9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek is Hidden Object Game from publisher Artifex Mundi.

A young paranormal detective requested to aid a famous riporter to lift up the secret about some suspicious event. Upon arriving to the small town of Serpent Creek you realise that the riporter gone and a curse infecting the whole city! Snakes are everywhere and the citizens are sleepwalking. Most of them are not aware of their acts. there is definetly a need for a extraordinary human to lift up the curse and save the town, this one could be you!

This HoG not just include the usual hidden object puzzles and mini games, you can experience some more entertaining crime scene puzzles aswell. Artwork is decent and voice acting ok.

Pricing is a bit too much i think, i review the games positive, because the game is good, but its shorter than usual Artifex games and more expensive. Definetly better to wait for a sale.

As your Average Achievement Hunter ill share some informations about the achievements aswell:
19 Steam achievements, easy to get them and hurray, this HoG needs only one playthrough and on any difficulty. Special focus required on some achievement though, so you dont need to replay the game. There are collectibles in the game, you need watch cutscenes, you need be fast with 3 lockpick scenes (they are easy), the usual no skip/no hint for the playthrough and you need to play with the black cat (you have 2 chances in the game).
Time to 100%: 3h

9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek is another Artifex Mundi game – one of their early productions, working with a young developer team: Tap It Games. It is a decent HOG to keep you busy for 2-3 hours straight with a subtle taste for noire. It is not exceptional compared to the rest of Artifex Mundi collections, but it is refreshingly well-done for the HOG genre itself anyway.

Our character, a lady private eye comes to the little town of Serpent Creek to investigate the disappearance of her journalist friend, Helen during Serpent Creek's famous Serpent Festival. We are quick to notice that there is an obscene amount of serpentine references going about the town; alongside mysterious disappearances, earthquakes and zombie-like citizens. The story gets more and more complicated between a moody hotel manager, a veteran sheriff, a suspicious British guest and a disturbingly oblivious mayor... What to do?

While the character modelling is appealing in animation, the psychological portrayal and demeanor designs of characters especially take the cake on this one. They are definitely interesting and elegant enough to keep you interested with the story revelation. People look and act similar to cover arts for classical Nancy Drew books with an extra dose of eerie and suspicion about them. You keep second guessing about characters, tying them to any kind of dreadful business the moment you see them. I won't lie, the outcome is not extraordinary, yet the display is certainly worth your time. The background artwork is also pretty and comes strong on establishing atmospheres.

The game contains some of the more imaginative puzzles that I've encountered within genre, alongside some entertaining lock picking puzzles. What I especially liked was investigation scenes where we are expected to pick up some clues around to deduce the recent happenings within the room. Hidden object scenes were ordinary if not a bit too easy. The usage of the map, action indicators and its teleportation feature are all present to bring you a relief for achievement hunting.

All in all, the game is worth the money for a HOG gamer, or anyone looking for a time kill with both noire and mystical atmosphere. If it is on sale, even better.

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Artifex Mundi's 9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek is truly a creepy game, with an X-Files-esque feel about it. (If you look closely, you may find a few well placed nods to the now classic show that run from 1993 to 2002 and spawned several films...) You're a bit of Scully and Mulder, all boiled into one, as you rush to a friend's aid, and are immediately thrust into investigating weird events, coverups, and all manner of mayham and murder taking place in the small coastal town of Serpent Creek. A host of creepy (there's that word again), eccentric, and sly characters come out of the wood work to either help, or dissuade you, or just plain turn a blind eye on what's really going on in the community.

The game's investigative mode is very unique and in part, has you becoming a profiler of sorts. There's getting inside the mind of your unknown suspect, retracing footsteps, and piecing together fragmented clues. Of course, there are Hidden Objects and cleverly designed puzzles along the way as well too. Vocals and musical themes are as always top notch. The look and feel of the game are rich in terms of the color spectrum. The storyline and plot are strong with deeper things going on under the surface.

All in all a great buy, fun time, and very entertaining! Oh and did I mention that there's an unruly cat and ssssssssssssssssssssssssnakesssssssssssssssssssssssss everywhere?! Have fun my friends. Have fun...

