Inventory 17 - September 2004

8/14/2019 Inventory 17 - September 2004

1/44


2/44

Contents:

Prologue 1

Previews 2

Law and Order: Justice is Served 2

Games Convention 2004 5

Gossip 9

Lounge 10

Craig Brannon 10

DTP 16

Reviews 22

Sherlock Holmes: The Silver Earring 22

CSI 2: Dark Motives 26

Apprentice 2 29

Dark Fall 2: Lights Out 31

Extra 35

Bits and Bytes 35

Invento-mail 38

Epilogue 41


3/44

Before I begin with the prologue, I would like to

thank Andrew Poulos, Rene Schnoor, Vicky

Harrison and all the rest of our fans who

donated money before the summer for The

Inventory. The new Inventory is dedicated to you guys.

Now, I want to welcome you all to our new Inventory. As

you will notice yourselves, we changed our layout once

more. We also added a couple of new members in our

team, Ben Keeney and Oliver Gruener. Ben wrote two

excellent reviews this month (Sherlock Holmes and DarkFall 2). Oliver has taken on himself the challenge of

informing adventurers on everything hardware, in his

new column Bits and Bytes.

Jan Schneider, editor of Adventure-treff.de, was

kind enough to write a guest article about Games

Convention 2004, a German games expo that probably

featured more adventure games than any other expo in

the world. We also feature special coverage on the Law

and Order games. We preview the upcoming first per-

son Justice is Served, that will be loyal to the previousL&O games, and we also feature an interview with Craig

Brannon, producer of Criminal Intent. Criminal Intent will

be different than the rest of the L&O games, as it will be

seen from a 3rd person perspective.

But thats not all yet. The people from DTP, pro-

bably the biggest publisher of adventure games in

Europe, are once more in our Lounge to talk to us about

their upcoming games. And what a line-up that is. Tony

Tough 2, Moment of Silence, Nibiru and Sherlock

Holmes: The Silver Earring. Furthermore, Justin Peeplestells us what he thought of the sequel to the award-win-

ning AGS adventure, The Apprentice. Last but not least,

you can also read what the new installment of the CSI

series has to offer in our review.

Well, Id better stop rambling on now and let you

enjoy the 17th issue of The Inventory. I hope you enjoy

it.

Dimitris Manos

Credits

Editor:Dimitris Manos

Authors/Contributors:Dimitris ManosJustin PeeplesBen KeeneyOliver GruenerJan Schneider

Host:www.justadventure.com

Layout:Dimitris Manos

Cover Art:Law and Order: Criminal Intent

Contact Information

Address:The Inventory MagazineGrankottevgen 55 Arebro 702 82

SwedenE-mail address:[email protected]

Phone No:+46702053444

Other Editions

Italian:

www.pollodigomma.net/~theinventoryRussian:www.questzone.ru

Copyright Note:The Inventory is copyright Dimitris Manos

and may not be reprinted elsewhere with-

out the express written consent of the

owner. If anyone sees The Inventory or

portions of The Inventory posted some-

place without express written consent,

then please contact us at:

[email protected]

Prologue
http://www.justadventure.com/http://www.pollodigomma.net/~theinventoryhttp://www.questzone.ru/http://www.questzone.ru/http://www.pollodigomma.net/~theinventoryhttp://www.justadventure.com/


4/44

PREVIEWSLaw and Order: Justice is Served | GC 2004

2 September 2004

Legacy Interactive have esta-blished themselves as one ofthe leading companies in theadventure genre with their Law andOrder series. Every new installmentseems to be improved in manyways compared to its predecessorsand the people from LegacyInteractive appear to take criticisminto great consideration.

Justice is Served is nowthe 3rd game of the series. Thegameplay is divided again in twoparts, investigation and trial. Thegame starts when 20-year-old ten-nis star Elena Kusarova is founddead in the locker rooms, one weekbefore the beginning of the USopen. The autopsy reveals she isloaded with one of the new, almostundetectable performance drugs.The only problem is determining ifthis is a murder, a suicide or anaccidental drug overdose?You take the role of a detective andwith the help of the detectivesLennie Briscoe and Ed Green youwill have to find out the truth behindElenas sudden death. As playerstrack down leads, they will unravela complex mystery involving bitterrivalries, overzealous fans, unhap-py love affairs, and long-buriedfamily secrets. Just like in a Lawand Order TV episode.

When you have brought it

down to one suspect, you will takethe role of District Attorney and withthe help of Serena Southerlyn youwill try to convince the jury that thesuspect is guilty. Those who have

already played the previous Lawand Order games are alreadyaware of the process and will pro-bably feel right at home withJustice is Served. When it comes tostory, More, more and more isapparently Legacy Interactivesmoto. The script this time is 500pages compared to a 300-pagesscript of Law and Order 2. Playerswill also get to meet 40 characters(30 in L&O 2) and visit 30 locations(22 in L&O2). So it seems like wehave a much longer game ahead ofus .

As far as graphics are con-cerned Legacy has not changedmuch that would make us speak ofsomething far better than the pre-vious L&O games. The engine used

Below:Jerry Orbach stars once more as

Detective Lennie Briscoe in the new Law

and Order game.

Below:When you have a suspect in

custody , you will return to the court

and attempt to nail a conviction with

the help of Serena Southerlyn

Law & Order:

Justice is Served

One of the girls that discovered the dead

body


5/44


3September 2004

is the same with the previousgames. The character models looksharper due to an increase in polys(from 12000 to 40000) and the reso-lution of the game has increasedfrom 640x480 to 800x600.Furthermore the developers areusing some improved rendering

techniques. Apart from these impro-vements however, you will oncemore teleport from one predetermi-ned spot to the next instead of wal-king through a real-time 3D environ-ment. On the other hand the upco-ming Law & Order: Criminal Intentgame will use a different graphicsengine, but more on that title in ourLounge later on.

The voice-overs of the L&Ogames have always been top-notch,since the developers have used theactors of the TV-series to cast theirrespective characters. Justice isServed is no exception to that ruleeither. This time around, additionalcast member Jesse L. Martin has

joined in to give his voice for thedetective Ed Green character.

Justice is Served will also feature acameo role by professional tennisstar Patrick McEnroe. We are assu-red therefore that Justice is Served

will reach the high levels of audiothat its predecessors had.

The biggest changes thoughcome with the gameplay. The inter-face has been redesigned fromscratch. The biggest difference com-pared to the previous L&O adventu-res is that the case file has been

completely eliminated! The evidencethat the player will collect throughoutthe case will be stored in an invento-ry area at the bottom of the screenthat will be available at all times.These items are broken up into thecategories of evidence, witnesses,documents, and reports. This allowsthe player to more easily find whatthey are looking for, rather than

going to a full screen case file thatcontains all types of evidence grou-ped together, something that takesthem out of the environment of thegame . Players will be able to askpeople about anything in their inven-tory, in addition to asking them inter-view questions. The forms forrequesting lab tests and submittingwarrants are now located on the

desk in the precinct and A.D.A's offi-ce, so the player will drag items fromtheir inventory into these forms.

One more important diffe-

rence is that this time you wont beable to select skills in the beginningof the game. The mobile phone willhave increased functionality and itwill play a bigger role than what itused to do. Players can dial out andconduct interviews by phone in addi-tion to receiving incoming messa-

ges. Some witnesses will only beavailable by phone, and some willonly be available in person. In orderto complete the game the player willneed to call certain witnesses oncethey find their phone numbers.

The developers promisedalso more variety in tasks and pro-blem-solving. They claim to havemore creative puzzles in this game,

including a musical puzzle to open amusic box, an audio puzzle thatrequires the player to assemble bitsof recorded surveillance audio, apattern puzzle involving antiqueUkrainian dolls, an anagram puzzle,a puzzle involving matching an oldtypewriter to a document typed on it,and many more.

One similarity with the pre-

vious games is that it is possible toloose. To begin with, it is possible toarrest the wrong suspect. Somethingwhich will make your case impos-

Top Left:Jimmy, one of the 40 characters that you will meet in Justice is Served

Bottom Left:Justice is Served will feature much more problem solving than its predecessors.

Here you can see a pattern puzzle involving Ukranian antique dolls

Right:Another character called Dmitri. Did you notice the large number of Ukrainian dolls in there...


6/44

Developer:

Legacy Interactive

Perspective:

1st person

Interface:

Point and clickSite:

www.lawandordergame.com

Release Date:

20/9/2004


4 September 2004

sible from the first day in trial. Sobe careful before you issue thatarrest warrant! But even if you doarrest the right suspect you mightnot win the game. You have to pre-sent the jury with a very strongcase.

Legacy Interactive onlyrecently released an online demoon the official website of the game.It is difficult to draw any conclu-sions from that short demo, but afew things we noticed is that nowyou can send an item to the crimelab automatically as soon as youpick it up. The inventory on the bot-tom of the screen seemed muchmore intuitive than the previouscase file. The case file used to berather problematic and it is a greatadvantage for Justice is Servedthat the developers got rid of it.

