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Just my speed.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 50 / 51
Date: September 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Cameron's attitude in The Cameron Files: Secret at Loch Ness is just what you would expect from a 30s-40s hard-boiled detective. He is wise, skeptical, intelligent, and clever. His mission is to travel from 30s Chicago to Loch Ness, Scotland to investigate mysterious goings on in a friend's Scottish castle. The Scottish references and milieu are fairly accurate---the game refers to Scottish mythology both in the legends of Loch Ness and the ancient mystical Banshees.

The music is absolutely extraordinary---traditional Scottish. The voice acting for Cameron is just perfect---he's the kind of guy you want on your side in a crisis, and he comes out of the Sherlock Holmes tradition, but not quite the film noir tradition. The graphics are extremely detailed, and the worlds that you visit are extremely compelling---the castle,its grounds, and the depths of the lake. The sound editing is integral to the solution of the mystery---you must listen carefully to distant sounds at times in order to determine what should draw your attention. However, I found that sometimes there were sounds which did not require my attention, but that I spent a lot of time chasing around because I thought sounds were consistently important throughout the game---but apparently not.

The game is extremely linear, which can be either reassuring or irritating, depending on your viewpoint. On the one hand, it is always clear when you haven't done some particular thing. On the other hand, as with all linear games, you can go around in circles for quite a long time doing nothing much. As a measure of judgement, I did not find it necessary to cop out and go to a walkthrough, partly because the game is not riddled with impossibly frustrating puzzles, and partly because I enjoyed the game enough to go with it as it is presented. There are some timed sequences, but they are not irritating, and with some vigilant saving (always recommended anyway) are on the whole fun to complete.

I give this game 4 stars because of the engaging main character, the beautiful graphics, sound editing including music and storyline, voice acting, the Scottish milieu, the interesting and logical puzzles, and the way the plot links the otherworld to this-world conspiracies, in something of an X-Files tradition. I give it no more than 4 stars because it is just a little too linear, and because I would have like to have seen a little more development throughout the story which would lead more logically to the final conclusion. I also would have liked it to be just a little longer than it was, because I enjoyed it that much. All the same, I have been eagerly awaiting The Cameron Files: Pharoah's Curse from the moment I finished Loch Ness. Happily, it arrives next month.

Another pleasant DreamCatcher game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 51 / 57
Date: March 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Actually this one is above DreamCatcher's usual standard, with plot, acting, writing, and graphics far above today's adventure games. Main character is a detective exploring 1930's Scotland to help uncover a Sinister Plot to Take Over the World, run by a Sinister Cabal using a Mystic Artifact. Okay, so the story doesn't win any prizes for originality. But it's fun, diverting, and well done. You won't find any chess puzzles here, and there's no monsters you have to take out with a shotgun either.

Well worth it, for my money.

Short and Easy, but Fairly Enjoyable

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 30 / 30
Date: April 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

_The Cameron Files: Secrets of Loch Ness_ is a pretty good game and a prety standard one for Dreamcatcher -- first person adventure interspersed with third person cut scenes. The premise is that you are a Chicago investigator of Scottish descent who has been called to Scotland by a friend of your father's to investigate mysterious happenings at his ancestral manor. When you get there, you discover that the person who hired you has disappeared. Now you have to find out what's happened to him and why.

The scenic graphics are very good and immensely detailed. In fact, I would almost say they are too detailed. If you are the kind of gamer who is frustrated by seeing a great number of objects that you can't examine or a lot of doors that you can't go through, you will be irritated by this game. Most of the set pieces are just that: little things that make the scenery interesting that you can do absolutely nothing with. There are books you can't read, cabinets you can't open or even come close to. I thought there were lots of opportunities for giving more information about your situation that were totally passed up. At first this was annoying, but I quickly learned to ignore anything that didn't leap out at me.

Game play was initially slow and navigation a bit confusing and difficult to get used to. A lot of this was due to the over abundance of detail. There were lots of times I wanted to go someplace or look at something that just wasn't accessible. In particular, the castle layout was hard to learn. And once you had learned it it became clear that there were quite a number of places that were just irrelevant. This became a burden in the later portions of the game when you had to go back and forth through great empty stretches of castle to reach the rooms where something was happening. A quicker way to navigate the castle, such as a castle map or diagram, would have been helpful.

_Loch Ness_ is an exceedingly linear game. Everything has to happen in a specific order. You are barred from exploring certain rooms and areas until you've completed the necessary prior actionsand you often are barred from leaving a place until you've solved all the puzzles there. While this does keep you from a lot of backtracking and prevents you from running around looking for inventory items that you either don't need yet or are right under your nose, it cuts down on the need for real thought. In a way, this game plays itself. This sensation is enhanced by the main character's notebook and by the comments he is given to making throughout the game, both of which practically tell you where to go and what to do next. I would advise experienced gamers to ignore the notebook completely. There's no way of turning off the comments, however.

