In 2007, Aaron Conners and Chris Jones returned to the world of gaming as Big Finish Games. The creative minds behind the Tex Murphy series have since released their first title as BFG, Three Cards to Midnight - a psychological point-and-click puzzle game. Does the game live up to expectations though? Read on to find out.

"I know this isn't easy, Jess, but I need you to try and stay with me." says a man shrouded by darkness. "Where am I?" a young woman replies. "Just try to relax." says the man. "There will be time for questions later."

So beings your journey into Three Cards to Midnight. Jess, the game's protagonist, is a young woman on the eve of her 30th birthday. She has a great relationship with a man she cares about and life is good. Yet for some reason, she finds herself in a room with a man she's never seen before. Her memories are gone and she has no idea when her last memory was. The man says he's there to help her remember as he has her pick out cards from a Tarot deck.

The game is divided into several chapters, which allow you to review completed ones. Each chapter is then divided into typically four sections: three Tarot cards and one puzzle.

The game then begins for the player by allowing them to pick one of three cards to proceed. After doing so, the man will ask Jess what sort of images the card brings to mind. She'll describe a memory then and he'll ask her to identify key words of that memory.

At this point, the player is given their task. A still scene is presented before the player. In the very first scene, we see a family room in a house. The goal at this stage is to find items on the screen that identify with the key words. For example, the first keyword is "Note". From here you have to find several items that connect with the word "Note." Clicking on a book onscreen will yield the result "Note Book" while clicking the "C" on the wall will give you "C Note."

Often the choices will be more subtle than that however. As with most of their games, this one makes you think. Not all the connections are obvious and on a few occasions they're downright obscure. The game allows you ten misses before making you restart the chapter.

Not to fret though, as Three Cards to Midnight continues a tradition started in Under a Killing Moon. At the beginning of the game, the player chooses from one of three difficulty levels. Pick the easiest, and you don't even have to find all the key words, the hardest will add new key words. There is also a hint system, though using it will take a toll on your score.

Choosing what difficulty to play on is important as your performance throughout the game will ultimately decide which one of the multiple endings you get.

After Jess recovers a memory from each of the three Tarot cards each chapter, she's presented with a puzzle. Here the game really shines as it moves away from the standard game play. Any veteran of the Tex Murphy series will feel right at home as some of the puzzles are clearly inspired from the old series, though Three Cards to Midnight has plenty of original puzzles. All challenging though not overly difficult, completing them will allow Jess to regain an additional memory that ties the chapter together.

The storyline starts off slow but quickly picks up in later chapters. With many twists and turns, Three Cards to Midnight proves a strong psychological mystery.

The weakest point of Three Cards to Midnight is definitely the graphics. The cutscenes are in small windows with a somewhat low resolution and some of the human animations look robotic. The cutscenes are only meant to tie together the story and ultimately the game doesn't suffer on this weakness.

With a strong storyline, solid and fun gameplay, multiple difficulties and several endings, Three Cards to Midnight is a small game with a lot going on for it. The team at Big Finish Games still knows how to build a great story and solid game play.

Final Score - 8/10