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Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull 
Shortly after moving into a creepy mansion in Louisiana, Sara Lawson is struck with tragedy when her husband mysteriously disappears. Sara's daughter, Magnolia, believes her father was kidnapped by the ghost of a vengeful pirate seeking to protect his lost fortune. With the locals terrified of the pirate's curse, you are the family's last hope. Only a Master Detective with incredible Hidden Object skills can locate Marcus Lawson in Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull!
- Incredible live videos
- Fantastic gameplay
- Uncover the 13th Skull!
- Check out our Blog Walkthrough
- For a more in depth experience, check out the Collector's Edition
Click images to enlarge
Game System Requirements:
- OS: Windows XP/Vista/8
- CPU: 2.0 GHz
- RAM: 1024 MB
- DirectX: 9.0
- Hard Drive: 660 MB
Game Manager System Requirements:
- Browser: Internet Explorer 7 or later
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Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull
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Customer Reviews
Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull
179
179
Let down by 13th Skull
I didn't even finish this game, something I would have thought impossible with an MCF game. I found the video interviews tedious and irritating, many of the searches too squalid, and most of the characters unrelatable. When a technical glitch stalled the game when I was nearly finished, I just never opened it again.
November 16, 2011
Eating barbed wire would have been less painful than talking to the NPCs in the game
If you want to play something with a decent pace and absorbing experience - this is not it.
After playing about 10 or so HO games, I thought I'd try a large file game and wish I'd tried a different one first.
The visuals and sound in this game are truly gorgeous and lovely. The concept of real actors I've seen in other game too, and they certainly add interest to the game, but in this instance also caused the most issues for me.
Every time I had to speak with a character I wanted to cry.
A lot.
Why? Because I knew it would be a long and very boring engagement, stopping me from just getting on with the game. I hated having my playing experience come to a screeching halt, as I HAD to listen to their LONG and not particularly interesting 'blurb' in order to understand the next part of the conversation or upcoming puzzle. Waaaaah.
Feedback to creators: The conversations were linear, so I saw no point in the sectioning of the conversations (Not like you had much option how to respond, or it would impact their response to you). There was no option to read conversations quickly and then use a forward/skip button to move the pace along quicker, so you could just read and move on with the game. If MCF intend to continue with this format, I would recommend incorporating some option(s) to speed up through conversations, but not miss information.
Moving on....
The non-HO puzzles quite pleasant, but I did end up using online help a lot. Mainly due to the fact I did not have patience with this game, because I just wanted to get it over and done with as fast as possible, and end the pain.
It seems that other reviews indicate that the format of this game is different to other MCF games, and it is only due to positive references to the other games that I would consider playing another MCF one.
Game wise keep up the good quality and interesting games. Putting in the real actors and how this is used, think about how this is used a bit more... I think this has unfairly skewed my opinion of the game. Cheers.
June 5, 2012
Horrible follow up to some brilliant games
In all the other Mystery Case Files games, especially since they started having you search around and explore to find what to do, there is a high level of challenge because you have to figure out what to do, how to piece things together, and use intuition and insight to figure out how the pieces fall together. With this game, there is none of that. It literally holds your hand until the game is finished, telling you where to go, what to do, and how to do it. After the brilliance that followed Ravenhearst, this game just fell short on so many levels. Even the plot was awful, with a "twist" ending that was just really very lame. The interviews with the locals were drawn out and unnecessary, and there was often no way to skip it. I really expected a whole lot more from the people responsible for Ravenhearst. Complete disappointment.
January 29, 2012
Horrible Game
I've really enjoyed all the other Mystery Case Files games, but I absolutely hated this one. This game was so boring I literally had to force myself to finish this game, but I will NEVER play it again. Instead of letting us figure out where to go and what to do on our own, this game holds your hand the entire way, listing each objective prominently on the screen and won't let you progress or go off on your own until you complete the objectives in the order the game wants you to. I found the constant hand-holding to be SOOOOO annoying. I thought the Southern "trailer trash" characters were just horrible. I also did not like the new video interactions with the characters - it was an attempt to make the game more life-like, but I didn't care for it at all. Overall, I found this story line to be completely uninteresting and many of the puzzles were incomprehensible. PLEASE go back to the format used for Dire Grove and Return to Ravenhearst - those are the 2 best adventure games ever. 13th Skull was just a HUGE disappointment.
November 20, 2011
Absolutely Painful
I should have loved this game. The visuals were great, the scenery beautiful and the story line was fun and interesting... BUT...If you like long, involved voice overs then this is the game for you. Personally I play these games to get away from the real world, and throwing in live action players pretty much ruined this for me. They weren't likable and the acting and southern accents were atrocious. Plus after awhile I couldn't even skip over them and just read up in the journal, and believe me their conversations are LLOONNGG!!! And painful. The HOG scenes were great. Busy but not too, good lighting and those I needed a hint on my reaction tended to be, "Oh clever!". The mini games were completely inconsistent. Some were absolutely brilliant and really made me think. Others were either impossible to do or impossible to understand, even using all 3 hints, and got skipped over. In some ways there was way too much hand holding, telling you exactly where you needed to go and who to talk to next. Other times I was to-ing and fro-ing all over the darn place trying to figure out what they wanted me to do. Also, the "click" area is so small for some things, as in you have to be exactly right on top of it before it will register. Others you're half way across the room, and it keeps opening the same thing. Also, the "inventory bar" is so big it's actually distracting and in the way and you can't get rid of it. I finally just turned the volume down to shut the players up and plodded through to the end. The story did have a good ending and it was a really long game...but I couldn't wait to get through it. Nowhere near as good as the other MCFs.
May 30, 2012
Amazing Game!!