In the previous Law andOrder games there were not somany obstacles apart from findingthe right evidence and asking theright questions. Now immediatelyafter you start playing, you arefaced with a problem, involving alocked cabinet. You have to find theright combination in order to gainaccess to Elenas cabinet. How thisis going to work remains to beseen. I hope the developers didntgo out of their way tacking in pro-

blems and puzzles all over theplace just for the sake of makingthe game longer. But as alreadystated, this is not possible to makeout just from the short demo.

I am also reluctant to com-ment on the new interface, sincethe online demo uses Flash and Iexpect the interface to be comple-tely different in the game. In one ofthe screenshots however you cansee that although the notebook hasbeen replaced with a frame featu-ring questions, the frame still takesup half of the screen.

Despite these little issueshowever, it seems like LegacyInteractive might have found theright formula for the L&O seriesand they continue to improve it witheach new installment. Hopefullywhen they develop the fourth onethey will update the graphics engi-ne as well. Nevertheless, Justice isServed seems to shape up an onemore solid experience with a comp-lex plot, top quality acting and animproved interface. If the gameplayis also on par, then we dont havemuch to worry about. Look forJustice is Served in your local sto-res this month.

- Dimitris Manos

You cant have a L&O game without dead

bodies

Detective Ed Green will help you in your

investigation

Above & Left:Tennis players will be a

prominent type of characters in Justice is

Served. The notepad has been replaced,but the questions unfortunately still cover

almost half of the screen.
http://www.lawandordergame.com/http://www.lawandordergame.com/


7/44


5September 2004

Everybody knows E3 and ECTS, but what is

Games Convention you might ask? It's a large

trade show in Leipzig (Germany) for PC and con-

sole games which was founded in 2002 and took

place for the third time this year, with 105000 visitors in 4

days, 1700 journalists from 21 countries and a lot of premie-

res.

The GC was opened with a concert by the

Filmharmonic Orchestra of Prague playing game music, inc-luding classics like the Super Mario Brothers theme or a

Monkey Island medley (yes!) and world premieres like a

piece from Stalker. Also the Games Convention was

accompanied by the developers conference GCDC fea-

turing speakers like Bob Bates (Eric the Unready) or

Cevat Yerli (Far Cry). The trade show itself was divi-

ded into two parts: A loud part for the general public,

like the E3, and a business center for people from

the industry and journalists to meet and talk

about the games.I was there to report for our German adventure

gaming site Adventure-Treff.de and had some meetings with

publishers and developers. Since the majority of adventure

game developers come from Europe and the Games

Convention took place before the other big European

gaming show in London, I think Leipzig was a pretty interes-

ting place to be for adventure fans, especially if you had

access to the business center.

Some of the news from there didn't get much atten-

tion internationally so Dimitris gave me the opportunity towrite an article for The Inventory. Maybe it will help to give

the Games Convention even more international publicity

next year.

Games

Convention2004Jan Schneider from Adventure-treff.de brings us the latest news

from Games Convention 2004, the expo that is probably the

richest in adventure games than any other around the world.
http://www.adventure-treff.de/http://www.adventure-treff.de/


8/44


6 September 2004

Probably you remember that

funny old school adventure

about the smart ass detective

Tony Tough who recoveredhis purple tapir from an evil

guy with a pumpkin on his

head. On this year's GC the

German publisher dtp, who is

responsible for many adven-

tures here, announced toget-

her with Prograph Research,

the Italian developer, that a

prequel is in development

and will hit the German shel-ves in February 2005. "Tony

Tough: A Rake's Progress"

will tell a story from Tony's

youth, more precise his first

case. Some questions from

the first game will be explai-

ned, e.g. why Tony is attrac-

ted to wigs or why he has a

purple tapir. The

game takes place on

one day and is split

into 15 small episo-des. Those who liked

the humor in Night

of the Roasted

Moths won't be

disappointed

from the next

game. Technically A Rake's

Progress will use the engine

of Prezzemolo, Prograph's

last game, so backgroundsand characters will be pre-

rendered. Tony will be con-

trolled by a classic point &

click interface. So prepare for

a classic adventure game

that looks better than part 1.

Tony Tough 2

The development team of

Black Mirror now uses their

great point & click engline to

do a modern remake of

their first adventure, Posel

Bohu aka TheMessenger of the

Gods. It is about a

Czech archeologist

who examines an

old tunnel from

World War II and

soon finds himself

drawn into a complex

adventure story, inspi-

red by legends likeIndiana Jones. In

Leipzig we had a look at

the first playable version

of the game and it

looks pretty much like Black

Mirror: Excellent background

graphics, less pretty preren-

dered characters. The puzzle

we played was about getting

into a hotel by convincing anold woman to help us.

Very old school adventu-

re type. In English spea-

king countries Black

Mirror stayed behind its

potential due to a weak

localization, but that

aside it was a very good

game. So keep an eye on

Nibiru, although it mightchange its name before the

release. At least my expec-

tations are pretty high.

Nibiru: Messenger of theGods

Still not much was

revealed about the

highly anticipated

sequel of Runaway: ARoad Adventure.

The game starts in

Hawaii where Brian

and Gina spend

some days off, but

there is not much

time to relax: Brian

will have to save

Ginas life, he will

wander throughthick forests, beau-

tiful beaches and

snowy mountains

and solve mysteries

of ancient civiliza-

tions. There are 25+

characters in the

game (including

Sushi), 6 chap-

ters and 100+ back-grounds. The sequel will be

longer than Runaway, feature

better videos and lip sync dia-

logs. But what exactly happens

to Brian and Gina is still a sec-

ret.

Runaway 2

Nibiru

Runaway 2


9/44


7September 2004

Still LifeThe very stylish looking Still

Life, which is developed by

the Syberia team, was notonly shown but even play-

able in the public part of the

Games Convention. As far

as it was possible to experi-

ence in the hectic environ-

ment of the exhibition hall it

has a great atmosphere and

is graphically on par with the

beautiful Syberia - although

it has a completely differentsetting. The part we played

seemed to be the beginning

of the game. The player cha-

racter, a not so much stereo-

type female, had to investi-

gate a crime scene in a very

run down, shabby apart-

ment, a very sad and

depressing place. The walls

are smeared with graffiti,naked dolls are dangling

from the ceiling, this is not a

place you'd like to be. The

gameplay in this part was a

bit Sherlock Holmes style:

You have to use your investi-

gation tools to collect evi-

dence and search the place

for interesting stuff like hairs

and blood. When Still Life isreleased in Q1 2005, it could

be a very good game.

Genevieve Lord, the producer of

Myst IV, gave us a presentation

of her new game at the booth of

Ubisoft. There are many pre-

views around the net, so there is

probably not much new to say

about it except that most Myst

fans will love it and most, but not

all, Myst haters will hate it.

Same procedure as every Myst.I was very impressed by the

amount of motion they put in the

prerendered backgrounds.

Many animations, fog, water

ripples, insects, animals, wind in

the plants and much more

movement create a living world.

I was also impressed by the

amount of data: Myst IV comes

on two DVDs with 13 GB ofdata. Wow. I also asked

Genevieve Lord if she can tell

us anything about Something

Else, the super secret next

game Cyan is working on since

finishing Uru. She wasn't allo-

wed to tell us anything, but she

said that it will be "really somet-

hing else, something completely

different". Draw your ownconclusions, but my hopes to

see a new adventure game by

Cyan sank.

Myst IV andsomething...else

Geneviene Lord, producer of Myst IV


10/44


8 September 2004

And there was more. Clever& Smart(aka Fred & Jeff) is a

very charming 2D comic

adventure from Spain featu-

ring the two cartoon detecti-

ves who are famous especial-

ly in Europe. The game will

have a weird story, the exact

same look as the cartoons,

very interesting puzzles and a

multiplayer option: you will beable to play both main cha-

racters simultaneous with a

friend over a network or the

internet. We also saw an

early playable version of

Sentinel, the next game by

the developers of Schizm 2,

using the same engine and

being less linear. If you liked

Schizm 2, you will like thisone.

The Moment of

Silence, a very promising

conspiracy thriller developed

in Germany, was first shown

to journalists two years ago at

GC 2002. Now, almost done,

it was shown at GC for the

third time. When House of

Tales, the developer, puts insome more characters to

make the world more lively,

then this will be a truly great

game. The German version

will feature the German voi-ces of Bruce Willis, Julia

Roberts and Guybrush

Threepwood (yeah!) and hit

the shelves October 1st,

many international deals are

already signed. So keep an

eye on it!

And finally we had a

look at an adventure for mobi-

le phones by the same deve-loper. It's called X-Files: The

Deserter, features Mulder

and Scully solving a mysterio-

us case and is distributed by

Elkware.

