Emerald City Confidential is a mystery adventure based on the universe of the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Rather than a direct adaptation, familiar characters such as Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion are shifted into a 1940s film noir setting with a much grimmer atmosphere.

Players control Petra, a private detective in Emerald City, who investigates mysterious cases for a living. She is contacted by a rich woman Dee Gale who asks her to find her fiancé Anzel who has disappeared. Through her investigation, Petra finds out more about the city, the surroundings and the way it is controlled. The story is told in five chapters and soon Petra's past is interwoven into the main story as the plot thickens.

The game is controlled like a regular point-and-click 2D adventure from a thirdperson perspective with hand-drawn graphics. The mouse is used for all actions and there no different commands or options to choose from. The inventory is shown at the bottom and through the story Petra will eventually get access to magic potions and spells that are stored in the bottom right of the screen.

Compared to earlier Wadjet Eye Games, in terms of gameplay it has a more casual approach. Players can optionally collect buttons in the surroundings in almost every screen, there are achievements (medals) to unlock and there is an in-game hint system where the solution to puzzles is gradually revealed, making it almost impossible to get stuck permanently. Petra can talk to characters using a tree dialogue system and important conversations and clues are stored in a journal. A tutorial introduces the mechanics in the early parts of the game and puzzle are largely inventory and conversation based. New and solved quests are also shown on the screen, as well as a progress bar for the overall completion of the game.

Unlike the previous Wadjet Eye Games, the AGS engine is not used and a much larger team worked on the game. All characters are voiced, along with subtitles where the dialogue is transcribed.

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