Good Parts:
If you got stuck in a certain part you could click hint and be told where to go
The storyline. The opening scene made me want to continue the game
The hidden object challenges
OK Parts:
The interveiws. Some provided key information, while some were tedious
Bad Parts:
Sometimes, the "hint" wouldn't help you at all. For example, when I was looking for the key for Magnolia's room, it said the key was in the upstairs hallway. I went up there, couldn't find it, so I clicked hint again and IT GAVE ME THE EXACT SAME THING
You had to complete the game the way it wanted you to.
Other than these minor flaws, this game is really great, especially for lovers of the MCF series, or if it's just a rainy day.
May 10, 2012
Another M.C.F. Winner!
It may not be the best of the series, but its up there and absolutely worth playing all the way through. It has the best ending sequence of the MCF series so far.
I love the he live actor integration into these adventure games, but just like the others, the actual acting and scripts are horrendous!
The game is filled with plenty of challenging puzzles and Hidden Object Games. The story is pretty darn good too.
January 2, 2012
Is this really a Mystery Case Files Game??
I'm a big fan of the MCF series but this is not just the worst MCF game it is the worst HOG game I have played so far. There are so many things done wrong in this game and it's such a surprise considering that this game came out right after the wonderful and amazing Dire Grove.13th Skull just fails on so many levels. Some of the music and sound effects are annoying and stupid. From atypical "southern" banjo music to disgusting looped sound effects like constant belching every 3 seconds. Or someone screaming and threatening you constantly while you are solving puzzles. The puzzles are not inspired, one is a game of checkers, jeez! Most of the puzzles are just exercises in patience. Unlike most people I don't have a problem with live actors in a hidden object game, it can be done well like in Dire Grove, but here it is just not good. The interview style of them is pointless because you really don't have a choice of what you ask them, it's not like you have a dialog tree of questions like in a Role Playing Game and you are just basically clicking on a series of monologs. Besides the acting is soooo bad. At least the kids in Dire Grove had a bit of believable acting, here in 13th skull we get bad acting and unbelievably bad wigs!
May 3, 2012
Not That Challeging Compared to Other MCF Games
I've played the game until the end, and it only take me 4 days. It's far more easier than the other MCF games I'd played before. Bravo to the graphics and the games interface/interaction is amazing (like usual, what we would have expected from MCF- The best of the best#. If you like to collect MCF games #like me), make sure it is one in your list. But for a challenging scene, I think Dire Groove is better.
November 20, 2011
Skullbreaker - A Guy's Review
*review based on completing the full game*
This game seem to be on a higher budget than most games in this genre. The reason I say that is that it actually has live actors that seem capable of acting. I can only assume that these are real actors and not amateurs and family members that is often used in similar games. Professional or not, they do a great job in making you feel part of the story and help make you believe that you are on scene in the bayou somewhere in southern Louisiana.
The graphics and animations in this game is top class. Everything is really crisp and highly detailed. The live actors are integrated in the back drops almost perfectly. Never did it feel out of place. The use of voice-overs are superb. You actually communicate with the characters in this game, and even though there are only a handful of them, this game feels more alive than most (if not all) games I've played so far. Sound effects, ambient sounds and background music all fits the game and adds to the atmosphere.
The story too is clever, interesting and makes you want to solve it to figure out what has happened. There are some clever twists and turns. I wish there was a bit more to it, but all in all they did a great job.
I have mixed feelings about the game play though. Some parts were truly brilliant, while other things were almost directly off putting. There is quite a bit of adventuring, and it is mostly done in a very clever way. You face a good selection of puzzles and a handful of HO scenes.
Now, this game forces you to pay attention to details and make use of what you have in your inventory and also encourages you to use the journal. You are seldom told what to do in a puzzle (meaning there is no info), so if you have no clue what is going on, you have probably not come by or overseen some details elsewhere. Keep your eyes open and if you see something that looks like something somewhere it probably is. Take notes. It makes the goals of the puzzles much clearer, though sometimes it doesn't take away the brain twisting needed to solve them. I find this absolutely brilliant.
This does not mean that only advanced players can get through this game, but it does offer challenging moments even for the experts. Luckily there is a very clever hint system in this game. You can select three levels of hints to help you along. After choosing the first it needs recharging before you can choose the second etc. And they are hints that reveal more and more on how to solve it. Or you can simply skip it all together. But if you do the latter you will not get to see how it is solved.
When it comes to the HO scenes they are a bit disappointing. They are very cluttered and there are several small items that you need to find. The worst though is that you have to do most of them twice. Not only that, but you have to find several of the same items both times. That is just plain lazy of the developer. None of them are interactive either.
Another thing that was a bit disappointing was that you have to do some errands for the characters you meet for them to reveal some more information. Clever idea and fun a couple of times, but this happens so often that you feel more like an errand boy/girl than a detective.
Towards the end the game is great though, both story wise and game play wise. It is truly a grand finale.
I could not find a difficulty setting in this game, so I can only assume it is just the one. I did find something called "attitude setting", but I figured that had to do with language.
There is both a journal and a map. The map is not very helpful, but it is still a cool map. The journal is almost totally necessary in this game. The hint button recharges rather quickly, but isn't always available. There was a couple of times in the game where I really wish it was. Specially seeing you don't get any information on what is going on and what you need to do with certain puzzles and tasks.
This game should ensure some entertainment for the advanced and expert players out there, but also beginners should at least try it out. It is challenging and engaging even with the few setbacks it carries. I would dare to say highly recommended. I would have given it 4.5 if possible, but ended up on 4 because of the "flaws" described earlier. Not much more would have to be done to make this a clear 5.
For the guys:
No gender bias in this game as you are only referred to as "detective". Also the story should be appealing to both genders.
TJ
November 9, 2012
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