Oh, and a fully playable ver-

sion of Larry 8 was available

to the public, but the two live

action strippers promoting the

game were really the bestpart. Expect some serious

laughs if you like puberal

humor, but don't expect an

adventure game.

I hope I was able to

convince you that Games

Convention in Leipzig is more

than a national gaming event

but really has international

relevance, also and especial-ly for adventure gamers. See

you next year at GC 2005.

- Jan Schneider

Adventure MayhemBelow:Clever and Smart, an adventure

based on the famous comics characters

Playing adventures on the go? Just make

sure you dont run out of battery.

A panoramic view of the place where the

exhibition was held.


11/44

GOSSIP

9September 2004

The Adventure Company announced recentlythat they have acquired the rights for The

Westerner. For some... reason TAC has alsodecided to rename The Westerner intoWanted: A Wild Western Adventure for theNorth American market. Why? We will neverknow. No matter how much you think about it,you wont find much logic in the decision.Anyway, the good news is that the game (no2 in our most awaited adventures list in issue16) is being published. The Westerner will beavailable in the end of September. For more

info on The Westerner read our preview andinterview with the developers in the 12th issueof The Inventory.

TAC publishes the

Westerner

Publisher looking for adventures?

Developer looking for publishers?If you answered yes to any ofthe above questions then we

might be able to help you. Sincewe started writing The Inventorywe have managed to come incontact with a lot of developersand publishers and we have hel-ped developers to find publis-hers for their adventures. So ifyou are a developer looking for apublisher, or a publisher lookingfor adventures to sign, send us

an email at:

[email protected] andwe will make sure to bring you in

touch with the right people. Allthis is of course free of charge.After all, when more adventuresare being published it is betterfor all of us. We currently havesome very active publishers inthe European market looking for3rd person story-based adventu-res. So if you fit the bill you mightwant to give it a go!

White Birds Productions has informed us thatthings have been progressing well with LostParadise. They are currently in negotiations

with publishers and they hope to make anannouncement in September.

News on Benoit Sokals

Lost Paradise

Boyz dont cry

announced by JARandy Sluganski from Just Adventure recentlypreviewed a new point and click cartoonadventure from Poland, called Boyz dont cry.Its offbeat graphics style make it stand outfrom the rest of the upcoming adventuregames and their homepage is certainly worthchecking out at: www.boyzdontcry.com

We are looking for Public Relations staff. Your duties will include

creating and maintaining agreements with advertisers that willfinancially support our efforts with the magazine. Salary will begiven in the form of commission. All aplicants interested, send anemail to [email protected] with the title 'PR Staff'

The Inventory is looking

for Public Relations Staff

New European website for

adventure games

The last couple of years the adventure market has literally boo-med in the European Union. There are two or three publishers inmany European countries fighting over new titles, something thatwe could not even dream of some years ago. Therefore the teambehind The Inventory is preparing a new website for adventuregames, with a strong focus on the European market. If you comefrom Europe and you would like to join our efforts please send usan email at [email protected] with the title AdventureEurope. We are looking for:

- programmers- designers- writers

- translators- forum moderators

Announcements:

New website for 8, a

new 3D adventureTale of Tales have launched their new websitefor their upcoming 3D adventure called 8. You

can visit their website and check out thebeautiful screenshots from the game as wellat: http://tale-of-tales.com/8/ . 8 looks wonder-ful and the developers are currently in searchfor publishers.
http://www.boyzdontcry.com/http://tale-of-tales.com/8/http://tale-of-tales.com/8/http://www.boyzdontcry.com/


12/44

THE LOUNGECraig Brannon | DTP

10 September 2004

Yourself

- Craig, could you give us some

background on yourself?I'm the Director of Development forAdventure Games here at LegacyInteractive. I have a doctorate inEducational Psychology and have

been involved in this industry forover 15 years. When I first startedin this business, I was developingeducational software. As the indust-ry has shifted toward more enterta-inment products, I've gone alongfor the ride.

- Have you worked on any of the

previous L&O games?I was one of the producers on the

original Law & Order game alongwith Christina Talyor Oliver. Shehas taken the lead on producingthe second and now the third Law& Order games, but I've still beeninvolved in the development ofthose games while working onother projects, including Law &Order: Criminal Intent.

- Do you play adventures games

in general and if so could you

name some of your favourite

ones?Yes, I do play adventure games

whenever I find the time. GrimFandango and The Seventh Guestare two of my favorite classicadventure games. Syberia andRunaway are probably two of mymore recent favorite adventuregames.

Law & Order: CriminalIntent

- Could you tell us what is the

story of the game about?There are actually three differentstories to tell. One thing that isquite different about Law & Order:Criminal Intent from the other Law& Order games is that there are

four different cases to solve. Thefirst three cases feature three total-ly different situations with variousvictims from all walks of life. Thetwists really come in with the fourthcase when you will have to try toconnect them all together. Here's alittle sample of the story: Ambitiousprosecutor Martin Ramirez is foundfloating in the East River, with multi-

ple stab wounds in his body. Abeautiful young woman, LisaShipley, is murdered in a hotelroom. Her wrists are slashed with arazor, a plastic bag tied around her

InterviewwithCraig BrannonThe Law and Order games have been some of the most successful adventures recently.Legacy Interactive have decided therefore to continue publishing titles based on the Law and

Order franchise. This time, they go even further by producing two adventures based on the

Law & Order franchise. The first one, called Justice is Served is based on the Law and Order

series and is similar to the previous L&O games. The second one, is a brand new series

based on the popular L&O spin-off, Criminal Intent. Criminal Intent will be the first adventure

in the L&O series that will be seen from a 3rd person perspective. We invited Craig Brannon,

producer of L&O: Criminal Intent to answer some of our questions about their upcoming

adventure.

One thing that is

quite different aboutLaw & Order:

Criminal Intent from

the other Law &

Order games is that

there are four diffe-

rent cases to solve.


13/44


11September 2004

head and, interestingly, a pillowca-se draped over her face. BankExecutive James Walton is blud-geoned to death by a baseball-batwielding assailant, in the foyer ofhis home. Once all three murdersare solved, Detective Goren beginsto realize that the cases are some-how connected and must trackdown his most ruthless adversaryto solve the final case.

- The previous L&O games were

written by professional writers

who had worked for the L&O TV

series before. Are you going to

use professional writers from theTV-series this time as well?Absolutely. Maintaining the integri-ty of the brand is always importantto us. One of the things thatmakes the Law & Order televisionseries so great is the smart writing.You never know what twists andturns the story might take. The sto-rylines and dialog for this new

game were written by Elizabeth M.Cosin, who was one of the originalwriters on the Criminal Intent televi-sion series.

- On your website there is men-

tion of Detective Robert Goren

and Captain James Deakins, voi-

ced by the respective actors

Vincent D'Onofrio and Jamey

Sheridan from the TV-series, but

there is no mention of Detective

Alexandra Eames. Does that

mean that she won't appear in

the game? And if so, why did

you decide to keep this character

out of the game?The Detective Eames characterworks great on the TV show.However, we had a hard time figu-

ring out a meaningful role for thatcharacter in the game, when theplayer is taking on the role ofDetective Goren. Remember inBroken Sword 3 how Nico would

follow you around wit-hout much purposewhen you played the roleof George? We didn'twant to do somethingthat. We want to makesure that each characterin the game is as mea-ningful and important asthey are in the show. Ifthat can't happen, it'sbetter just to leave thatcharacter out and stick to what willmake this game great.

- How many characters will we

get to meet and how many loca-tions will we get to visit in

Criminal Intent?Interaction with a multitude of cha-racters is very important to thisgame. There are about 60 spea-king characters and 70 differentlocations in the game. Don't worry,there will be plenty of people tomeet and places to go!

- In what ways will the story ofthe game be similar to the story

that is being portrayed in the TV

series?Just like the TV show, there aremany twists and turns in the plotwith multiple suspects. The casesfocus on tracking down each killerand ultimately getting him or her toconfess. There's no trial aspect tothe game, as the TV show does notfocus on that portion either. Thesituations, characters and dialogare very faithful to how they are onthe television show.

- A big difference compared to

the previous L&O adventures is

that this time we will get to con-

trol one of the main characters of

the series instead of controllingan imaginary intern. Why did you

take that decision and do you

think that in the long run it will

be positive in terms of immer-

The cases focus on

tracking down each

killer and ultimately

getting him or her to

confess. There's no

trial aspect to the

game, as the TV

show does not focus

on that portion either.

Everything will be seen from a third person

perspective in Criminal Intent


14/44


12 September 2004

sion?For one, we wanted to distinguishthis game from our other L&Ogames, which are all first-personperspective. Also, the heart and soulof the TV show is the DetectiveGoren character, so we wanted tomake this character as prominent aspossible. Seeing and controlling acharacter on screen certainly allowsfor more opportunities to identifywith that character, which can help agame feel more immersive.

