Marcella Moon: Secret on the Hill
There aren’t many games set in Ireland. So it was a joy when I discovered Marcella Moon: Secret on the Hill. Add to the fact that that this game is a Nancy Drew inspired mystery where you also learn about Irish culture and mythology and I was hooked. So is this a secret worth investigating or is it better left unresolved? Let’s find out!
Marcella Moon is travelling around Europe on holiday when she receives a phone call from a friend of hers. He tells her a friend of his and well known author, Amelia Goldstone, has gone missing while staying in the west of Ireland. The Irish police say there is nothing to worry about so he asks you to investigate since “you have experience with this sort of thing”. You agree and you set off to discover the rainy charms of Ireland. While there, you stay in the same room where Amelia stayed, interrogate local residents, solve puzzles, explore the town and learn about Irish pirates and mythology.
There are several characters we meet including the bed and breakfast owner, a manager of a local museum and naturally, this being Ireland, a pub owner. The dialogue is short and to the point. Impressively, the characters sound authentically Irish rather than what Americans usually think Irish people sound like. They use local slang and thankfully none of them use the phrase “Top of the morning to ye” which no Irish person has ever said at any point other than in terrible Hollywood movies. The characters also have their own distinct personalities.
It’s also obvious that the developer has some done research into Irish culture and history. We learn about Irish pirate queen Grace O’Malley and Irish mythology including the legend of the Faeries. The great thing is even I learned some new facts about Irish history. While it never reaches Jane Jenson levels of research, the history is used very well into the story of the game.
Speaking of the story, while it may be short, it still kept my interest all the way through. It starts off slowly but after the first night you find out that characters aren’t all they say they are and you learn that the town may hold a secret that people might be wiling to kill over. There are also some twists along the way and a nice reveal towards the end which was suitably dramatic. While nothing groundbreaking, the story is effective and should keep the player satisfied.
The game is first person node based so it’s definitely old school. There aren’t many hotspots and for the most part I didn’t have any trouble finding the exits although in the centre of the town I did find it difficult to find where to exit and sometimes kept coming back to the same place although this was never a huge issue.
The puzzles are mostly on the easy side. You speak to characters, collect and use inventory items and solve some fun logic type puzzles. One puzzle involves giving the punch line to some jokes and another involves adding shapes to a board in a certain way. For this puzzle, you have instructions so it shouldn’t be too difficult to resolve it but it was a lot of fun to solve. Unfortunately, it was slightly awkward to drag the shapes so I would have preferred if we could click and drop instead of drag the shapes.
The graphics are admittedly a little rough which is to be expected since this is the first game in the series made by one person. There are also very few animations although the town does have a certain charm and there are some nice rainy effects which add to the atmosphere (and make it more realistic for a town in Ireland). There is no voice acting but this is not a problem for me although it would have been nice to hear the Irish accents. The music has some suitably Irish ballads and while I’m not always a fan of Irish music, in this case the music stands out and I really hope the developer releases a soundtrack at a later time.
So while this game may not be groundbreaking, the game is still a lot of fun and it achieves exactly what it sets out to achieve. With an interesting blend of fact and fiction, beautiful music, fun puzzles and a suspenseful and dramatic ending, this is a great start to a hopefully long running series. If the next games can improve the animations and production values, this series could definitely be just as good as the Nancy Drew series. I’m definitely signing up to travel with Marcella Moon on her future trips and I’m eagerly anticipating to see where the series goes from here.
Pros
Interesting story with some nice twists
Fun puzzles
Authentic dialogue
A fun way to learn about Irish history which is integrated nicely into the plot.
Charming Irish town to explore
Beautiful music
Well worth the price
Cons
Very short
No animations for characters
Game has a few rough edges although that’s to be expected for a first game in a series