Summary
Top mystery game.
The Good
| Mystery |
The game starts casually but immediately pulls you into the web of intrigues, danger, and suspense. You play Laura Bow, a young girl whose friend calls her to come at a spooky old mansion to keep her company with all the oldtimers that will be on the gathering. She doesn't know why they were all summited, but she convinces you it just might be more interesting than studying for biology exam. And indeed it does become, the moment you sit on the table with the rest of 'family', and plot starts ticking while suspects and 'victims of accidents' are piling.
| Meet Laura Bow, the Noise Detective |
The whole game starts kinda late, I believe it was 8pm or so, and consists of about eight acts. Each act lasts one full hour in the game, and is triggered as you witness specific elements. However, that is only to make the game easier. But if you wanna be a full-time detective, you must try to gather all the clues and to connect the strings eventually, since once you finish the game, you get to see a nice set of what all you did discover, and what all you missed. So don't play to end, like I did, but play to understand. However, being an outsider of the family ring, people will not run to your aid or likeness, so you'll basically have to do everything on your own. Just to be greeted by surprising twist in the plot, highly unexpected and well fitted, for whichever ending you choose, and there are more than just right one.
| Parse This You Sonovagun |
This was the first game to add to my collection that had something else than just mouse user-friendly interface. It has text-parsing, and I enjoyed using that even more than just clicking with a mouse up on a certain object of a person. And parsing was fairly well done, and overall entertaining. Not too hard even for newcommers like me (hey, don't blaim me for being too young in the time of text adventures). Combining your own wit with your sight is what makes a real detective out of you, and gives you all the answers.
The Bad
| I Wanna Play |
Well, one thing does make a trembling annoyance in the distance. You can collect clues, proofs, ideas, and what all not, but you cannot share them. I mean, you can, but it's just as talking into the wind. You can easily die in the game, yet you cannot try and stop any murder in particular. You cannot do any action that might even the odds.
The Bottom Line
| Technicality |
'Tis an outstanding mystery game with lots of adventuring on a rather small ground. I always found fascinating topics in "whodunnit" style, and this game really made a miracle out of it. It has great graphic, especially due to fact it uses 16 colors only. Uses either mouse or keyboard for character movement and interaction with objects and NPCs, and has neat sound effects and music samples whenever they appear. Plus, it offers intriguing story that will keep you guessing and probably second-guessing until the very end. Whatever more can you expect from a decade old game (duh, rethorical).