- Another difference this time

around is that we will get to solve

four cases instead of working onone case. Are these cases con-

nected with each other in any way

or are these cases completely

separate.As I mentioned earlier, the three ini-tial cases seem unrelated at first.After solving them, you learn howthe cases are connected and mustsolve the fourth case. And yes, I'm

being a little vague on purpose sothat I don't give too much away!

- In the website it is also stated:

Utilize Goren's instincts for inter-

rogation by selecting his psycho-

logical approach to witnesses and

potential suspects. Decide if

Goren should try to deceive the

suspect, intimidate him into tal-

king or take another approachaltogether. Does that mean that

the game's story will be non-line-

ar? Can the player witness multi-

ple endings depending on the

choices made earlier in the

game?There will be some non-linearaspects to the game, in that somethings can be performed in any

order whenever possible. However,as you'd expect, it's often the casethat one thing will lead to anotherthing, so it's necessary that you do

the previous thing first. There is asingle "best" ending to each case,which players will hopefully find verysatisfying. A unique feature in thisgame can be found in the dialogwith witnesses and suspects.Dialogs will be topic based, but theplayer must decide what technique

to use when asking about that topic.For some witnesses, the player willget the best information by beingempathetic or by flattering the wit-ness. For others, the player mayhave to be deceptive or confrontatio-nal. Players will have to switchmodes multiple times within inter-views to obtain all the relevant infor-mation. If the player isn't being stra-

tegic, the witness will becomeannoyed and abruptly end the inter-view before all the relevant informa-tion is obtained.

- The most obvious difference

that Criminal Intent will have com-

pared to the previous adventures

produced by Legacy Interactive,

will be its graphics. It is the first

time that you are using a 3rd per-son perspective. Could you tell us

what factors led you to that deci-

sion?Since we have produced other Law

& Order games, we didn't wantpeople to think we would be justswitching out the characters to crea-te this new game. We wanted theentire game-playing experience tobe different. We also wanted toallow the player to be able to seeand interact with the main characterof the show as much as possible.

- Are you going to use real time or

pre-rendered backgrounds?The backgrounds will be pre-rende-red to ensure that they will be of thehighest quality.

- What is the highest resolution

that the game's graphics will

reach?The standard resolution of the gameis 800x600.

- Could you tell us how the came-

ra is going to work in Criminal

Intent? Will the camera angles be

fixed or will the player be able to

change camera angles? Do you

plan to use different camera ang-

les for each dialogue or will thecamera angle stay put throughout

each dialogue?The player will not control the came-ra, as is standard in most third-per-

Detective Goren at the cigar bar


15/44


13September 2004

son adventure games. For visualvariety, the camera angles willchange during some of the longerdialog sequences.

- Could you talk to us about the

music of the game? The previousL&O adventures by Legacy featu-

red very few (to almost none)

music tracks throughout the

game. Is this going to happen in

Criminal Intent as well, or do you

plan to use more tracks this

time?This game will have more musicthan in the previous Law & Order

game, in part because there aremany more locations.

- Except D'Onofrio and Sheridan,

do you plan to use more profes-

sional actors that have appeared

in the TV series for the rest of

the characters?The other two characters on the TVshow (Detective Eames and A.D.A.

Carter) will not appear in the game,as I discussed earlier. However, theroles of Detective Goren andCaptain Deakins are prominent,making it feel very authentic to thetelevision series.

- Do you have any contact with

the actors? Do you know what

they think about the idea of

themselves being characters of a

computer game?I have not met Vincent D'Onofrioyet, but I have heard that he likes toplay computer games. We will berecording his voice-overs in a fewweeks, so hopefully I will be able tomeet him then and ask him what hethinks.

- Let's talk about the gameplay

now. Could you describe to us

how the interface is going to

work in Criminal Intent? Will we

have a normal inventory this time

around or will you use something

similar to the case folder of the

previous L&O games?The interface is a little more high-tech than in our previous Law &Order games. The inventory, map

and cell phone are all contained ina PDA device. Also, as the playerexplores the environments, theplayer can choose to perform avariety of actions (look, use, collect,analyze, talk) on objects and peop-le.

- On your website you make

mention of 'easy to mind bending

puzzles woven into the compel-

ling storylines'. Are these puzzlesgoing to be inventory-based or

something similar to 'put the

shredded pieces of paper toget-

her' puzzle we saw in L&O:

Double or Nothing? Could you

give us one or two examples of

puzzles that the players will have

to solve in the game?

Given that our games take place inmodern-day New York (in which theTV series is set), coming up withpuzzles that work within that worldis challenging. There's more puzzlefreedom when the game is set in amagical or ancient world. With thatsaid, I think we've come up withsome fun and organic puzzles givenour constraints. There are a variety

of puzzles, from some simple inven-tory-based ones, some classic ones(jigsaw, password, keys) as well assome non-standard puzzles (suchas a partially completed crosswordpuzzle).

- It is also stated that before sol-

ving each case, players will get

to build a profile based on real-

life criminal profiling techniques.

Could you describe to us in deta-il how will that work? Could you

also tell us what kind of research

did you have to carry out to

come up with this kind of infor-

mation for the purposes of the

game?As the player collects evidence, wit-ness testimony, and test results, the

player can submit those things to aCriminal Profiler computer. Itemsthat are relevant will help build acriminal profile for the case (suchas the killer's personality, characte-ristics and motive). Once a strongprofile is created, the player cancompare suspects to the criminalprofile to see if a strong matchexists. A match must be made in

order to complete the case.We worked closely with a forensicpsychiatrist to create these criminalprofiles. Since real criminal profilesare quite long and detailed, we hadto simplify them somewhat so thatthey would work within the fram-ework of the game. We hope thatbuilding these criminal profiles willbe interesting and entertaining for

players.- Will you use some similar featu-

re to the choice of skills that

players had to go through in the

beginning of the previous L&O

games?Because you play Detective Gorenwho already has a strong personali-ty, we didn't feel that choosing skillsor characteristics would be approp-

riate for this game. We really wan-ted to feature Detective Goren andall of his unique personality charac-teristics that you watch each weak.That great thing about DetectiveGoren's personality is that it is everchanging to match the person he isinterrogating. We think this is a funaspect of the character that wedidn't want to muddy.

- When will Criminal Intent be

released?The game will be released in Springof 2005.


16/44


14 September 2004

- Do you plan to release a play-

able demo before that?Yes, we plan on having a demo inearly 2005.

- When you designed Criminal

Intent which demographic didyou mostly think of? The people

who are avid gamers or the

people who watch the TV show?We are trying to please fans of theshow, adventure gamers and casu-al gamers (who may have neverseen the TV show) simultaneously.Adventure gamers like puzzles alittle more challenging than casual

gamers and fans of the show, sowe hope we have a balance thatpleases most people.

- One thing that Legacy

Interactive has excelled at is the

promotion of their titles by

aiming at the right demographic

for their games. What kind of

promotion strategies will you use

for Criminal Intent?Thank you for the great compli-ment! Like with many of ourgames, we have strong relations-hips with the brand licensor and thenetworks that the shows air on.We will again try to leverage theseopportunities to put forth as manypromotional partnerships as pos-sible. Additionally, things like the

online demo game and the execu-table demo are great ways to pro-mote to fans like you. Our goal inour promotional strategies is toreally come up with things that willreward the audience with greatcontent, and that is what we will tryto do again.

- Do you think there will be a

sequel to Criminal Intent in the

future?We hope so!

- Is there something else about

Criminal Intent that you would

like to add?One of our goals is for players tofeel like they've stepped into anepisode of Law & Order: CriminalIntent. We hope that the game is

enjoyable for not only fans of theshow, but for anyone who likes psy-chologically oriented mysteries.

General

- Legacy Interactive has already

produced two adventures and is

already producing two more as

we speak. Does that mean that

you are satisfied with the adven-ture genre and do you plan to

release even more adventure tit-

les in the future?We are happy with how well ourLaw & Order games have done sofar. We plan on doing more adven-ture games as long as they aresuccessful. We are also expandingthe types of games we do as well.

In addition to Law & Order: Justiceis Served, we are also releasing agame based on the TV show ERthat will be more of a sim/strategygame. Across the board, regard-less of genre, what Legacy alwaysstrives to do is produce greatgames that are high in quality andentertainment.

- What do you think of the cur-

rent state of adventures? What

has to happen for adventures to

generally improve in quality and

appeal to a wider audience as

well?I think adventure games have roomto grow from where they are now,but they will never be the "king" ofcomputer game genres like they

were many years ago. For adventu-re games to reach a wider audien-ce, I think they will need to try diffe-rent types of stories and characterswith innovative gameplay, and not

We are happy with

how well our Law &

Order games have

done so far. We plan

on doing more adven-

ture games as long as

they are successful.


