Shadow Lake is the ninth installment of the Mystery Case Files franchise, a Hidden Object/Point and Click Adventure game, and the last to be released by Big Fish Studios. Shadow Lake was released on November 20, 2012, and features actress Lea Thompson as Cassandra Williams, a psychic medium who helps the Master Detective solve puzzles while they investigate the mysterious destruction of a ghost town.
Story[]
Following a recent earthquake in Bitterford, Maine, the Master Detective is called there by Cassandra Williams, a psychic who works with a news team called Ghost Patrol. Arriving at a motel in Bitterford, the detective meets Jack Talon, the director of Ghost Patrol, and his assistant, Kelli (Lea Thompson's daughter, Madelyn Deutch).
After they leave, the detective gains access to Cassandra's room and she instructs the detective to search around town for clues, giving her some drawings that will help her. She also gives the detective a radio to communicate with each other. Once the detective gathers all the clues in the drawings, she returns to Cassandra, where they engage in a psychic meditation to help locate the cause of the unnatural activities happening around town.
The detective is also assisted by the ghost of a woman named Ellen, the town librarian. While meditating with Cassandra, they discover events that had happened before the earthquake. During a prisoner's attempt to escape by tunneling out, he discovers a hidden shrine where he unearths a horn-shaped relic with strange symbols.
After escaping, he manages to flee from the warden (Ellen's husband) that was chasing him but loses the relic. The warden finds it and brings it home where it is stolen by his son, who heads to school with it. While on the school balcony, a bully tried to take it from the boy, accidentally causing him to fall to his death. The boy's teacher discovers his dead body and the relic, then later mysteriously dies and while the doctor is examining his body, his arm comes alive and attacks her before returning to normal, displaying the relic's symbols.
The sheriff later finds the warden's truck along with his body, whose hand suddenly moves, creating the relic's symbols on the window. The doctor later shows the relic to the sheriff. They take it to the church, where they, along with the church's pastor, try to destroy it, but fail as the earthquake suddenly occurs, causing the church the collapse, killing them. This leads Cassandra to believe that the relic is still in the remains of the church, but, aware that the souls of those who touched the relic are trapped inside it, warns the detective not to touch it, as it is cursed.
The detective finds the relic and uses a small bag to carry it back to Cassandra. They do one last psychic reading, where they see the prisoner from before hiding in a train tunnel, worrying about the relic and the shrine where he found it. He then draws something on the tunnel wall before the earthquake causes the tunnel to collapse, killing him. The detective finds the drawing, which is a map to the shrine. She discovers that Cassandra has disappeared. Locating the prisoner's cell, the detective finds the shrine entrance, where she discovers Cassandra, now possessed by the relic's evil spirit, worshiping the evil demon king Adrammelech.
After stealing the relic and replacing it with a fake one, the detective uses the alter at the back of the shrine to break the curse and free the souls trapped inside the relic. Cassandra, now free of the relic's evil spirit, thanks her. Ellen briefly possesses Cassandra and tells the detective to bring the relic to Shadow Lake. She throws the relic in, where Ellen's hand emerges from the water and catches the relic before disappearing underwater. With the cursed relic gone, the detective returns to Cassandra, who decides to leave Ghost Patrol to become a detective.
In the post-credit scene, Kelli is shown wearing a necklace bearing the cursed relic's symbols, implying that the evil spirit is still active.
In the Bonus Content, the detective discovers a mask hidden in a safe in the Quarry. After unlocking it, she finds a ticket to Madame Fate's carnival.
Gallery[]
