The Sydney Mystery

Details: Category: Computer; By ccgr; 01.Jun; Hits: 7851

Story

Your uncle left you a message on your answering machine to see him immediately. Once you get to his house, you discover it has been the site of a crime scene. Your uncle is missing! He?s a good private investigator; perhaps he?s found out too much about the recent bombings. You must him, find out who took him, and why!

Game Play

This adventure game is quite fun and I enjoyed playing it. I must admit that I had to use a walkthrough at times; some of the puzzles are easy to miss. There are some easy ones and a few toughies, but nothing too far fetched. When you first start the game you have to find three keys to your uncle?s safe. Of course they are not all in the same spot. Talk to everyone you can, as they have the ability of unlocking more areas for you to explore!

Interface

The game engine is pretty easy to use since it?s all mouse driven. You can look and interact with various objects. You can access your inventory by right clicking and scrolling through it with each right click. Be sure to look closely at your surroundings. Although most of the items you can collect stand out, a few blend in and are hard to see. Also some of the areas are easy to miss, so try approaching things from different angles to make sure you explore everything. If you really like the game engine, there is a free hobbyist version on the disc for you to play with.

Graphics

This game is mostly photo and movie driven. The photos are gorgeous and make Australia look good. The resolution is low, however, as the whole game is only at 640x480 and you can tell. The movies blend into the pictures pretty smoothly but the quality varies a bit. The actors do a pretty good job. My only other complaint is that in the end one of the ?bad guy? actors portrays a cop hauling a criminal away. At least make them change outfits next time. ;)

Sound

The background music is nice and changes with every area you visit. A couple of the songs are repetitive, but I guess you can?t like them all. The voice acting is good but sometimes the volume varies and is hard to understand. There should be some more volume normalizing when switching back and forth from movies to conversations.

Appropriate?

This game has some violence but it?s edited out for the most part. You see a violent scene about to happen, and boom they are down. There are some naked statues in the fountain, does that count as nudity? Beer is one of the inventory items in the game but it is not consumed. Finally one of the ?bad guys? says the other word for Hades.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this game and it?s a great first title from Twilight Software. Granted it has some rough edges, but it pulls it off in the end. They did a great job and I look forward to their future titles. I would recommend this game to any adventure lover. There?s a demo of ACT 1 available. (There are 4 Acts in total.)