As you may have guessed from the previous, _Loch Ness_ is extremely easy. Puzzles are generally inventory-based, with some timed arcade-type activities. The one or two mechanical puzzles virtually solved themselves.

The sound and music are pretty good; the voice acting is average. There were some places where the dialog was hard to understand. I was surprised that there was no option for subtitles, which would have been helpful. In fact, I was surprised that _Loch Ness_ didn't offer some of the standard sound and video options, such as an ability to adjust the levels of music and background sounds. There was a real "bare bones" quality to a lot of the game in this respect as you were stuck with whatever settings the programmers came up with. As most games these days offer personalised settings, I wondered why this one didn't.

Aside from the linearity of the game, my major complaint was that _Loch Ness_ didn't seem as fully developed as it could have been. You were only given the bare bones of a story that could have been much more interesting. The NPC's were virtually unneccesary as none of them added anything, really. One in particular appeared from nowhere and had no discernable relationship to anything else. Fleshing out the story instead of relying on numerous cliche's could have helped a great deal and made the game last longer. Even after a slow start, I finished _Loch Ness_ in slightly over ten hours.

Still, I enjoyed _Loch Ness_. I would recommend it for a beginner, or for a more experienced gamer looking to fill in the gaps while waiting for more complex games.

Scotland Castle, secret rooms, great fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 28 / 30
Date: February 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I had a great time exploring through an old Scotland castle looking for clues, finding secret passages and getting knocked off cause I did the wrong thing. This is a truly fun game that works on all levels. There are enough clues to make the puzzles solvable, though the lab measurements are a groan (you will see what I mean).

I really was immersed in the atmosphere and the story.

Enjoy.

Annoying in some spots

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: June 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The rooms inside the Manor house were spectacular, but limited in what you could do or where you could go. This got annoying after awhile, the snoop inside me wanted to go into that locked room! The notebook was nicely done, and the notes helped me past a few lost and clueless moments. Warning: you CAN die in this game! It's a good game for those who like puzzles, but are scared off by the monster puzzles in Myst and Riven. The detective is a Sam Spade clone, so he's not for the little ones.

Lots of Good, Clean Fun!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: March 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This was a game for all ages. It was funny and smartly put together!! A little humor in a game goes a long way!! The graphics were great and the puzzles we fairly easy to solve although watch out for the lake:-)

A couple of times EXTREME PATIENCE AND DILIGENCE REQUIRED.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: December 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

A couple of times extreme patience and diligence is required. There was one time there was no way I would get to the next level without going aimlessly through every pixel of the entire complex. I did not have the patience and got the walkthrough. Finding it on my own really would not have been that gratifying. There was another time that the puzzle was a little off and required recallling what was said in an animation sequence (which I thought I was paying attention to) as well as outside research. You really have to pay attention to the animation sequence and unfortunately the critical info given was not documented anywhere. Often times excellent clues are given as what to do next. The graphics and music were excellent. But when clues were given it was still challenging enough to be interesting. And unless you enjoy repeating the same sequence after dying a thousand times or spend hours looking for a needle in a haystack then a cheat with a walkthrough for a little hint once or twice is definitely worth it. Otherwise you may get fustrated and annoyed if you want to finish the game in a day or two. And remember to save!

point and click heaven

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you like point and click control with your games ,then this one is for you. I highly recommend Loch Ness for its simplicity of play. It's easy to load and save games and accessing the inventory is a breeze.
The main character, Alan Cameron, travels to Scotland to investigate strange goings-on in a medieval manor that overlooks Loch Ness. There are ghosts, underground chambers,hidden compartments and a big conspiracy. His job is to uncover the conspiracy while staying alive.
I got online 5 times to peek at a walkthrough [for shame]. But is was so much fun anyway.Also, I played the game on Windows XP without any trouble.

FINALLY, A FINE FIND

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: March 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I AM A OLD FART AND THOUGHT FUN WAS FOR THE YOUNG... NOT SO, OH WRINKLELESS ONES... FUN IS WITHIN 'THE CAMERON FILES' FOR ANY AGE, ENJOY.ENJOY.ENJOY!

NOT BAD AT ALL

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 22
Date: October 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

REally good game for the most part - the graphics weren't quite up to par I thought but not too bad. The movement can be a bit stilted but easy to get through. Good puzzles and story line. Not bad at all.

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