17/44


15September 2004

just Myst-wannabes. It's a toughtime, as we watch the PC gamemarket continue to shrink. At thesame time, expectations for qualityare increasing and production bud-gets for games are decreasing.Game developers need to becomemore and more efficient about pro-ducing games, which isn't easy!

- We have seen quite a lot of

adventures being based on TV-

series of the investigative form

such as Law and Order and CSI.

Do you think it would be pos-

sible to expand the horizons and

even develop adventures for

other series genres? For examp-

le, comedy has been the theme

for a lot of adventure games in

the past, so could it be possible

to make a high-quality adventure

based on a sitcom such as

Everybody Loves Raymond or

Friends that would appeal to a

large audience?I would love to see a good humo-rous adventure game again.Runaway showed that it still can bedone. As far as something basedon a TV series, I think the showwould have to have some problem-solving or mystery aspect to it inorder to work. The examples yougave are great comedies, but the

shows' plots don't inherently havesomething to solve in them, so pla-cing them in an adventure gamewouldn't seem authentic. Whenworking with a TV license, wealways want to make sure that thegame makes sense and that it willappeal to both gamers and fans ofthe show. It's easy to imagine acomedy like Scooby Doo as an

adventure game since a mysteryelement is inherent (although THQdecided to make them actiongames, as that's probably a betterfit for that audience).

- A series of adventure games

that could be described as verysimilar to the Law and Order

games is CSI. Have you played

the CSI games and if so what do

you think of them?Yes, I've completed both CSIgames. I liked the fact that thedevelopers made improvements inthe sequel (such as difficulty leveland length of gameplay) as well as

added some new features. Theydid a good job of being faithful tothe TV show.

- Is there anything else you

would like to add?We are hard at work building anadventure game that you and yourfans will love. Criminal Intent willoffer a different feel from our otheradventure games. We hope tobring the core adventure fans agame that is classic in style, yet fullof fresh and innovative ideas thatadds to the genre as a whole.Criminal Intent will definitely bringsome diversity in gameplay to ouradventure game line-up. Our goalis to make sure we are providingadventure gamers everywhere withan engaging selection of titles,each one getting better and better.We can't wait to share more withyou as Law & Order: Criminal Intentdevelops!

You can choose how to treat an individual

during a conversation


18/44


16 September 2004

Tony Tough 2

- How come there is a sequel of

Tony Tough? Were the sales

encouraging enough for such a

decision?The sales of Tony Tough weresatisfying, but I would lie if I talkedof a "hit". Tony had several pro-

blems, the most important of it wasthat we got into the pre-Christmasbusiness, were Tony had to fightagainst strong adventures like Uruand Broken Sword. But in somemagazines he got better marks ;-).At the end we got out very well.And then we came up with the ideato have Tony 2 developed and toldPrograph "Go for Tony 2!".

- Is it going to be developed by

the same team that developed

Tony Tough 1?Yes, it will be Prograph again.

- Could you describe to us the

story of Tony Tough 2?It`s very complicated. Basically, it`sone day in Tony`s life as a teena-ger in New Mexico - Tony`s first

case. It`s about a mysterious kid-napper, aliens, wigs, purple dogsand - as the subtitle says "A rake`sprogress".

- Will we get to see characters

from the first game?Tony will be there naturally, but asfar as I know none of the othercharacters.

- Are the graphics going to be

improved compared to Tony

Tough 1 and if yes in what way?Tony goes 3D! The graphics won`tlook like 1995 any longerPrograph uses the same engine asin their kid`s game Prezzemolo. Itsa modern 3D engine.

- What about the interface, will it

remain the same or do the deve-

lopers plan to change it in some

way?The interface will be classic point &click, it won`t differ much from the

interface in Tony 1.- The main criticism made by

those who played Tony Tough 1

concerned its gameplay. Some

players thought that the puzzles

were illogical. Do you know if the

developers have taken this criti-

cism into consideration? Will

Tony Tough 2 be easier or harder

than its predecessor?Tony Tough 2 will be easier, becau-se the developers took the criticismseriously.

- When will Tony Tough 2 be

InterviewwithDTPDTP has been in our Lounge more often than any other guest. So are they passing us big

stacks of cash to receive such treatment? Emm, not really. If you take a look at their line-up

you will see why they are invited so often in the Lounge. Tony Tough 2, Nibiru, Sherlock

Holmes and the Silver Earring, The Moment of Silence are some of their upcoming titles,

while recently they have published The Westerner, Runaway and Black Mirror, all well-recei-

ved in the adventure-friendly community of the German-speaking territories. Let's see what

they have to tell us about some of their upcoming titles.

The Tony Tough promo poster


19/44


17September 2004

released?It will be out in the German-spea-king territories around the 1st ofMarch. I don`t know when it isgoing to be published in other

countries or by whom.- And after Tony Tough 2 are

there any plans for a third instal-

ment as well or will this depend

on the sales of the second one?We think that Tony Tough 2 will sellmore than Tony 1 as it avoids manydifficulties we had with Tony 1 fromthe start. So nothing speaks aga-inst a third part. But that`s far away

in the future.

Nibiru / Black Mirror

- How has Black Mirror done so

far? Are you satisfied with it?Black Mirror sold extremely well inthe German-speaking territories. Infact, it`s been a real hit aroundhere, selling high numbers ofcopies many months after release.Everything went - and still goes -well with this title. We are alsosatisfied with the ratings, but it washard to get the coverage we wan-ted, as adventures are still not seenas triple-A products around here.

- *Spoilers* The main character

of Black Mirror kills himself in

the end of Black Mirror *End ofSpoilers* Does that mean there

is no way that we will see a

second instalment of Black

Mirror? Or do you think there is

a way to continue the story furt-

her on?*Spoiler*The fact that SammuelGordon dies in the end - and wedon`t really see it, we just guess it

as he jumps from the tower - *Endof Spoiler* doesn`t mean there isno possibility of making a sequel toit. Or maybe a prequel. We will talk

with our Czech partners about that.

- Nibiru is developed by the

same developers who gave us

The Black Mirror. Are the two

adventures similar with each

other in some way or is thereany connection between the sto-

ries of the two games?Nibiru is a totally different story. Itsnot as dark as Black Mirror, butthere are some deep mysteries in itas well. It`s more an Indiana Jones-like story than Black Mirror.

- Nibiru was published in the

Czech Republic some years

before The Black Mirror. Is the

version you are going to publish

a remake? If it is what do you

plan to enhance in your version

compared to the version sold in

the Czech Republic?It will be a remake of this oldadventure. It basically uses thesame engine as Black Mirror,

but it`s enhanced, so thereare more details and you canplay it in 1024x768 - BlackMirror was limited to800x600. As the charactermodels were subject to criti-cism, there are new 3Dmodels for all characters.

- Could you tell us a few

words about the story of

Nibiru?The main character is called MartinHolan. He is studying archaeologyin Paris, when his uncles asks himto come to the Czech Republic toinvestigate a mysterious tunnel. Hefinds his contact person murderedin Prague, and the adventurestarts. It will lead him to many,many dangerous and mysterious

places all around the world, fromthe tunnel - which is said to be builtby the Germans in World War II - toancient Maya temples.

Black Mirror sold

extremely well in the

German-speaking ter-

ritories. In fact, it`s

been a real hit around

here, selling high

numbers of copies

many months after

release.


20/44


18 September 2004

- Is there one playable character

or more? Could you tell us some

things about him/her/them?Martin Holan is the only playablecharacter as far as I know. He`s a

young man studying archaeology inParis.


get to meet and how many loca-

tions will we get to visit in

Nibiru?There will be 30 characters andaround 80 locations.

- What is the interface going to

be like? Is it going to be similarto The Black Mirror?It will be very similar to BlackMirror.

- What is the release date for

Nibiru?It will be out in the German-spea-king territories on 1st February.

- Is there something else you

would like to tell us about

Nibiru?We hope that it`s going to be assuccessful as Black Mirror. It willdefinitely be better in manyaspects.

- Future Games also have anot-

her adventure in development

called Ron Loo. Do you know

about this adventure and do you

plan to publish it as well, once itis completed?We know it but we are not interes-ted in publishing it right now. Neversay never, but right now I`d say wewon`t publish it.