I've never really been a big fan of hidden object games, but I enjoyed this one. You'll probaby figure out the mystery pretty fast, but the story's engaging and the game doesn't get too repetitive (unless you end up playing through a second time to get all the achievements because you missed the third lock by about two seconds).

It's a pretty easy game, and would be great for older kids, especially ones that like their stories a little on the creepy side. It's a bit short, but I think if it was any longer the story would drag.

Nothing revolutionary, but if you like to chill out and blow through a casual game with a decent story and easy achievements, it's fun and worth picking up especially in a bundle or super cheap sale.

It may sound weird to some, but 9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek is actually the first Hidden Object Game I've ever played. And to make it immediately clear: I liked it a lot! It's stylish, cleverly designed and it has an original story.

9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek was developed by Tap It Games and published by the well-known Artifex Mundi in July 2013. Some research out of my newly-found interest in this genre, has learned me that Artifex Mundi is perhaps THE prime publisher of this kind of games, and after playing a second one of their games, I can safely confirm that they stand for quality and sheer gaming pleasure.
The Secret of Serpent Creek could be defined as an adventure-light, or casual adventure game, with a touch of horror added to it. The story is quite original and entertaining and certainly proved interesting enough to keep my interest right through to the final stages. I won't spoil it here, suffice it only to tell that it is also suited for teenagers and maybe even younger children, since there is no offensive context in any way. There are also a whole bunch of helping-tools, perfectly adaptable to everyone's needs with three difficulty levels. Exactly as how it should be done in this kind of games, imo.
The actual gameplay is very much point-and-click orientated, with static screens following upon each other. Most of the times there are objects to be found to advance to the next screen, to solve a puzzle, or to be combined with each other. Thanks to the very intuitive inventory, all this can be done in a smooth manner, and thanks to the map (with fast-travel system incorporated), the amount of backtracking is limited. The shining point of the game are the famous "Hidden Object" scenes, where one has to click several named objects in order to find one story-related object. As easy as this may sound, it proved quite a lot of fun, and even challenge to a non-native English speaker as me. I made a sport out of it not to consult any dictionay, and I've certainly learned a whole bunch a new English word just by playing this game ;-). Apart from the Hidden Object-screens, there are also quite some well-designed puzzles, more of a challenge but still very well designed and easily solved with some thinking.

Since gameplay is limited to pointing, clicking and thinking, graphics and sound are very important to me in this kind of adventure (light). And in these departments 9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek certainly delivers. The scenes are vividly painted, with bright coulours if needed and lots of visual clues. Sound-wise, there's not much to complain about: voice-acting is fine, only the music could have delivered more of a punch.
All in all, this was a very fine first encounter for me wtih this genre, and with the quality-products Artifex Mundi delivers. Don't hesitate if you like this kind of games, and do give it a try when you're curious about them. It's not expensive, and as icing on the cake: it comes with Trading Cards and a set of Steam Achievements that can be made into a perfect game without too much hassle.

Gameplay: 23/30
Graphics: 15/20
Sound: 7/10
Longelivety: 6/10 (decent lenght for this kind of games but not much beside that)
Technical: 9/10
Steam Integration: 10/10
Personal appreciation: 8/10

Overall: 78/100

At this point with a few reviews already under my belt, I've somewhat run out of things to say about hidden object games (or HOGs). With how many there are and the near identical formula used as their base, unless it's appalling or extraordinary I find myself scratching my head for something more elaborate and articulated to say than "it's good for fans of the genre". Artifex Mundi's games however are something of an exception to that rule, as more than most casual developers they've shown a desire to strive to better their games with each release, reusing the same basic template but refining it along the way.

9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek so far as I've explored their catalog is the best example of Artifex taking criticism to heart and using it to turn out a more enjoyable, polished experience. The narrative is a fairly predicable Scooby Doo-esq mystery, in a mysterious town full of odd people that seem just a little too obsessed with snakes. It didn't surprise me, nor is it especially well written, but there's a very typical Artifex charm in the way the story plays out as if they know it's derivative but it's the best they can do so they're still going to give it their all to make it entertaining. The voice acting is a significant step up from what they've managed in the past, perhaps thanks to the fact that the characters presented are so strange that any stilted exchange or bizarre inflection becomes a part of the character instead of sounding like an intern was pulled in at the last moment to record a few lines.

