Cate West: The Vanishing Files is a puzzle game made up of 15 chapters, each split into several parts.  Cate is a psychic with a troubled past, who is helping the police solve a trail of interlinked and disturbing crimes.  In each part you are required to complete several puzzles in order to find clues, find the suspect's hideout, identify the criminal and successfully secure a guilty verdict in court.

The puzzles are themed largely around the hidden object concept.  When searching crime scenes or locations initially for clues, you'll need to find a certain number of objects.  Once these have been found, Cate uses her psychic ability to determine which of the objects are vital clues linked to the killer.  Another hidden object puzzle then takes place, requiring you to find parts from the two objects.  Once this puzzle has been successfully completed you can locate the suspect's hideout and a game of spot the difference takes place, picking out the differences between Cate's psychic vision of the place and the actual location.

Cate then uses the clues found to determine more information about the suspect, such as colour of their hair, whether they have a scar and more obscure references, such as sensing certain objects around the person.  In a 'Guess who' style puzzle, you have to use the clues given to whittle the suspects down to one and make a successful arrest.  This can be quite tricky as some of the references can be quite vague at times.  For example, where Cate senses the presence of certain items, they could be linked to the past or present of the suspect and items such as 'cards' or 'feathers' could be linked to so many suspects that it becomes quite a test of logic. 

Finally, once the correct suspect has been arrested, the case goes to court.  In a quite unique combination of spot the difference/hidden object combined, you need to compare two pictures and place an array of certain objects where they should be in order to make the two pictures match.

The game is quite straightforward to play, although at times the objects can be extremely difficult to find.  There is a very useful magnifying glass which appears when you press 'B' on the Wii remote, something that I didn't realise until I was several puzzles in (and squinting at the TV from about three inches away).  Will I never learn to read the instructions before I start games?  If the magnifying glass still doesn't help you find that elusive object, there are hints available.  However, you do score points for each puzzle completed and you score extra points if you don't use hints, or use very few, so click that hint button sparingly.

Cate West: The Vanishing Files is an entertaining game which has managed to tie up dozens of puzzles with an entertaining storyline, involving Cate's past.  A variety of locations mean that the hidden object games avoid becoming too repetitive and it's nice to see some variations of these puzzles coming through. The 'Guess Who' style puzzle is a great addition.  It's a brilliant way to test those sleuthing skills.  If you're a puzzler at heart and enjoy these games, I'm sure this is one for you to try too.

**Review by Donna Haw**