The Moment of Silence

- What is the game's story

about?New York, 2044 - The countries ofthe earth are united under the regi-me of a world government. In the

metropoles everything`s the sameas before. Weird gurus preachdoom, yuppies in glass skyscrapersdevelop marketing strategies,gangs und prostitutes hang aroundin the ghettos, terrorists throwbombs and old men are gettingnuts on conjuration theories.Peter Wright doesn`t care muchabout that, because his wife hasbeen killed by an aircrash. Sincethen he has been living isolated,drawn back and without a distingu-ished goal from day to day. Thischanges rapidly when some day aspecial force of the police stormsthe quarter of his neighbours andarrests his neighbour, an online-

journalist - without giving reasons.Peter starts getting interested in theaccident - and discovers terrifying,frightening things.The game`s story is about us beco-ming so comfortable with technicaldevelopment, that we simply don`trecognize how dependent we areon it. Its about the dangers the liewithin the technical developmentand human abuse of it. Basicallyit`s the old wizard`s apprenticetheme: Can we control the ghostswe conjured - and if not, how canwe get rid of them? So the gamehas a strong note of social criti-cism, an aspect most other gameslack.

- Players will be able to get con-

trol of 3 characters. Could you

talk to us about these charac-

ters?The player will control Peter Wrightand Deborah Oswald.


get to meet and how many loca-

tions will we get to visit?

There are around 25 charactersand 80-100 locations.

- In our preview in issue 10 there

was mention of 2 different

Backgrounds from Nibiru


21/44


19September 2004

endings depending on the play-

ers' actions throughout the

game. Is one of them the 'right'

ending and the other one the

'wrong' ending or are they just

two different ways to finish thestory?Well, I would speak of a "wrong"and a "right" ending. If you are asadist, maybe it`s the other wayround;-)

- Are the graphics of the game 2

and a D like Syberia or are

they in full 3D?The graphics are 2,5 D as in

Syberia, but they are more detailed.The locations are pre-rendered, butthere are several "levels" in eachlocation. Sometimes the camerawill "drive into the location", thatmeans if you go "into" the locationor come up to into the player`sview, the camera will follow Peter. Ifhe passes a well, he will be showncorrectly behind the water.

- What is the highest resolution

that the graphics will reach?As far as I know you can play it in1024x768.

- In our preview in issue 10 there

were mentions of different came-

ra angles during dialogues and

focus on facial animation. Will all

dialogues feature dynamic came-

ra cuts and close-ups or are

these techniques only going to

be incorporated during cutsce-

nes?Not only in cutscenes, also in ing-ame-dialogues there will be diffe-rent camera-angles.

- Will the game feature a lot of

cutscenes?

The action and key scenes aretransported in really excellent cut-scenes. On the whole we have atotal of around 30 minutes of cut-scenes.

- What kind of music will you use

for the purposes of the game?There is a mix of relaxed, ambient

ingame.music, house & technowhen you visit the undergroundhacker-guild, and an epic classic-metal mix in the cutscenes. There`son basic theme featured throughoutthe game. If you want to listen tomusic similar to the game, visit ourofficial website www.momentofsi-lence.de - and turn up your spea-kers!

- How much time will the totalsoundtrack last?It has a total length of around 80minutes.

- DTP usually signs famous

German voice-actors for their

adventures. Have you already

found actors for the German ver-

sion of TMOS?

Yes. The two main characters -Peter Wright and Deborah Oswald -are spoken by the German voiceactors of Bruce Willis and JuliaRoberts. The rest of the set willalso be spoken by high-professio-nal voice-actors.

- There was mention of a mix

between inventory-based and

mechanical puzzles. Will the dis-

tribution of puzzles be equal bet-ween mechanical and inventory-

based or are you going to focus

on one of them mostly?Most of the puzzles will be invento-

The locations are pre-

rendered, but there

are several "levels" ineach location.

Sometimes the came-

ra will "drive into the

location", that means

if you go "into" the

location or come up

to into the player`s

view, the camera will

follow Peter.

Peter Wright and Debora Oswald from The

Moment of Silence
http://www.momentofsilence.de/http://www.momentofsilence.de/http://www.momentofsilence.de/http://www.momentofsilence.de/


22/44


20 September 2004

ry- and dialogue-based. So thefocus is on classic adventure-gameplay rather than on mechani-cal, Myst-style puzzles. There willbe some of them, too, but not toomany.

- Could you describe to us how

the interface is going to work?It`s as basic and simple as anadventure-interface can be. LeftClick - action and walking, rightclick - analyse. You can run with adouble click, and I think you canshow all exits by hitting a certainkey, maybe the Tab-key.

- Will the game contain anyaction?There will be a lot of action in thecutscenes, but no action-sequen-ces ingame.

- Could you describe to us how

is the dialogue interface going to

work?It`s a basic multiple-choice dialoguesystem. If you have already spoken

about topics and there is nothingnew, the lines will be marked in adifferent colour, similar to links onweb-sites. This is very comfortable.

- If you had to pick one of the

two, would you say that The

Moment of Silence would be an

easy or a difficult adventure?Rather difficult. But in fact, it`s

somewhere in the middle.- How long do you think it will

take for an average adventurer to

finish Moment of Silence?Around 25-30 hours.

- The game will be released

soon. How are the last steps for

Moment of Silence?

We are now (mid-August) startingwith the voice-recordings. Afterthat, we`re going into the test-phase.

- Is there anything more you

would like to tell us about The

Moment of Silence?We really hope to climb onto thethrone of the genre with this. And Ihope that all adventure-fans allaround the world can enjoy it. Asyou know, we Germans tend to doany job very correctly - I think youcan see and feel that in TheMoment of Silence.

Sherlock Holmes and

the Silver Earring

- This is the second game thatFrogwares develops based on

Sherlock Holmes. The first time

they chose to create an adventu-

re focused more on puzzles and

less on story with a first person

perspective, but the results were

not very encouraging. This time

they seemed to have changed

their philosophy and The Silver

Earring seems to focus more on

storytelling. Do you think this is

the right way to go and do you

think that Frogwares has found

the right formula for their

Sherlock Holmes games?As far as we - and many otherswho downloaded the demo - haveplayed the game, Frogwares defini-

tely goes the right way now. Thereis really a dark and mysteriousstory behind it, written by a trueSherlock Holmes fan.

- Will we get to control Watson

The developers have managed to create

beautiful backgrounds for TMOS

Here is an example of the point and click

interface of TMOS

Most of the puzzles

will be inventory- and

dialogue-based. So

the focus is on clas-

sic adventure-gamep-

lay rather than on

mechanical, Myst-

style puzzles.


23/44


21September 2004

this time around or is Sherlock

the only playable character?In some scenes you will also controlWatson. I think you can even chan-ge between them in some locations,

and you`ll probably have to in orderto solve some riddles.

- What is the case that Sherlock

will have to solve this time?Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watsonare invited to the cocktail party of amillionaire who wants to welcomeback his daughter in England.During his speech, he suddenlydrops dead to the ground, with a

bullet-hole in his chest. Sherlockdoesn`t wait for the police and startsinvestigating.

- In the first Sherlock Holmes that

Frogwares released there were

not many characters around, but

instead players got to learn about

the story by reading documents.

Has this changed in the sequel?There are many characters around

now. I spoke to around ten charac-ters only in the first location. Andthere will be many more throughoutthe game.

- Could you tell us a few words

about the graphics of the game?It`s an engine similar to that of TheMoment of Silence or Syberia. Thereare realtime-shadows for the 3D-

characters, the animations are verygood, and the settings really let youfeel to be in London, around 1900.The lead artist must be a fan of Finde Sicle and Art Nouveau.

- Could you describe to us the

interface of the game?It`s a basic point & click interfaceagain. You have an inventory-bar inthe lower part of the screen, which

vanishes when not needed.- What kind of music will we get

to listen to in the Silver Earring?The music will fit to the poque of

the game. It`s like being at theVienna Opera Ball or in a smallCoffee House in the 1890ies. It willmainly be of the 19th century com-posers Felix Mendelsson and NicoloPaganini.

- What is the release date of

Sherlock Holmes and the Silver

Earring?It will be out in the German-speakingterritories in November. In UK, itmight be out earlier.

- Is there something else you

would like to add for Sherlock

Holmes and the Silver Earring?

I would recommend for German-speaking players to wait for theGerman version. There`s much tal-king and difficult documents in it,and to pursue our path we need thehelp of the German players. We willdefinitely do a good job in the locali-sation, choose voice actors thatreally fit to the characters and keepan eye on them in roder to let them

speaking some kind of "OxfordGerman" to resemble the sound ofthe original voices. That`s not toodifficult if you have voice actors whoknow what they are doing - andGermans from the northern part ofGermany (not like myself;-) canspeak in a very British manner ;-)

General

- You have based your business

mostly on 3rd person point and

click adventures and you seem to

be flourishing. Do you intend to

keep this up in the future?After the past successes we willdefinitely pursue the path of beco-ming THE adventure-publisher not

only in Germany, Austria andSwitzerland, but maybe in all ofEurope. But we don`t stick to 3rdperson adventures, we can easilyimagine 1st person adventures as

well. But up to now we haven`t seenone that would have the qualityrequirements. Most 1st personadventures tend to be boring grap-hic-artworks.

