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Ghost Files: The Face of Guilt is first part to the Ghost Files series, Ghost Files 2: Memory of a Crime being the second. It's a point & click, hidden object mystery puzzle game published by Artifex Mundi.
Plot summary - You play as Detective Emily Meyer of the Boston PD. You are investigating a series of murders that is thought to be work of the mysterious serious killer. Bethany Stenwards calls to the police station, telling they might know who the killer is. Police department has asked for a psychics named Susan for help in the case, which you do not really believe that you will need since it's spiritual mumbo-jumbo in your opinion. After you receive tip who the killer might be, you are set on a adventure to reveal the killers identity. You soon also realize that you might need the psychic after all while you continue with your journey. You reveal more info about the killer and records show that they have been killed in a fire at the mental asylum long time ago, so how are the murders still happening? The killer staged their own death by placing the guard in their fire filled cell block while escaping them self. They went under a massive plastic surgery operations to look like your partner Frank. Find the killers identity and solve the case!
Personally what comes to the plot i must say that it wasn't that great. I liked it first, but as the story continued i thought that it was too much and felt like two different genres was forced together. First time in the limbo made somewhat sense since you were almost dying in real life, but the other times it was just out of place and didn't seem to make that much sense regarding the story line. There was also a extra chapter after completing the main one that took place fully in the limbo, which isn't worst case scenario in my opinion since it's some what separate story from the main one, but still it was kind of out off place. I think the main story would have been better without the other limbos after the first one. Some times it felt like the twists were so far stretched that it didn't make sense.
Artwork is decent. It's same type as most of the Artifex Mundi games, i got nothing to complain about that. Some scenes were more interesting and pretty than the others. Soundscape was good, there was voice acting which is decent and background music wasn't annoying even tho in some parts it was repetitive. Overall look and ambience was okay throughout the game.
Mechanics were good. You have your typical map for easy moving, journal, arrows pointing where you can go and depending your difficulty level you could also have clear indicators where active areas are. You have multiple difficulty levels ranging from easy to hard, hard being the one where you got no active areas shown at all. As there is multiple different collectibles, you had clear indicator (three stars top of your items) when there is collectible in the scene. So it makes the achievement easier to get, since you can't really miss the items if you aren't completely blind. I played this game on advanced, without using any skip or hints. There wasn't that much mini games and what there was were quite familiar cookie cutter same stuff from the other games of this genre. Untangle the ropes etc.
I have to say tho, there was lots of HO scenes and only few of them got repeated so that is a big plus. Also there was multiple different style HO scenes, classic where you have to find by the name, ones where you have to find by the outline shape, ones where you collect parts to build one bigger item you need and so on. There was also chance that the items were hidden and not be seen straight away, which i really enjoy in these games since it makes the HOs small little puzzles and tad bit harder than the average just click away scenes. I have to make a little side note that there is few typos throughout the game. I don't think it's a huge con since there isn't that many, but still noticeable. What comes to game play in overall, it was pretty straightforward. Wasn't that hard on advanced, i might have had to choose even harder difficulty now that i have played the game. There was extra content too. Main menu offers you a chance to look at the artwork, listen to the soundtracks, play mini games or the HO scenes from the game.
You are able to collect all steam achievements (22 total) in one game play which is always a big plus since i play games in hopes to get complete games to my profile. Achievements in this game are also good, not too hard to get, but still requires you to be careful that you don't miss any.
Would i recommend this game? Yes, but with some conditions. I wouldn't pay full price from this game when it's 14,79 euros (16,34 USD). You get decent 3-4 hours play from it even as a experienced player including the extra chapter, but i can't justify the high price for a game that you only probably play once in your life and never again. As i mentioned earlier you get decent amount of HO scenes, extra chapter and overall ambience is decent, the plot makes it not worth the price. This game gets recommendation from me still since there was little bit more good than bad, but i would wait it come to a sale. Preferably for a less than 5 euros. It's still overall decent game to pass the time, even though it's not the best of the genre.
Story
□ Bad
☑ Could be better
□ Decent
□ Good
□ Enjoyable
□ Immersive
Artwork
□ Bad
□ Could be better
□ Decent
☑ Pretty good
□ Beautiful
□ Amazing
Soundtrack
□ Bad
□ Could be better
□ Decent
☑ Good
□ Immersive
□ Eargasm
Minigames difficulty
□ Toddler could solve
☑ Easy
□ Medium
□ Advanced
□ Hard
□ Had to check on google
Overal gameplay difficulty
□ Toddler could solve
☑ Easy
□ Medium
□ Advanced
□ Hard
□ Had to check on google
Audience
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Young adults
☑ Adults
☑ Seniors