Mortimer Beckett and the Crimson Thief requires strategic and sequential thinking on top of the ability to find hidden objects on the game’s static pictures.
The adventure unfolds as you follow the travels of Mortimer Beckett, a cartoony, likeable “everyman” detective. He happens to be traveling to Paris at the same time a bandit known as the Crimson Thief has just pulled off another heist.
Each level of the game takes place in a different city from around the globe, and consists of Mortimer using his map to travel from location to location in order to find clues to the place where the Crimson Thief has hidden his valuable treasure.
You’re given an “inventory” of items you need to find, such as a wrench, scalpel or valve, and you must find them within the pictures. But it’s more than a just a seek and find game, because you must figure out how each object you find can interact with something you see in order to unlock different areas. For example, you have found a rope and you can use it to climb a tree to get into a park. But first you must put up a warning sign. And even though you know exactly where the warning side, you’re told it’s being blocked by a heavy beam so you need to find a way to lift it up. You remember finding a jack, which is the perfect thing to lift a heavy object. But in order to get the jack, you have to find a wheel to support the parade float it’s being used on. So even though you may have most of the objects or know where most of them are, you still need to find the wheel in order to get the jack to lift the beam to get the sign to let you place the rope in the tree. Everything you find has a purpose, and
it turns out, a sequence in which you must use it.
Another part of each level is a puzzle, as well as usually some sort of number code. The puzzles are a fun and different challenge from the seek-and-find puzzles, and number codes are logged in your handy notebook.
Reading and strategic thinking are critical to success and enjoyment of Mortimer Beckett and the Crimson Thief. We think it’s a great for parents to play along with their tweens and teens, as they can work together to not only spot object, but figure out where and how to use them in order to progress this game along. Families looking to play a computer game together will love Mortimer Beckett.
This was our first time playing a Mortimer Beckett game, but there are previous entries in the series as well which are available in the Mortimer Beckett Premium Edition.