Crime Stories: From the Files of Martin Mystère

aka: Das Eulemberg-Experiment, Martin Mystère: Operación Dorian Gray, Martin Mystère: Operation Dorian Gray, Martin Mystère: Operazione Dorian Gray
Moby ID: 16040
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Description official descriptions

An Italian adventure game based on the famous comic Martin Mystère by Alfredo Castelli.

An important M.I.T. researcher, Prof. Eulemberg, was found murdered. Inspector Travis assigns the case to Martin: he immediately begins to investigate together with his girlfriend, Diana, and his helper, Java. Soon he discovers a link between New York and Mexico, where the Prof.'s assistant Alexander was studying an Aztec archaeological site. There, Martin realizes all: Eulamberg was on the source of eternal youth track and... But Mister Jinx lies in wait too...

Classic point and click adventure, with simple interface.

Spellings

  • Мартин Мактайн: операция "Дориан Грей" - Russian spelling

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Screenshots

Credits (Windows version)

81 People (72 developers, 9 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 58% (based on 29 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.9 out of 5 (based on 20 ratings with 1 reviews)

Short but interesting to a certain point

The Good
Being so close to the Italy, my country publishes abundance of italian comics, one of them indeed is Martin Mystery. However, never was interested in that one, nor Dylan Dog, I was more into Zagor, Tex or Alan Ford (speaking of which, those would make much better adventures if only someone would use them). But when it comes to a 3rd-person point and click adventures, I don't select much, I pick almost immediately. I must say I was expecting this game to be on much higher level of production, at least something on par with amazing Moment of Silence, but alas, it was not nearly as rich. Still, in its own simpleness, it's a fine adventure that reminds me of certain LucasArts classics.

The graphic is amazing, but everything is pretty much static backdrop hence the quality. The music, for little it seemed present, is also fantastic, loved the Veracruz theme. So, in this game you meet the protagonist, Martin, his ever-trusty companion Java, and Martin's wife. For simplicity it presents, this game certainly gives us plenty to like. That way looking, it's very similar to MGS2 which was so rich in what all we could do in that game, but game was over so quickly we probably didn't get chance to try half of those things. A similar feeling was stenciled on me after finishing this game.

The Bad
Voice-acting although good has badly implemented pauses during conversation so it sounds like sentence it finished and new one comes for something like this...

I wanted to tell you that

I don't think it is a good idea to

come looking for me because

it may get very dangerous.

...so what we hear is only what we see as subtitles until it switches to new screen. It even sounds as if they were recorded as separate sentences, it's really not something you'd expect to see in game from 2004/5 no matter how new the company is. But okay, you can click near the end of sentence to switch to new and somehow make your listening more pleasant.

Next thing, text is way too fast. Yeah, all of you bookworms won't have trouble with it but for some slow-poco like me, I need to look at some item twice to read what I missed the first time. That is because there is no voice-acting there, so whether sentence has three words or thirteen, it will hold on equally long on the screen. That can be very unsettling when there is lots of things to check and long elaborations of each.

And the last thing, which is subjective, is the story. I didn't like it at all. Not how it's been done. Maybe it just didn't capture my interest enough, but just didn't make the cut, and characters didn't either. And that bad girl seems like a replica of the blondie from Broken Sword 3. Seems the only good things in this game were actually graphics and the music as far as I can tell. Of course, I can never say no to any 3rd-person point 'n' click adventure, so I also like it for just being that.

The Bottom Line
The game doesn't feel short, it is short, so don't use any walkthroughs or you won't like the outcome of purchasing it. I can't say I remember more than 30 different locations (by that I mean 5-6 actual locations, just each with couple different static shots), but day/night adds a bit of difference to it. Also, it looks much more realistic than in games where you need to pass half the globe to unravel the mystery. For all the MM comics fans this game was probably for some time on the wish list, but otherwise it's just another mediocre adventure game pulled out from a long series of episodes. From what I could tell, this could be a single episode put into the game. But honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing fifty more to come.

Windows · by MAT (240759) · 2012

Trivia

Extras

Various versions of the game including the North American launch by The Adventure Company, include a copy of the 'Operation Dorian Gray' lead-in from Alfred Castelli's Martin Mystere comic to provide some background for the adventure ahead.

German version

When the German version was released in 2006, it received generally unfavourable reviews from the gaming press. The three most important magazines at the time rewarded 66% (PC Games), 51% (GameStar) and 46% (PC Powerplay). The German publisher Most Wanted Games reacted with an open letter in which they directly attacked the magazines. In particular they complained about the differences in the evaluation of certain aspects of the game (German synchronisation, story, controls and puzzles). The headline of the letter says "The sun burns hot on the heads of some editors" and later they write, roughly translated: "Sleepy and unmotivated - this probably applies to some editors of German gaming magazines who have to solve hard puzzles in badly air-conditioned rooms and then take their frustration out on an adventure which does not deserve the ridicule."

The whole letter in German direct quote:

Erste Presse-Echos

Die Sonne brennt heiß - auch auf die Köpfe mancher Redakteure!

