Ms. Holmes: Five Orange Pips (Collector's Edition)

The Good
Big Fish Games have an option to download and play the full game for a short time to evaluate it before buying. I had ninety minutes playing this game and my comments are based on those ninety minutes.

This is one of the more accessible hidden object games. There is a story and as well as hidden object scenes there are puzzles, there is an inventory and in some cases objects must be combined to produce a tool to solve a puzzle. All of this works very well. When objects need collecting there are numbers, for example 3/4 to show three of the four have been found. Where different objects need to be combined one will have a '+' sign beside it.

There is voice acting in the game. Sharlotte Holmes ( really dislike that spelling ) reminded me of Lara Croft, very drama school English, and it seemed odd but sort of right. Oscar Watson was a little more stilted but both were very clear. There is music too and it's OK, not something I'd want to put onto my mp3 player.

The artwork throughout is good. It is easy on the eye, detailed but not too detailed to be confusing. Personally I hate hidden object scenes where the object is, say, an elephant and all that is visible is the end of its tail on a half hidden photograph. I found nothing like this in Ms. Holmes And The Orange Pips.

Ultimately though the game stands or falls on its puzzles. The puzzles I played in this game were all fairly standard, such as 'find the pieces of this broken amulet, assemble them and use the result to open the casket which gives a piece of something else ....'. However there were a few twists to standard puzzles that I had not seen before which I liked.
Some games like this offer a Match-3 puzzle if a puzzle proves to be too hard for the player, here the option is to skip the puzzle completely. Having played both options recently I think I prefer the way this game deals with that situation, it's less disruptive to the gameplay.

The Bad
I did find the game stuttered a few times when I was dragging an object around on the screen with the mouse. This may be an issue with computers like mine which is coming up to its eighth birthday, it may be the game but most likely it could be the things I was running in the background. Whatever the cause, I have not noticed this on other games I have played recently.

The Bottom Line
If you are a die-hard fan of this kind of game then you'll probably already have it.
If, like me, you've played the time limited version with a view to buying, I'm not so sure. This is a good game. The problem is that there are many many games like this and although this is good it is not that good nor is it that different to stand out. I would happily buy this game if it were on sale or part of a discounted collection but I would not pay full-price for it. There are too many similar cheaper alternatives around.