The two games are different in some ways (the "Mystery Case Files" are a game where you have to search for certain objects while "Inspector Parker" is a logical game in which you have to sort the suspects, weapons, motives, victims, clues and means of disposal through statements made by the suspects), but similar in another one: they're both set in a 'crime solving' environment. I love 'crime solving' environments.
Let's have a good look at Ravenhearst first. To the left of this paragraph you will see a picture of the picturesque front porch of the large mansion. As you can see, Hercules with his mobile river would have been quite welcome for the spring cleaning...
The point of Ravenhearst actually is to find a certain number of objects in this picture and gather them as evidence. By playing through the many rooms of the house you will slowly unveil the mystery of the young woman who has disappeared inside - but I still have to find the right seven-letter-word to open the final door...
In addition to the search inside the very odd pictures of the various rooms (can you find the steak in this picture?), there's a number of puzzles in which you have to rebuild pictures to get new pages of the woman's diary. They are quite interesting, too. And there's various doors with ingenious lock-mechanism you have to open.
Inspector Parker (see picture on the right side of this paragraph for the Inspector, the victims and the suspects) on the other hand is a logical game (as BeTrapped, which actually features the Inspector as player character). It is set in a large mansion whose owner - Aunt Agatha - has been killed.
In every level you are given a certain number of rooms - from six as three rooms a row in two rows in the first level to 36 as six in six rows in Level 10 - and a certain number of statements (as, for example, the dagger was left of the poison in the same row). By working your way through the statements (starting with weapons and suspects and working up to suspects, weapons, motives, victims, clues and means of disposal [six of each] in the last levels), you sooner or later find out where everything and everyone was. Then you learn about who did it with what to whom and so on...
During the game you work your way up from police academy to the post of Chief Inspector - quite a career.
I have to admit that I like "Inspector Parker" even more than "Mystery Case Files Ravenhearst", mainly because the levels (which change with every game) keep me entertained longer than the search on the pictures in the other game (and I'm still frustrated about not finding any clue about the word I need to open the last door...).
Oh, by the way: the steak is on the lower right side of the large cello (or whatever else that musical instrument is).
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