Beautiful graphics and an exciting story in this fun game to play together.
>Good story with a couple outstanding twists
>Looks great
>Fun to play with friends or family
Cons:
>Lack of direction in adventure gameplay
>Some puzzles are confusing and feel unnecessary.
>Pretty short (my first playthrough clocked around 8 hours)
Story: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Price: ($30USD) 7/10
Overall: 8/10
The Malgrave Incident begins with you, an intelligent and often snarky detective, getting a package from Winston Malgrave. You make your way to Malgrave Island, a mysterious and abandoned place. Malgrave tells you he intends to revive Sarah, his wife, who is ailing, so he needs your help searching for traces of a glowing powder that seems to have healing properties.
Your hunt for the powder leads you to many different hidden object puzzles, wherein you locate about 12 items and collect the powder that has collected on them. Often you will get to keep a single item from each puzzle for use in the adventuring part of the game.
The time you don't spend on the hidden object puzzles will be spent traversing the island and solving puzzles. The adventure game portions can sometimes become frustrating due simply to the lack of guidance. I found myself visiting locations several times wondering if I had missed a clue, only to discover that I was completely on the wrong track. The answer was often just hiding in a place I hadn't thought of.
The puzzles were fun and also often came with a challenge. However, when you lingered for a long time solving a single puzzle, a skip button would appear and allow you to immediately solve the puzzle and move on.
The look of the game is beautiful and the locations you visit are very realistically rendered. The island was once a very popular location, but now is overgrown and empty. There are several locations where nature has completely overtaken building, resulting in some inherently pretty areas to explore. Malgrave will call you frequently to inform you about different places on the island, which helps breathe some life into the abandoned and often desolate locations you will visit.
A fun aspect of this game is the ability to play with other people. You have to option to link up another controller and have someone else point things out to you. We did not try this feature at my house simply because my sister was situated right near the tv and would just shout out her thoughts. My sister and I had a fun time theorizing about what would happen next and seeing who could point out more objects in the hidden object sections. There is also a multiplayer mode where players can compete against each other to see who finds the most hidden items first.
Conclusion: The Malgrave Incident is a fun game, though it is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. If you like adventure games and aren't turned off by a lack of direction then definately check it out. With a lovely presentation and a story that keeps you invested, The Malgrave Incident is a game worth playing for any fan of the genre.