Goin' Downtown

New York in the year 2072 isn't a very nice place to live. The population is divided into two groups: the ones that pay taxes and can afford security and the ones that live by the law of the street. In the middle is the police man Jake McCorly. Before the violent death of his wife, he accepted that he is only paid for every arrest. One day, after an explosion in his street, he finds the prostitute Rose unconscious and takes her up to his apartment. But before he can get to know her, she jumps out of the window. Since no one pays for the investigation into her death, Jake decides to take matters in his own hands and goes on a journey during which he will slowly realize what is really going on - a journey which will show him what's really happin' Downtown.

The player guides Jake on his journey in a typical Point & Click-Adventure. Completely controlled by the mouse Jake pics up items, talks with the many characters in each scene in multiple-choice dialogues and solves riddles by following the clues from the dialogues and using the items at the right place. But this isn't as easy as it sounds because the character the player may be looking for, might not be at the location at the time Jake arrives. Each screen features a day and a night setup. So while at the day Jake will find his not-so-friendly boss Edward at the police station, he won't be there at night. Instead a co-worker will sit there and talk to Jake. The player can switch instantaneously between both scenes by pressing a button on the interface.

In addition to the day/night-cycle, later in the game Jake gets access to a machine that allows him to visit a location in the past and even, to a limit degree, interact with the environment and even persons there. The machine, called CIS, collects the data of all security camera in the city and uses the footage to recreate the scenes.

Also the game features cell-shaded graphics, the overall theme is more that of an adult-oriented SciFi-Psychothriller in a Film Noir-style presentation than something for kids.