- You have published numerousadventure games in the recent

couple of years like Runaway, The

Westerner, The Black Mirror, Tony

Tough etc. Which one of all the

adventures you have published

would you call the most success-

ful one?Runaway was the most successfulone, but it already feels Black

Mirror`s hot breath in it`s neck;-).- Are you in discussions with

even more adventure developers

right now?Yes, we are in negotiation with somevery well known people and we aretalking about very well known andhighly desired titles. But I would risksudden death if I said more.

- How many adventures do youpublish per year (in average)?Around four to five, maybe more.Not much time for going on holidaynext year ;-)

- Is there anything else you would

like to add?We are always interested in newideas and titles from all other theworld. If you are a developer of

adventures or want to sell the licen-ce for one and read this interviewand thought "Wow these guys reallydo something for the genre, where-as others don`t care", write me anemail ([email protected]). Anddon`t worry about us being focussedon the German-speaking market.We have very good contacts tohighly-recommended publishers all

around the world, so we can talkabout international things as well.


24/44

REVIEWSSilver Earring | CSI 2 | Apprentice 2 | Dark Fall 2

22 September 2004

In the interest of fairness,Ill be revealing all of my personalbias from the get go. Im a huge fanof the Gabriel Knight series as Ilove deep characterization fore-most, a rich plot of any kind, and agood curl up to read by the ragingfireplace in winter mystery. I alsolove the writings of Sir ArthurConan Doyle, the Sherlock HolmesTV shows/movies (Jeremy Brett isthe quintessential Holmes, not BasilRathbone), and two of the previousgames based on the great detec-tive; The Case of the SerratedScalpel and The Case of the RoseTattoo, naturally.

I can even admit to havinga soft spot for the time period itself.One of my all time favorite films,the uncut version of IngmarBergmans Fanny and Alexander, isset in the early years of the twenti-eth century, where the littleSwedish village and fashions inclothing dont seem very farremoved from the styles in 1897,the year of Sherlocks latest case.And biases proudly admitted, whata case it is...

Story: It all begins, indeceptively simple fashion, at 221bBaker Street with Dr. Watson read-ing a letter of invitation to Sherlock

Holmes. The event: a reception atSherringford Hall celebrating thereturn from a Swiss boardingschool of Sir Melvyn Bromsbysdaughter, Lavinia. Moments after

arriving, our heroic duo watchesBromsby take the stage to make anannouncement, but a gunshot cutshis speech short. Sir Bromsby diesinstantly, and Sherlock insists thatWatson fetch the police and pre-vent the guests from leaving. Thegame is afoot for Sherlock as hebegins his investigation meremoments after the crime... Yearsago I remember thinking how wellthe spirit of Doyles stories wascaptured in Serrated Scalpel andRose Tattoo (and how patheticallyin Consulting Detective). Well,theyve finally been bested.Frogwares, after a less than majes-tic attempt with Mystery of theMummy, has nailed it. Theyvetaken everything up a notch fromwhats been done in past Sherlockgames. Sherlock and Watson, bothplayable, are fantastically realized,as is Lestrade. The interactionbetween the three of them is pitchperfect, and I can see whyFrogwares chose this particular fanwritten story to work with. It simplyhas to be among the best fan madethings ever done (no longer will Ithink of those horrendous StarWars fan videos that make mewant to gouge my eyeballs out witha spoon).

At any rate, all of the majorplayers new to this particular storyare wonderfully brought to life,while Wiggins, Mrs. Hudson, andMycroft are accounted for in their

Sherlock Holmes:THE SILVER EARRING

Frogwares brings the most famous detec-

tive ever back in action.

Watson and Lestrade absorb Sherlock's wis-

dom.


25/44


23September 2004

own ways. I will say this: if youdont like a linear game you wontcare for Silver Earring. Its not likethe earlier Sherlock adventureswhere there seem to be hundredsof places to go, resulting in the lossof a more intimate, character drivenstoryline. To the contrary, this gamerequires you to collect all the evi-dence and testimony in a locationbefore leaving and going to thenext. You have a map, but thereare never more than four locationson it at any one time. Before youdecide if thats a bad thing or not,lets examine what it results in...

Sherlock Holmes: TheCase of the Silver Earring possess-es the best plot ever seen in aSherlock Holmes game, and one ofthe greatest in any adventuregame. Period. From beginning toend the game is consistently grip-ping, supplying you with new infor-mation in every chapter and allow-ing you to draw your own conclu-sions. To make things even better,the ending is absolutely fantastic(with a quiz beforehand so you cantry your detective skills at solvingthe case yourself). Its very lengthy,wonderfully executed, and thor-oughly jaw dropping as the wholesolution comes together. In fact, theending inspired me to replay thegame to see things with a new-found understanding from theopening scene, and I enjoyed theexperience even more the secondtime. I was very impressed with thestoryline in this game, to say theleast. I believe it crushes SerratedScalpel and Rose Tattoo puttogether. Hows that for highpraise?

Gameplay: Here is thegreatest compliment I can find:there is but a single truly awfulsequence in this game. In an agewhere entire games are terrible, I

should think this can be respected.Granted, there is also a certainpuzzle that most players will requirehelp for, as it is pretty vague, buteven that is nothing comparedto...the Super Dog. Those are theonly words that can be said for thisfoul beast from Hell itself. You mustavoid this guard dog on two sepa-rate occasions, and the damn thingcan see through walls and detectyou with what can only bedescribed as the psychic powers ofan incredibly advanced caninemind (or just bad design). And if hedetects you: its Game Over.Reload. Try again. After you do thatabout twenty-five times you willfinally figure out how to pass it.

There is another portion, atimed sequence in a maze of sorts,that may cause problems though Ifound it very easy. Its barely amaze in my estimation, if at all, andI would not mind mazes in adven-ture games if they were all like thisone. If youve played Frankenstein:Through the Eyes of the Monster,Kings Quest (V and VI), or TheRiddle of Master Lu; you will breezeright through the far easier mazein Silver Earring.

Despite complaints to thecontrary by fellow players, I neverhad any significant trouble with thecontrol in this game. You click yourdesired destination once and beginto move there (or click twice to runin sequences where its allowed),and the changes in visual anglesare clearly labeled by the cursorbecoming a pair of footsteps. To meit was pretty simple, and though itcould have been more responsive,it gets the job done. Its annoyingthe way Sherlock will do a half-cir-cle spin sometimes before moving,however. Occasionally hell turnone way and then another, as ifdeciding on whether or not to follow

Sherlock could fill a novel with his analysis

of this scene.

"Holmes! I deduce that she's intoxicated!"

Watson keeps watch while Sherlock stares

at the wall...

"What do you notice about this garden

Watson. Yes, I can see that it's green...".


26/44


24 September 2004

your instructions. This doesnt hap-pen too often though, and it neveroccurs when time is of theessence. Additionally, as anotherpart of the gameplay, I quiteenjoyed the quizzes at the end ofeach chapter. All but one of themare logical and easily passed with abit of researching your evidenceand memory. The one that may halta gamers progress is a bit unfairbecause several pieces of evidencesupport one of the answers equallywell, but the game will only accepta particular one. This part and theaforementioned vague puzzlewere the only places I was everstuck for an unacceptable period oftime. The Super Dog sequencetook me longer than it should have,but it wasnt a matter of being stuckso much as a matter of having afour-legged foe that rivaled Jet Liwith Night Vision and X-Ray gog-gles.

The rest of the gameplay isa mixture of finding items andclues, talking to people, and solvinga fairly small amount of inventorypuzzles. I cant speak for allgamers, but in my opinion the lackof inventory puzzles to solve isnt a

problem. There werent a lot ofpuzzles of that nature in JordanMechners The Last Express, andto my mind thats one of the fivegreatest adventure games evermade. One of the things that strikesme as being very real in SilverEarring is the fact that many ofthese inventory puzzles are solvedwith the same item. I know thatsounds incredibly boring, but itsreally not. Personally, I thinkSherlock Holmes is above havinghis pockets filled with all manner oftrinkets that hes going to use tosolve puzzles in the various placeshes searching for clues. Indeed, Ilike the fact that Sherlock has asmall inventory, and effectivelyuses what he has even if somepeople think this was laziness onthe part of the designers.Unfortunately, the laziness accusa-tion is defensible since there is evi-dence of it elsewhere, like thesequence where Sherlock mustwear a mask, but you dont actuallysee the mask on his face.Sherlocks clothing will also inexpli-cably change from time to timebetween being outside a locationand then entering. To make a longstory short though, I personallythink the puzzles and design in thisgame fit the characters and thestory.

Graphics: This third-per-son adventure game really shinesin the aspect of visuals. The 3Dcharacter models are nicely doneacross the board, and the high res-olution pre-rendered backgrounds,while not featuring as much anima-tion as Syberia II to liven them up,feel convincing and architecturally

impressive regardless. The detailsare many, and its obvious thedesigners took great care to berespectful and faithful to the timeperiod they represented. I really

Below:Sherlock + abandoned theater =

criminal doom.

