Game Notes

Posted Sat, 12/20/08

I have become firmly entranced with Return to Ravenhearst. I'm only halfway through the game, but already rank it as one of my favorites following Mystery in London and the Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes.

Return to Ravenhearst is long-playing, has beautiful graphics and special effects and is thoroughly enjoyable. If you like searching various locations for hidden objects, you will love this game. Parts of the play include using certain objects to get more clues or to solve another puzzle. Some of the situations are quite difficult, so I went ahead and ordered the Return to Ravenhearst Strategy Guide for when moving on becomes impossible.

However, the strategy guide is not printable. When playing the game there is no way to minimize the screen to get into another document or program, so in order to read the guide one must exit the game altogether and then go back in again. I found that process too time-consuming, so I figured a way to print out the guide. I have a free program (Lightscreen) that does screen captures, so I took a shot of each page in the guide and pasted them into a Word document then saved it as PDF (Adobe Acrobat). It only came to about twenty pages after I resized the images, and I can also make my own little "strategy" notes on the guide now. It took me about an hour to put together, but it has been well worth it.

Return to Ravenhearst Strategy Guide - behind the shower curtain!For example, in one scene the play comes upon a bathroom with someone behind the shower curtain. You have to find hidden objects there as well as a metal lever. (Re strategy hints: Inside the filthy bathroom, click on the bathtub to complete another hidden object scene. You'll obtain a metal lever. Leave the beauty parlor and return to the main street of Roseville. Later, use the metal lever from your inventory on the elevator control box in the general store, and then give it a pull to descend even further beneath the manor).

If I hadn't had the strategy guide, I wouldn't have known that I needed to use the metal lever later on the elevator control box in the underground cavern's general store. I know it makes not one whit of sense to someone who hasn't played the game, but trust me all the little hints and tips do come in handy.

Tags: Games