DS Review: Cate West: The Vanishing Files
by Dave Pitchforth
Publisher/Developer: Oxygen Interactive Software/Gamenauts
Genre: Puzzler
Price: $19.99
Verdict: Fun object finding game, best played in short bursts
Pros: Fun puzzles, quick play mode lets you replay missions one section at a time
Cons: Repetitive gameplay, slightly inaccurate controls
Cate West: The Vanishing Files is not the easiest game in the world to review. On one hand, the game is pretty repetitive and for each of the game’s 15 chapters you’ll find yourself going through the same routine for every one of them. However, despite that repetitiveness, the game has that “just one more go” appeal that’s hard to quantify. It’s not perfect by any means, but Cate West turns out to be an enjoyable game if you get past the game play.
As the name suggests, the game sees you stepping into the shoes of Cate West, author and psychic, who is asked by the police to help them with a string of unsolved crimes, dubbed the Vanishing Files. As Cate, it’s up to you to investigate the crime scenes to find clues, put together evidence, confirm the location of the criminal, identify who the criminal actually is, and match the crime scene details. The story of the game is told through various comic-book style cut scenes between sections, and while it’s not the greatest story ever told, you’ll find out how the various crimes are linked to the death of Cate’s father.
Each of the 15 chapters is broken down into 5 different parts. The first of these parts is finding clues in the crime scene. In this section, you are given a list of objects in the top screen which represent the clues you must find in the bottom screen. The clues can vary from things such as salt and pepper shakers, to a wrench or a spinning top, and many more. The objects are hidden amongst the clutter on the bottom screen, so you’ll need to zoom in and look around to find the objects you need, many of which are very well hidden. As soon as you think you have found something, simply tap the screen with the stylus, and if you’re correct, the clue will be removed from the scene and you can carry on looking until you’ve found all the necessary clues. Finding every clue can be quite a challenge at times as some of them really are cleverly hidden and will take a very sharp eye to find without having to ask the game for clues.
The second part requires you to gather evidence. Here you may be asked to find pieces of the evidence to put it together, such as pieces of a camera, or parts of a fire truck. Just like the previous section, these parts will be hidden throughout the scene and it’s up to you to find them. This then leads you to the third section of the chapter where you have to confirm the suspects’ hideout through a spot the difference puzzle. You’ll be shown two virtually identical pictures side by side and it’ll be up to you to spot the differences between the two. Just like previous sections, some of the differences are pretty obvious while others will often leave you scratching your head wondering where it can be until you stumble upon it, and wonder why you missed it in the first place.
The fourth section of the game is the most different from the others. Here you’ll be able to examine the evidence you gathered earlier, and from that evidence you will be given clues about who the criminal is. You’ll then be given a list of suspects and it’ll be up to you to ascertain from the clues just who the guilty party is. At the start of the game this can be very easy, with clues such as the suspect wearing glasses instantly narrowing down your list of viable suspects. As you get further into the game it becomes less obvious and will take a lot more work on your part to find out who the guilty party actually is. This leads us nicely to the fifth and final section which challenges you to match the crime scene. This is a very similar section to the spot the difference challenge in section three, only here the differences will be split across the two pictures, and you need to return the clues to the correct position in each picture so that the crime scene matches Cate’s memory of it.
One thing that may be obvious from my description of each section is how similar sounding they seem to be. That’s because each section uses pretty much the same gameplay mechanics, relying on your visual acuity to solve each puzzle you face. The only difference is the fourth section which will challenge your logic skills as opposed to your visual ability. As you can imagine, doing the same types of challenges over and over again, no matter how varied they are, can start to become a bit of a drag over a long gaming session.
One thing that does try to help increase the lifespan of the game is that if you replay a particular chapter, the clues you’re required to find may not always be the same as the first time. This stops you from learning just where each clue is and forces you to pay attention to each scene to make sure you’re actually looking for the right clues. The game itself is a decent length as well. As mentioned, there are 15 chapters in the game, and depending on your skill, each can take from 20-40 minutes to complete. That should translate to anywhere from 5 to 10 hours worth of gameplay for the story mode alone. There is also a Quick Play mode that lets you replay the chapters and challenges you’ve already unlocked by going through the game (with the exception of the suspect identification section), and scoring each section, allowing you to challenge your friends locally to try and beat your scores.
One of the few complaints with Cate West, besides the repetitive nature of the game, is the occasional inaccuracy of the stylus. Sometimes you’ll find yourself tapping on an area where you know there is a clue to be found, only for the game to not register it. As the game will hit you with a 30 second penalty for too many incorrect hits, this can cause occasional problems, though you should never really run into any problems with regards the time limit for each section. The graphics themselves are perhaps not quite as sharp as I would like, though I can imagine they’ve been made this way intentionally to help the clues and evidence blend into the background better making your job just that little bit harder. The audio in the game is instantly forgettable unfortunately, but it doesn’t make you want to cut your ears off and it doesn’t get in the way, so I can forgive that.
As I said at the start, Cate West is a difficult game to review. For the repetitive nature of the game I feel like I should hate it, but something about it kept making me play just one more mission. It’s not something I could sit down and play for hours on end as I would soon get bored of doing the same thing over and over, but for short bursts here and there I found the game strangely enjoyable. If you enjoy visual puzzle games and you’re happy doing pretty much nothing but that, then you’ll certainly find some fun here.
