I found the rooms to be much spookier than previous offerings. As you progress deeper into the mansion, there are some genuinely creepy items and images mixed in with the other clues in the rooms. You know, long before you really know, that something bad must have happened to someone in this mansion, and odds are good that that someone was probably Emma. The music keeps up the eerie atmosphere, and you can just hear a ghostly voice urging you to, “Get out!”

The time allotted worked well for me this go around. In only one of the puzzles did I get below 10 minutes remaining before I solved my diary page. I notice that there are two modes with this game. There is the normal timed detective mode and for those that don’t like the pressure, an un-timed relaxed mode. There are five hints provided in Ravenhearst and I found that you can get to the crime computer with a few of your clues still undiscovered.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Ravenhearst did not go back to that pesky flashlight and x-ray modes from Prime Suspect. Whether or not you found it difficult to work in the narrow beam, there was no way to appreciate the room as a whole in this style. Getting lost in the intricacies of each of the rooms is one of the best visual pleasures of the game, in my opinion.

One of the new twists for Ravenhearst is that some of the rooms are locked and you have to solve a puzzle to continue onward. As an example:

Oh, wait, I should warn you. Spoiler Alert (skip this next paragraph if you don't want to know how to solve the first puzzle):

The first puzzle was very straightforward. You have a circle display and small pictures around it. One side of the circle is marked with a sun and the other side with a moon. As you examine the pictures, you will note that the items have to do with day or night. Place the pictures accordingly and then flip the light switch on each side. The door swings open.

The puzzles varied in difficulty from ‘easy-peasy’ to ‘oh my head hurts’. As the puzzles got more and more complex, there were actually two that I never did figure out. This is when I discovered the next little surprise. If you get truly stumped on one of the door puzzles, and the hint doesn’t help, you do have another option. There’s a small telephone on the hint side of the screen. You can use the telephone to bypass the lock entirely. Beware though – this will cost you all remaining hints as well as time off the clock. My solution in the two cases where I got stuck was to go through all of the other rooms on that level first, use all the clues as needed, then go to the locked room as my last stop. It worked out well.

After you finish each set of rooms, you will be rewarded with the pieces of another diary page. Your challenge is to piece together the scraps of a torn picture. The picture illustrates the passage from the diary that is about to be revealed. I found these puzzles to be pretty easy. The part I really looked forward to was the unveiling of the next part of the diary. The story behind the game really drew me in. I could not wait to find out what happened next. (I’m going to confess something awful here – after I got Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst, I played the game all the way through in a marathon 5 hour and 29 minute session.)

When I had unveiled the final section of the diary, and nearly the end of the tragic story, I had one last set of puzzles to solve. I was sent back through every area of the mansion in search of seven hidden keys. Once you have the keys, you have one more room. You’ll use the keys to solve the puzzle and open the door. Emma awaits, my daring friends. Don’t keep her waiting….