The Haunted Hoard: Scratches: Director’s Cut (PC)
Alone in a mansion, Michael Arthate hears the quiet but unmistakable sound of scratches. Already unfamiliar with the large estate he only recently arrived at, the incessant sound makes him wonder… is it truly just some rat or other pest in the walls? Is there a darker tale behind this irritant, or is his inclination for writing mystery novels making him see the mundane as supernatural? Perhaps the truth may even lie in the middle, but in the 2007 point and click Scratches and it’s Director’s Cut release, what begins as a compelling mystery that straddles that line between whether the horror is realistic or otherworldly ends up an adventure constantly weakened by the aimless puzzle solving.
The story of Scratches: Director’s Cut begins with Michael Arthate seeking solitude as he writes his next novel, but the Blackwood Manor proves to be too captivating a mystery for him to properly focus on his work. Years ago, James Blackwood seemingly murdered his wife on the grounds and died shortly after the world at large learned of her passing, the abandoned mansion untouched before your arrival as Michael save for a cleaning crew dropping by to knock the dust off the exquisite furnishings. Early on you’ll begin to stumble across records and journals that start to share the sad tale of the Blackwoods as well as a life-changing trip James took to South Africa, a tribe called the Dhalmaar with harrowing and brutal practices shaking him and beginning to sow the seeds of a possible supernatural element. While time as Michael is often spent exploring the mansion in first person at your leisure, you do start to find more abnormal discoveries and witness phenomenon that lie on the edge of reality. The game isn’t afraid to use a few nightmares to truly show something impossible, but even then it’s with a deft touch so you keep wondering where the story may go as the more grounded mystery of the Blackwood family intersects more and more with the Dhalmaar tribe’s supposed curse.
The Director’s Cut release of Scratches even aims to paper over a somewhat abrupt end to the original narrative, a reporter heading to the estate after Michael’s time to investigate some of the loose ends and tie a ribbon on the tale. It’s a focused and much shorter additional story and uses voice acting for all of the reporter’s thoughts compared to Michael only really speaking on the phone, but it also feels like it provides closure where it should have without undermining the central story. Scratches: Director’s Cut does make great use of atmosphere even if navigating the mansion is a bit of a chore with the player needing to click to reach specific standing spots to interact with objects that might have already looked in reach. However, with just a few comments or a contrast in the condition of a room, the game can establish a menacing atmosphere for a space without having to resort to cheap tricks, and when something a little frightening does happen, it hits harder because you’re not certain how far this horror adventure might be willing to go. The restraint and down to earth presentation almost feels like how it might truly be to head to some old manor with a morbid history that it still wears in its darker corners, but unfortunately, the navigation is only the first of many issues impeding the storytelling efforts.
Right out of the gate your first objective is essentially to familiarize yourself with the Blackwoods mansion, an open-ended period yet one with a great deal of unclear requirements for progressing the story. All around the house there are things to click on and you must make specific observations to be able to continue the adventure, and at least the cursor helps somewhat with the process. The hand cursor points to indicate you can move by clicking somewhere on the screen, the player moving between set standing positions but able to look around fully in 3D. A magnifying glass icon is usually for reading or inspecting an object, while the open hand will pick something up. There is sometimes an issue with the cursor actually clicking on what it looks like it’s hovering over, this issue likely changing depending on your personal computer as I found people having it occur differently for them, but missing a vital item or struggling to find the exact right spot to click to engage an action may be an issue you encounter or not even be aware of as you wander around unsure about what to do.
You will come to appreciate the hints inherent in the cursor changing but also loathe it for how many meaningless things there are about the mansion to gawk at. For example, there are many famous paintings all around the estate that you can inspect more closely for no real purpose, to the point you might start ignoring them and miss the single painting with a true purpose that isn’t hinted at anywhere else. At times, when searching for tools vital to progress, you might open up something like a tool box and see an array of tools, but you can only grab some arbitrary ones including ones that might not be fully visible on screen. Scratches: Director’s Cut has no qualms about hiding important objects with barely a sliver of it in view, and the house has many items that seem like they’d be useful but aren’t. For a puzzle that needs any old newspaper you can only use a specific one despite there being many about with no clear differences, your character knows to pick up a random paint can lid amid many even before you might have thought of a use, and your inventory, accessed by right clicking, becomes cluttered with a range of keys that rarely look all that different. What makes the keys worse is Michael himself will sometimes just call them generic keys so there’s no clue where to use them, meaning every locked drawer and door around the house are available options since the story doesn’t often give clear directions on where to head next.