Developer: Frogwares

Perspective: 3rd person

Interface: Point and click

Difficulty: Medium

Site:

http://www.frogwares.com/sherlock&watson/

System Requirements:

Pentium III 500Mhz, 128 MB

RAM, 16mb graphics card,

DirectX 9.0 compatible (NVIDIA

Geforce or ATI Radeon

chipsets), Sound card, DirectX

9.0 compatible, Windows

98/2000/ME/XP, 1.2GB freedisk space
http://www.frogwares.com/sherlock&watson/http://www.frogwares.com/sherlock&watson/http://www.frogwares.com/sherlock&watson/


27/44


25September 2004

enjoyed the atmosphere, which isheightened at several points byweather effects, shadows, andother nice touches. Of course, thegame is an extra treat for realSherlock Holmes fans. Many itemsfrom the novels and short storiesare lovingly displayed throughout221b Baker Street. The only thing Ireally missed, for authenticityssake, was the syringe forSherlocks seven-percent solutionof cocaine. The word fromFrogwares is that the novel versionof this story features three times asmuch text. However, adventuregames, like cinema, are a primarilyvisual medium. I recall the phrase,A picture is worth a thousandwords. The visual richness andtexture of the world in this gamemore than make up for the loss ofextra words. Theres a lot to be saidfor subtlety and not beating theplayer over the head with excessiveinformation, anyway.

Sound: Of course, in addi-tion to the visuals there is alwaysthat constant companion; the audio.Here the music is a very fittingselection of classical compositionsby the likes of Tchiakovsky, Dvorak,and Schumann. The music neverfeels out of place or annoying like itwas prone to in Mystery of the

Mummy. The only flaw of the musicis that there just isnt enough of it.Many of the selections are heard atseveral different locations, and itmade me wish there was evenmore variation. Oh well, we canthave everything I suppose.Generally, the voice acting providedfor the characters is of high quality,but there is the occasional misstep.

While I think Sherlocks actor isgenerally excellent in the role, hetrips up on certain words. Onecharacters last name is Fowlett,and Holmes runs the gamut with

this thing: Flowler, Fowler, Flowlett,etc. At another point he sayspheasant instead of peasant,and during another he says whiteinstead of wet. Frogwares simplyneeds to limit the amount of hardliquor imbibed by the actors duringlengthy voice over recordings, andall of this could be a thing of thepast. For the most part the acting isvery good though, despite theoccasional bit part here and there,or a mispronounced word now andagain. One should never scoff atthe fact that I take voice acting veryseriously, especially anyone whohas played The Black Mirror whereprostitutes and people living inboxes in the alley next to therecording studio were apparentlyemployed to portray all of the majorroles. Thank goodness that gameallowed players to turn the voicesoff or click through them becauseyes, terrible acting can ruin agame.

In closing, I just want tocommend Frogwares for a job verywell done. Theyve captured themagic of Sherlock Holmes, visuallyand audibly, and supplied a trulywell written mystery storyline aswell. Though there were a few littlerough spots along the way, every-thing is paid back with interest bythe end, in my view. I even appreci-ated the length of this adventure.Its not too long, nor is it too short.It doesnt overstay its welcome likeThe Longest Journey (affectionatelyknown by me as The ShortestJourney Extended Indefinitely ByCharacters That Never Shut Up).Sherlock Holmes: The Case of theSilver Earring is a real winner.Certainly not everyone will agree,but as far as Im concerned, MystIV: Revelation, Still Life, andFahrenheit have a lot to live up to.

- Ben Keeney

The Verdict

Story: 95

Graphics: 90

Sound: 88Gameplay: 79

Overall: 89

Frogwares have captured

the magic of Sherlock

Holmes, visually and audibly,

and supplied a truly well writ-

ten mystery storyline as

well.

Highs: Wonderful story, memo-

rable characters, beautiful visu-als, plenty of fun

Lows: The Super Dog, control

could have been more respon-

sive, one unfair puzzle and quiz

*Overall = ( Story x 2 + Graphics + Music + Gameplay x 2 ) / 6

Sherlock stuns the crowd as only he can do.

Gee, I wonder if that blood points to foul

play.


28/44


26 September 2004

CSI: Crime SceneInvestigation was one of the bestselling games of 2003, somethingthat is certainly unusual for adven-ture games. And when a game

sells well, sooner or later (moreoften sooner than later) you areprone to see its sequel on thegame shelves. Therefore 369Interactive, the developers of CSI,got the green light from Ubisoft, forCSI 2.

Story: As in CSI 1, youplay the role of an intern. You areabout to solve five different cases

with the help of a CSI agent ineach one of them. The five casesare all separate from each other

*Spoilers* although as in CSI 1, inthe last case you will find a link to a

previous case *End of Spoiler*.The scenario is generally well writ-ten, with the usual red herrings andtwists and although it is nothing

phenomenal it will certainly pleasefans of the show as they are quiteloyal to what you usually get to seeon the TV-series.

*Spoilers* The casesinclude 1) an accident caused dur-ing a stunt act, 2) a homeless per-son that was found dead 3) bodyremains found in a construction site4) an actress who was shot duringthe rehearsal of a theatre play and5) a dragon gone missing! *End ofSpoilers* It is very likely that mostadventurers will find different casesmore interesting than the others.

My personal favourites were cases2,4 and 5, with 4 being the mostinteresting one.

Something that could beconsidered as a flaw is that in each

case, you get to meet and interro-gate only a few characters (I wouldsay 3 to 6 as an average) andalmost all of them are presented assuspects by the game. This formulais used over and over again in eachcase which makes the way of story-telling slightly repetitive. It would bemore fascinating to be able to talkwith a wider variety of characters

and it would feel more realistic ifsome of them were not necessarilysuspects.

The characters that you doget to meet however are well writ-ten. The same cannot be saidabout the CSI cast however.Sometimes it felt like they are auto-matic machines who are there incase you are in need of a hint. The

highlight of the game is once morethe dialogues. With Gregs (the labguy) hilarious tongue in cheek com-ments, Grissoms words of wisdomand even the things that the non-CSI cast characters say, you areguaranteed some entertaininghours in front of your monitors. Andthe high quality of the dialoguesreally saves the day for CSI

because otherwise the stiffness ofthe graphics would probably makelong dialogues of average qualityhard to stand. One more thing thatis fascinating is how rich the cases

Developer: 369 Interactive

Perspective: 1st person

Interface: Point and click

Difficulty: Medium

Site:csidarkmotives.ubi.com

System Requirements:

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP,

Pentium III 600 MHz,

256 MB RAM, 16 MB DirectX

Video, DirectX 9.0 Sound, 16X

CD-ROM, 650 MB free HD

CSI:Dark Motives

Below:You meet your partner in the begin-

ning of each new case
http://csidarkmotives.ubi.com/http://csidarkmotives.ubi.com/http://csidarkmotives.ubi.com/


29/44


27September 2004

are in small details. It seems likethe writers spent a fair amount oftime on research for the purposesof the game.

Graphics: This was the

main problem of the first game. Thegraphics of the game are just waytoo static. The game is seen fromthe first person perspective. Themodels look a bit more detailedthan in the first game but they areas stiff as they used to be, makingyou wonder if all the characters ofthe game suffer from hemorrhoids.They always stand at the same

spot. The funny thing is that in dif-ferent cases where you work withdifferent agents each time, in com-mon rooms (like the interrogationroom and the lab) agents will standor sit at the exact same spot wherethe rest of the agents were stand-ing/sitting in the other cases. Thisshows clearly that the developersdid not bother to put much effort in

the graphics of the game, apartmaybe from using a few more polyson the characters.

The lip-synching is onceagain non-existant with the charac-ters opening and closing theirmouths in a random fashion.Combined with the stiffness of themodels bodies, you are prone tospend more time looking at the

subtitles rather than the characterstalking.The reconstruction videos

are used once again, to visuallydepict the agents speculations orthe witnesses answers. Theyresemble those seen on the showand they are very interesting towatch (although if you are a sensi-tive person avoid eating something

while watching them).The backgrounds, althoughwell designed, are unfortunatelyway too static. Theres no anima-tion whatsoever, giving you the

impression that you are looking at aphotograph rather than a real envi-ronment. I certainly hope that thedevelopers will drop this enginewhen they decide to work on thenext installment of the CSI series.The overall quality of the gamewould increase at least a couple ofnotches alltogether if the graphicswere better.

Sound: Compared to theaverage adventure release thatuses cheap and sometime totallyunprofessional actors, CSI seemslike an oasis amidst the desert. The

actors from the show were called inonce more by 369 Interactive, andthey had a stellar performance thistime around as well. Music tracksused thro

Inventory 17 - September 2004

Documents

Transcript of Inventory 17 - September 2004