Blue Toad Murder Files review

Coming from the creators of the successful Buzz! series, you can see Relentless Software have utilised their experience for this new venture. The Blue Toad Murder Files is delivered across a series of six episodes that play out very much like the classic serials of yesteryear in the vein of Flash Gordon or Gang Busters, leaving the player on a knife-edge and thereby prompting them to return for the next instalment. In true Buzz! style the game supports up to four players and you can each pick a detective from the Blue Toad Agency. As a member of this super sleuth organisation you are dispatched for a holiday to the sleepy quintessential English village of Little Riddle. What initially promises to be a mundane holiday soon becomes a murder scene as you try to catch those responsible and embark on a tale of death, robbery and much more besides. The onus is on your renowned skills as an investigator as the local police are not up to the task of catching those responsible.What each episode lacks in action it more than makes up for with a twisting plot that throws new revelations at you. The story unfolds as you visit each village location, the structure is pretty linear and while this results in a short-lived experience it avoids any unnecessary backtracking or frustration. You dont need to look for the required action to unlock the next development; instead your focus should be on soaking up any clues and maintaining your attention to detail. The narrative is delivered in a tongue in cheek style, clearly influenced by Buzz! and Little Britain. You find the village plays host to some amazingly bizarre characters that range from a fearsome butcher to a weird hotel manager. While some are instantly forgettable and others less successful, its the unpredictability that adds a freshness to the experience. Players who were expecting a gritty film noir who dunnit will be sadly disappointed as Blue Toad is aimed at all ages and attempts to be something else for the party environment.Perhaps unsurprisingly the experience focuses on puzzles that you have to solve during various encounters. These challenges are the real highlight, showing great variation and some real skill in delivering perplexing tasks for you to solve. Helping rivalry between players is the ability to win medals depending on how quickly you identify the correct answer. You can of course admit defeat and duck out of the challenge and this wont have any impact on the storyline, only limiting your opportunities for PS3 trophies. At the end of each episode you are prompted to name your chief suspect from four villagers that you have questioned. It is only at this point that you realise the subtle clues and level of planning that have gone into each episode. Outside of the main mode you do have the option to take on the challenge individually and improve on previous times and aim to improve your medal count. Excluding this option many will argue that the episodes are on the short side and depending on your ability each can be tackled in under an hour, or even less if you quit the puzzles. Now that the installation issue with the second episode has been resolved players can take advantage of the special offer to pick up the first two instalments for ten pounds. Even at this price point we feel it is a slightly too much and many players will not take up the option to pursue further episodes as they are released. Clearly it has some value if you are entertaining friends and want a more thoughtful piece of software to rival Sing Star or Buzz!, but to many solitary PS3 owners its charms will be lost.Overall we found that the Blue Toad Murder Files andthe episodic delivery works reasonably well, helping to break up the limitations of the game play. While we did initially hope for a detective adventure to rival the classic Contact Sam Cruise or another point and click classic, Relentless Software have produced something distinctive and yet sadly limited that will alienate many gamers.