Crime Stories
Posted May 25, 2006
Originally titled Martin Mystère: Operation Dorian Gray, Crime Stories is a single player adventure game without any hint of actual adventure. The story revolves around a suave detective by the name of Martin Mystere. Martin is called by the incompetent police to help solve a particularly tough case involving the violent murder of a prominent scientist. Sadly, the story never picks up after the intro. The poor character development, the silly plot twists, and the boring pacing ultimately annihilate any intriguing quality of the presentation.
Gameplay:
Do you like clicking the left mouse button? Well, then you have mastered the "intricate" gameplay of Crime Stories. Seriously, the game is nothing more than a random clickfest over the various level environments. Random clicking is required to locate the various game objects strewn about a level. Why the developer didn't create some sort of indicator, like a glow or a flashing effect, to shed light on said objects is beyond me. I guess the real mystery Martin needs to solve is where he put his car keys.
When you do manage to find a useful object by the way of random guessing, the object will get placed into the inventory screen at the bottom of the screen. Objects from the inventory are used to solve the incredibly simple puzzles throughout the game. None of the puzzles are at all difficult, just time consuming to complete without the correct object. Although, the occasional puzzle will require moving between different level areas to find everything needed to solve the problem.
Moving between the various areas that require investigation can be performed in two ways; driving your car or using the navigational map. The map is the quickest method of travel, due to the excruciatingly slow walking speed of Martin. There are only a handful of areas that can be visited, but they do allow plane travel to exotic locations such as South America.
Graphics:
As mentioned earlier, Crime Stories uses static backgrounds and a sparse number of click-able objects to create a pathetic attempt at an interactive environment. While the backgrounds are fairly colorful and intricate in design, watching characters move around them is hilarious. Characters almost float around in a robotic motion and move insanely slow. Every character design looks worse than the environment and seems blurry in comparison. Additionally, the designer of the female characters must be a horny teenager as breasts are the size of beach balls. The only truly positive thing I can say about the visuals is that Crime Stories should run on ancient computers fairly smoothly. There are no issues with the frame rate, but the game doesn't necessarily pose situations that would need smooth fps.
Audio:
The soundtrack for the game is actually quite catchy in the majority of the levels. Each area has a themed, midi music tune that repeats while surveying the area. Unfortunately, the voiceovers are not only laughable, but also poorly integrated into the game. There isn't any seamless streaming of the wav files, so each bit of the conversation spits out a few words at a time. A full sentence will have four to five half-second pauses before completion, each to load the next file. This silly audio format destroys any immersive quality the story had going for it.
Conclusion:
In terms of length, the game will last around five hours. That's right, the best part about playing this horrific game is that it won't last very long. Crime Stories is an abomination to the adventure genre in the PC gaming market. Even at its budget price, this game isn't worth purchase unless you like to throw money away. In fact, you may get more entertainment lighting a twenty-dollar bill on fire than playing Crime Stories. Go pick up Psychonauts for the same price for an enjoyable adventure game.
Gameplay:
Do you like clicking the left mouse button? Well, then you have mastered the "intricate" gameplay of Crime Stories. Seriously, the game is nothing more than a random clickfest over the various level environments. Random clicking is required to locate the various game objects strewn about a level. Why the developer didn't create some sort of indicator, like a glow or a flashing effect, to shed light on said objects is beyond me. I guess the real mystery Martin needs to solve is where he put his car keys.
When you do manage to find a useful object by the way of random guessing, the object will get placed into the inventory screen at the bottom of the screen. Objects from the inventory are used to solve the incredibly simple puzzles throughout the game. None of the puzzles are at all difficult, just time consuming to complete without the correct object. Although, the occasional puzzle will require moving between different level areas to find everything needed to solve the problem.
Moving between the various areas that require investigation can be performed in two ways; driving your car or using the navigational map. The map is the quickest method of travel, due to the excruciatingly slow walking speed of Martin. There are only a handful of areas that can be visited, but they do allow plane travel to exotic locations such as South America.
Graphics:
As mentioned earlier, Crime Stories uses static backgrounds and a sparse number of click-able objects to create a pathetic attempt at an interactive environment. While the backgrounds are fairly colorful and intricate in design, watching characters move around them is hilarious. Characters almost float around in a robotic motion and move insanely slow. Every character design looks worse than the environment and seems blurry in comparison. Additionally, the designer of the female characters must be a horny teenager as breasts are the size of beach balls. The only truly positive thing I can say about the visuals is that Crime Stories should run on ancient computers fairly smoothly. There are no issues with the frame rate, but the game doesn't necessarily pose situations that would need smooth fps.
Audio:
The soundtrack for the game is actually quite catchy in the majority of the levels. Each area has a themed, midi music tune that repeats while surveying the area. Unfortunately, the voiceovers are not only laughable, but also poorly integrated into the game. There isn't any seamless streaming of the wav files, so each bit of the conversation spits out a few words at a time. A full sentence will have four to five half-second pauses before completion, each to load the next file. This silly audio format destroys any immersive quality the story had going for it.
Conclusion:
In terms of length, the game will last around five hours. That's right, the best part about playing this horrific game is that it won't last very long. Crime Stories is an abomination to the adventure genre in the PC gaming market. Even at its budget price, this game isn't worth purchase unless you like to throw money away. In fact, you may get more entertainment lighting a twenty-dollar bill on fire than playing Crime Stories. Go pick up Psychonauts for the same price for an enjoyable adventure game.