Did anyone actually play this mess?
The graphics are horribly ugly, and in combination with those "look around" controls one can feel nauseous.

I have this game on a CD-ROM somewhere and I've tried playing this game multiple times since it released and literally never got through the first day. Tonight I changed all that and sat down and looked up a walkthrough just so I could experience this game that I've spent 23 years trying to beat and I've got to say I have mixed feelings. The main character is completely unphased when random things happen that you should probably freak out about (loch ness monster appearing and talking to a literal spirit) but he takes it in complete stride. The underwater maze is an unbelievable nightmare to navigate, especially on your return trip which is timed. Be sure to save often because there's a few timed segments, the last one being over incredibly fast. Honestly I don't want to not recommend this because it's cheap and charming in it's own right but I also really don't want to recommend that you waste your time playing it. I think if you can find a playthrough of this game in your language you'd have a better time watching that than playing this game.

"The Cameron Files: The Secret at Loch Ness" is an ancient game from 2001. It's a whopping 22 years old at the time of this review. The game lacks proper widescreen aspect ratio support (it's locked at 4:3) or support for any modern gaming display resolutions, hasn't been modernised or updated to run smoothly on modern gaming PCs. Despite this lack of modernisation, it carries a pretty high price tag for such an ancient game. This seems to have been put on Steam as a nostalgia gouge.

There's no problem with the theme or the concept here, you're exploring a mystery surrounding the famous Loch Ness in Scotland, and you do this with the usual point and click adventuring, you can look around a 360 degree image sphere and move between them to give the illusion of moving around a real 3D space... despite the fact that in 2001 the FPS genre was already in full raging glory, so there's no excuse for the retrograde Myst ripoff gameplay here.

The problems with this are just because it's so badly dated.

From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.

There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customise the graphics settings. There's no way for gamers to ensure this is running at the native resolution of their displays... there's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. There's no way for gamers to try improve the low quality graphics, and as mentioned it's locked to a stretched 4:3 resolution so unless you're gaming on a rig from 1996, this is going to look rubbish. And it does, sadly.

The controls can't be customised because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just point and click stuff like a browser/Flash game. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that here.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 8 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 50,000 games for gamers to choose from (over 9,000 completely free titles), the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.

"The Cameron Files: The Secret at Loch Ness" is relatively expensive for an abandonware nostalgia gouge, at $3 USD, and it's not worth it. The game is just too old, hasn't been modernised. And as the old saying goes, you can't go home again.

The Cameron Files: The Secret At Loch Ness is, a game? Look, I know it came out in 2001- EIGHTEEN years ago, but so did Halo. And Max Payne FFX, GTA 3, Pro Skater 3, hell, EVEN SONIC ADVENTURE 2. We were capable of making good games back then, but this? This ain't it.

To start off with my numerous gripes with the game, after clicking it took 1:20 seconds to get through the exposition at the begining. This was BEFORE the title screen- after clicking new game it took another MINUTE AND FIFTEEN to get into game play. But my dear friends, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
The models in this game look like wallace and grommet were hit by a bullet train at max velocity, then dropped onto the scene from the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stratosphere.
Then there's her. Oh my god. In the beginning there's an old lady, and the MOMENT she started talking I giggled. We had good voice acting in 2001. Award winning Aladdin came out in NINETY TWO. But instead we get the voice of what sounds like a pubescent boy immitating an old woman. It is comedic gold.
However, my mother taught me if I don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. Sooooo...






The game plays decently. It does what it's meant to do. It seems it be a fully 3d environment, you can look around 360 degrees- and objects feel like theyre genuinely there when you warp. In most games you can tell that it's just a slideshow- different 2d JJpegs that you can click, but in this it feels like a real environment.
Which reminds me, The environment is EMPTY. You can only touch or inspect items critically important. You can't click the piano and have the MC say somehting about it, he just says nothing. You can't even click it. It makes it boring.
Remember Putt-Putt or that one fish one? The fun in Point-and-clicks is CLICKING, and when you can't click in a point in click, what's the point?

The Cameron Files: The Secret at Loch Ness is a genuinely bad game. The plot is as thick, and as slow as molasses, in a beautiful yet empty world. It fails to have the same charm as any other PnC, Even the free flash ones while attempting to have an investing story. Its a crawl without polish, and lifeless. 3/10

This game is in the top 3 worst adventure games I've ever played. Just wow, incredibly ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Tags: Adventure - WC - Walk Clicker
Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library

TLDR: Decent sound design but heavy stuttering in screen panning, animations, and cutscenes. Engine is dated. Puzzle design seems tedious and story is not terribly gripping. Outcompeted

The issues I experienced were on Windows 10 64bit Ryzen+Polaris. I dont believe this game is worth troubleshooting given the superior alternatives that work out of box. The story looked half decent, some kind of private investigator type, meant to be a franchise with multiple installments like a homebrewed sherlock holmes. I believe there are only two Cameron files and to be honest the setup is rather forgettable.

Received it in a Steam Bundle. Still regret to hvae it.
Graphics are horrible. Voice acting (in FR) is horrible. Movement is horrible. If you love point 'n click (even good oldies) but never played this one, run. Only thing that can justify playing this game is probably some's people nostalgia.

I really hate this game!

I'm generally a fan of point and click adventures and yes, I know I just don't have the patience for some of the failings I was used to at their height in the 90s but this game is still horrible! By the end of it I was screaming at the screen in anger and frustration. I then resorted to online walkthroughs so that such a poor excuse for a game did not defeat me.

My main objections are below (warning there are some spoilers):

1. There is no tutorial.
I was just flung into the game and had to guess how to access the inventory and hint system. Perhaps this wasn't a problem when it was originally purchased in a box with a manual, but it's a drag now.

2. Movement/backgrounds/stupid, pointless mazes.
The movement is your standard grid system point and click which wouldn't be so much of a problem if the backgrounds weren't so poorly rendered. This really comes into its teeth-grindingly-frustrating own when the game decides it would be fun to have a largely featureless underwater maze. They then decide to compound this misery in the final section with circular corridors.

3. The hint system is more of an 'I told you so' system.
This includes notes in a diary which sometimes bear some relation to your predicament, sometimes don't. The latter is more often true. It leaves you completely hanging in places for no reason whatsoever.

4. Progression/puzzles are too often stupid.
We're not talking comedy stupid, or one-off perhaps they were having a bad day stupid. We're talking criminally poorly stupid. Why when I want to access the Loch do I have to magically realise I want a garden hose? Why when I want 120ml of a substance do I have to click on a bottle clearly marked as 30ml four times? It just doesn't make sense! Once or twice you can put up with, by the end of the game I felt it was almost constant.

If you're prepared to put up with all of this then please go ahead. All I can say is that it's a good job I'm blessed with a luxuriant mane as by the end of this a more folically challenged person might have had no more hair to pull out!

I remember having this game when i was ~11, me and my mom played it and got pretty far. Nolstalgia is pretty much the only reason i bought it, because objectively it's a bad game. Back then and now the only real driving factor is an odd compulsion to keep playing. I seriously don't know why this game has such a strong hold over me, my best guess is that like Myst, advancing after hours of brain numming searching is spiritually rewarding. That said i can only recomend this game to people who liked Myst and wouldn't mind a more cohesive story and unfairly hidden items.
4/10