterwords section: "This review went on for way longer than I thought. It almost looks a little professional. Maybe I'll do spoiler reviews if people want me to, but I did a decent job of avoiding them here. When I was trying to record footage for my YouTube channel, one part didn't record at all. Because of that, I'm not going to upload any of this to YouTube. Now I finally know why my YouTubers don't upload their gameplay footage separately..."
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