Even when you do get to do some proper puzzle solving, some involve bizarre leaps in logic that can be a huge road block since you aren’t likely to follow the same train of thought as the creators. In a crypt for example, there is a plaque you must read, but since it is a floor below the entrance, it is too dark to supposedly read. You can see the letter R, but you must provide more light to read it, and your matchbook is apparently not an option. Instead you must find an unassuming table mirror elsewhere, unscrew it with no hint that was an option, affix the mirror to the wall, but even then you must also smash the skylight above for there to be enough light to reflect. Then, you can see… that the plaque has the letter R on it but nothing else, and now Michael can progress properly. I’ve left out a few steps that make it even more baffling just in case you do want the authentic experience of trying to piece this together yourself, and even if you enable hints it will just be Michael maybe making a comment when you click on certain things to partially nudge you towards an interaction. What can make all of this more frustrating is especially on the first day, at points you need to go make phone calls to Jerry Carter, the man who got the mansion for you. Sometimes it makes sense why you might like when you find the electricity is out, but at others the only way to progress is to go back to the phone so Michael can learn some new detail and get things moving again. It becomes a tedious ritual when you’re left without a clear idea on what to do and a disheartening one when it proves it wasn’t a call to Jerry required but maybe some small item you overlooked, a lot of the eerie atmosphere and slow story-telling lost behind awful progression gating and puzzles that can often make little sense if they extend beyond simple inventory use.
THE VERDICT: The creepy atmosphere of the Blackwood Manor and its ties to grounded fears and uncertain supernatural terrors make Scratches: Director’s Cut an effective horror story worthy of the kind of scary story its author protagonist might pen, but only because he’d leave out the obnoxious aimless wandering and point and click problems that hugely hamper the story’s ability to progress. Arbitrary requirements for progression, items with no clear use including many keys that you just have to try everywhere, baffling solutions, and a large area to explore that can be a chore to traverse when you are left without any indication what should be done next impede your effort to uncover the truth behind the Blackwood family and the Dhalmaar tribe. The terrible gameplay design ends up killing enthusiasm for a measured horror tale that deserved better.
And so, I give Scratches: Director’s Cut for PC…
A TERRIBLE rating. I often see some people praise a game with the caveat that it should be played with a guide open to basically do all the work for you, and Scratches: Director’s Cut feels like the kind of game that might end up on such peoples’ radar. Rather than being utterly lost as there was no good clue on where to head next, rather than needing to know that one strange item interaction or realizing only one painting of dozens in the entire manor has a purpose, rather than needing to keep calling Jerry when there’s no other action available, you can just follow the steps and see the horror story unfold at a more natural and interesting pace. Some time to drink in the mansion’s atmosphere would be lost, you’d spend less time pondering the notes you find, and you might not get to appreciate the surprises as they come if the guide spells it out as the next thing to see, and that’s why it’s a bit hard to say Scratches: Director’s Cut would work either through natural play or with such accompaniment. The lack of direction could be fixed by more apparent connections between what you find or what Michael’s looking to do, the whole mansion being available at most times sometimes a hindrance when a good deal of your activities can be described as poking around without a clear idea of what you’re looking for, but even not holding possible cursor woes against the game, Scratches: Director’s Cut gives an illusion of freedom with the mansion exploration and yet actually has a lot of rigid demands it won’t make known that you must adhere to in order to trigger story progress. Were it not for its plot balancing its mysteries so well it would have been a lost cause, but perhaps a stronger approach to a Director’s Cut could have pushed Scratches into something where you’re rewarded for poking around rather than left with no other option to try everything and hope.
Scratches: Director’s Cut isn’t available on any digital store fronts at present, seemingly because rights issues make its release a bit messy at times, but the developer themself will happily link you to a free archive.org download of the game because he wants people to still be able to experience it. That speaks to the strength of the story I feel, a point and click with imagination in the plot and solid writing but not a good sense for the means through which you’ll uncover it. It’s hard to say if it’s worth the effort to experience its tale because the barriers are obnoxious, but with the download being distributed by a creator who cares, you can make that choice if you want to try and learn what might be causing those incessant scratching noises behind the walls.