Ob PC Games, Gamestar oder PC PowerPlay - die deutschen Redaktionen ächzen unter der Hitzewelle. Verständlich, dass man sich da zwischendurch auch mal ordentlich Luft machen will. So kam wohl "Das Eulemberg-Experiment" für manchen Redakteur genau zum richtigen Zeitpunkt, um Dampf abzulassen. Regelrecht vorgeführt wird das Spiel von Mick Schnelle (Gamestar) und Georg Valtin (PC PowerPlay).

Dabei ist die Bandbreite der Meinungen beträchtlich: satte 30 Prozent liegen die schlechteste Wertung und die beste Wertung in den drei genannten Magazinen auseinander! Scheinbar gibt es keinerlei Konsens in deutschen Redaktionsstuben darüber, was ein gutes Adventure ist und was nicht. Selbst in absoluten Grundsatzfragen gehen die Meinungen weit auseinander: während PC PowerPlay kein gutes Haar an der Geschichte von "Das Eulemberg-Experiment" lässt, wird diese von PC Games ausdrücklich gelobt: sie sei "bröckelsicher programmiert", souverän auf Adventure-Fans zugeschnitten und gewinne sobald der Tatort erreicht sei, sofort an Fahrt.

Diese Differenzen der Wahrnehmung zeigen sich bei der Bewertung von fast allen Aspekten des Spiels: deutsche Sprecher (PC Games: schlecht, PC PowerPlay: gut), Rätsel/Aufgaben (PC PowerPlay: zu leicht, PC Games: gut, Gamestar: schlecht), Steuerung (PC Games: standard, PC PowerPlay & Gamestar: schlecht).

Bei näherer Betrachtung lösen sich die meisten negativ gewerteten Punkte somit in Luft auf. Die atmosphärischen Kameraschwenks und Perspektivenwechsel, die für ein filmähnliches Flair sorgen, werden von Gamestar verdammt, weil... ja warum eigentlich? Weil man dann ja eine andere Perspektive hat! Auch andere Kritikpunkte erscheinen wenig einleuchtend. "Das Eulemberg-Experiment" wurde beispielsweise absichtsvoll so gestaltet, dass Gegenstände, die erst später im Spiel wichtig sein werden, zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt aber kein Verwendungszweck vorliegt, nicht einfach auf Verdacht eingesammelt werden können. Dies führt dazu, dass adventure-typisches "planloses" Abräumen aller Gegenstände auf Verdacht nicht vorkommt, und dass man sich als Spieler zu jedem Zeitpunkt des Spiels tatsächlich Gedanken machen muss, wo man welches Objekt für das aktuelle Problem auffinden kann. Auch exzessives Herumprobieren mit einem völlig überfüllten Inventar voller nutzloser Dinge gehört so der Vergangenheit an. Mick Schnelle von der Gamestar sieht darin aber nichts Positives, sondern beklagt sich lediglich, dass er seine Sammelwut nicht voll ausleben darf!

Es ist schon eine Kunst für sich, alles vom negativst möglichen Standpunkt aus zu betrachten und zu beurteilen. Selbst Wolfgang Pampel, die deutsche Synchronstimme von Harrison Ford, bekommt bei Gamestar und PC PowerPlay sein Fett weg: müde und unmotiviert soll er klingen! Wir wären gespannt zu hören, was er dazu zu sagen hätte.

Müde und unmotiviert - das trifft vielleicht auf manche Redakteure von deutschen Spielemagazinen zu, die in schlecht klimatisierten Räumen knifflige Rätsel lösen müssen und dann ihren Frust an einem Adventure auslassen, das diesen Spott nicht verdient hat. Lassen Sie sich davon nicht den Tag verderben, denn wenn man alle positiv gewerteten Aspekte in den drei genannten Spieletests miteinander kombiniert, dann zeigt sich folgendes Bild: Auf Sie wartet eine souveräne, auf Adventure-Fans zugeschnittene Geschichte im Point & Click-Stil, mit guten deutschen Sprechern, schöner Grafik und guten Rätseln.

In wenigen Tagen werden wir eine Demo von "Das Eulemberg-Experiment" veröffentlichen, anhand dessen Sie sich selbst ein Urteil bilden können!

Puzzles

There is one riddle in the game that actually requires you check the box of the game to solve it - a sort of 'protection' that brings back those old 'wheel' days of Monkey Island and Another World. At one point, Martin will tell you "I frankly don't know the answer to this riddle, but I'm sure if I check the package that came along with the game the answer will come to me". Just lift the cover out of the dvd box and look behind it.

The US version of this game comes in a cardboard box, and the answer to the riddle is not printed on the box itself, but on a piece of paper... eliminating the "wow" factor that the original clue had.

Information also contributed by Foxhack and rstevenson

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Ghost Pirate.

Additional contributors: Jeanne, lobo rojo, Sciere, MDMaster, Stratege, Masood_Matin, Patrick Bregger.

Game added December 24, 2004. Last modified September 25, 2023.