The hidden object scenes themselves, though as usual something of a treat on the side to the main casual adventure game meal, feel more logical in how they're placed and presented. Gone are the random cascades of junk shoved into random corners of the environment, replaced with a handful of scenes that make sense in the narrative (though it's still a little hard to believe anywhere in the world is quite so cluttered with pieces of machinery scattered all throughout the town). And perhaps most worthy of note is the addition of fast travel at long last, which eliminates the tedious back tracking which is already thankfully minimized do to the shorter, but much tighter experience.

So yes, it would be easy to simply say 9 Clues is a great HOG and you should certainly give it a chance whether you're already a fan of the genre of not, but I think it's worth pointing out the areas Artifex Mundi has put in the effort to improve their game in a genre so lacking in inspiration or often considered to be of a high quality. It's going to be hard to go back to their older games I've yet to play, but it also has me excited moving forward seeing how dedicated they are to making their games as excellent as they can be. HOG developers of the world, take note!

Two thumbs up. This is a great 'starter' HOG for someone who has never played a Hidden-Object game before. There is an excellent plot, decent characters and voice-acting, and there are lots and lots of hidden-object scenes. (The standard Artifex-Mundi list of 12 names, colored blue or white depending if they are visible or tucked behind something else.) I personally found the game riveting, and it really lacked any negatives.

This is an older game, created in 2012 and released on Steam in 2013, so it lacks the obsessive need of current games to find 58 different sets of collectibles. There is one single set, to find 9 question marks, but that's the name of the game quite literally.

There are many hidden-object scenes and there is very little scavenger-hunting and object manipulation beyond what is minimally needed to advance the plot: a locked door requires a key, not a bottle of aspirin, the hairy hosts of Hoggoth and a time-machine.

The mini-games were a nice variety of jigsaw puzzles and peg games, sliding a pawn on every dot once, lowering all bars, and so forth. There is also a detective mini-game that involves looking for hot spots, but the hot-spots are like 100 pixels wide, not 1 or 2 pixels wide, so they are easy to find.

Some of the newer Artifex Mundi games should look back to this game and remind themselves why this was such a good brand full of quality products that do not frustrate or annoy. Two thumbs up!

Very short casual adventure game. A bit of "hidden object", a bit of good old "point'n'click", some puzzles, and a "supernatural" story - what's not to like? An easy full complete game, which can be beaten in an hour or two. A bit longer, if you're a 6 y.o. kid with slow reflexes (there are three time-related puzzles for one achievement), but still not that much trouble.

So yeah - just like ESRB rating, I recommend it to everyone... Except for hardcore gamers who can't stand a bit of casualty in their gaming life. As of mark... 7/10 snake bites, I guess?

Good hidden object point and click. But get it on sale, cause it's short.

Your friend calls you for help as the town of Serpent Creek seemed to be under a strange spell. Arriving there, apparently, nothing seems wrong, apart perhaps that man in a flower shirt, Owen...

As any Artifex Mundi, this game is of quality. Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy it as I should. It was kinda hard to enter the story this time because I have immediately understood who was the culprit, contrary to Grim Legends for example.

I had a problem with one of the HO scenes where, despite clicking on the right item, it wasn't being picked up. I don't know how I managed to get it past (clicking and clicking and finding finally the hitbox), yet, it was frustrating. I don't know if it had been solved or not as I uninstall the game once I got everything I wanted from it.

But despite this, it's an Artifex Mundi game: well polished, well thought, good visuals, good soundtrack and with nice twists.

Given the fact that I've played the game a long time ago, why the review now? Guess what will be released in a few days? 9 Clues 2! It seems a little more darker than the first 9 Clues, more psychological (yay!), so, it was time to put a review for the game :).

Buy it anyway :).