Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst

Story

Rumors surrounding the Ravenhearst manor in Blackpool have circulated for decades. The Queen of England has enlisted the character's help to solve the mystery behind the ghostly apparitions in and around Ravenhearst manor. The player character is provided the recently acquired diary belonging to Emma Ravenhearst which holds the key to unraveling the history of this unsettling place, yet some pages are missing. The player must venture into Ravenhearst, find the missing pages, and solve the mystery.

As the player collects the pages of the diary, the story reveals itself. Emma Ravenhearst, a young girl from Iowa, arrived in Blackpool, England on August 24, 1894 after having been graduated from a teacher's college. She is hired at a local school and boards with the schoolmistress, also helping with household tasks.

At a community autumn party on September 10, 1894, Emma meets a handsome, wealthy young man named Charles Dalimar. He is smitten by Emma. Several months later, on March 16, 1895 he proposes to Emma.

After thinking about the fact that she has, as she says in her diary, just begun her life, she declines the proposal. Charles is hurt, but two weeks later on April 5, 1895 he visits Emma again, carrying roses. He tells her that he has purchased a tract of land and is building a manor.

A workman, Frank Williams, falls while working on the house in May 1895. He leaves behind a wife and two children. At the funeral, Charles mutters to Emma something about being forever alone at his "bedevilled" manor.

On May 23, Emma gets a letter from her sister back in America telling her that their father is seriously ill. She makes plans to leave, but then falls ill. As she worsens, Charles moves her into the manor and cares for her.

He hires a woman named Rose Sommerset to take care of Emma. Emma, despite her condition, continues to write in her diary and she and Rose become friends. (Note: Source for edits to this point come directly from the diary in the Ravenhearst game.)

Unfortunately, Emma's health keeps on failing. She starts having nightmares where she is wearing a white bridal dress. She has not heard anything from her family. Charles' behaviour has become suspicious and he has taken to reading books of black magic and necromancy. Rose finds the situation creepy. When Rose discovers a dress similar to the one Emma wore in her nightmare, the duo believe that Charles is trying to harm them. This also happens to be the second to last entry in Emma's diary.

The last entry to the diary is dated "Today", and is written by the ghost of Emma, who haunts the manor. It urges the player to find seven skeleton keys hidden throughout the manor, and visit the cellar to open the cellar door with them. When the player accomplishes this, an upright casket is found, which, when opened, reveals the remains of Emma, dressed in the wedding gown. It is heavily implied that Charles has murdered Emma in fear of abandonment. The skeleton dissolves as Emma's spirit is freed from the manor.

Emma's diary

In this game after each level, the player puts a puzzle together forming a diary page. This diary is similar to the one in Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst. This tells a story of Ravenhearst while Emma was alive.

Reception

According to independent tracking site game-sales-charts.com, following its release on December 15, 2006, MCF: Ravenhearst held the #1 sales spot on nearly all casual game distribution sites including its home distribution channel, Big Fish Games, where it has remained in their top 20 since.

Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst was "the third-best-selling PC title in the United States for the week ending in the annual Black Friday shopping splurge" selling 100,000 copies in six weeks.

Sequels

At the last part of the game Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate, Charles Dalimar kills Madame Fate. The player, the Detective, must then return to the Manor to solve more mysteries that lie within.

On October 22, 2008, Big Fish Games announced at their blog that there would be a second game for, the story-arc of Ravenhearst entitled Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst. It was released on November 27, 2008 exclusively at Big Fish Games.

Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst

After the events in Madame Fate, the player soon discovers that the spirit of Charles Dalimar, Emma Ravenhearst's murderer, is on the loose and desperate because Emma is now free of the Manor's curse. He is actually the one responsible for Madame Fate's death stating that the rescue of Emma was pointless, for Rose Somerset, Emma's nursemaid in the first game, was his "true love".

The player returns to the manor, but soon discovers that there is more to the mansion than meets the eye: there is still a section of the manor unexplored, and some parts that have already been explored have been refurbished by Charles' tormented spirit. The player has to uncover the secret of what happened to Charles after he murdered Emma, and put a stop to his psychotic obsession.

Mystery Case Files: Escape From Ravenhearst

Mystery Case Files: Escape From Ravenhearst is the eighth installment of the Mystery Case Files franchise and was released November 23, 2011 as a Collector's Edition. Some residents in Blackpool, England have gone missing around Ravenhearst Manor and the player, the Master Detective, must return to the shattered manor and search for the missing residents. The game continues the Ravenhearst story and is expected to be the final in this story-arc.

Mystery Case Files: Key to Ravenhearst

Mystery Case Files: Key to Ravenhearst is the twelfth installment in the series. The player, as the detective, must return to the resurrected manor in order to solve a new mystery. Charles' children, Gwendolyn and Charlotte Delimar, cast a young wealthy man under their spell in order to force him to do difficult tasks including rebuilding the destroyed Ravenhearst Manor, and converting it into a historical museum complete with photos and trinkets dating back to 1895. The player must attempt to solve the mystery of the new manor in order to stop the twin sisters' plans before it is too late.