Murder!

Title           Murder!
Game Type       Adventure
Players         1
Compatibility   All (AGA may need degrading)
Submission      Isaac Abraham


Review
Now this game is a bit unusual, and dare I say it, original? Murder is all
about solving murders, unsurprisingly enough. You are a detective who
happens to be at some guys` party when some unfortunate fellow blags it.
Why, and how, is for you to discover. There are millions and millions of
crimes to solve (honestly, millions), with different degrees of difficulty.
Your first task should be to talk to all the characters you find - you can
ask them questions as to their whereabouts, if they saw other people, their
relationships with other people, and so on. It can be quite compelling
initially, and there certainly is quite a lot of scope for detailed
questioning. You can also take fingerprints from possible murder weapons,
and try to match them with other ones to try to figure out what the weapon
was. In fact, you need this to win the game, because to win, you need the
murder weapon in your possession, plus you must accuse someone who you think
might have committed the crime. Get it right, and you`ve won - game over.
Get it wrong, and you must hang your head in shame - game over again.
The first thing I noticed when playing was how big the levels could be - you
can play in small-ish houses to sprawling mansions, with umpteen floors and
gardens. This can make life difficult when searching for people or objects,
especially if you need to get fingerprints from a particular weapon. It can
also be tiresome walking around, trailing someone to wait for them to drop
an object, even if the graphics are quite lush 3D (although they are 16
colour grayscale, this adds to the atmosphere in a way). Sound is very
minimalistic, just a simple "whisper" sound when people are talking, or a
"clunk" to inform you that someone has dropped an object.
If you`re in the right frame of mind for this game, then it indeed may be
worth your while playing - the harder levels can really be interesting, for
instance characters might lie about themselves, or be involved in supposedly
"secret" love affairs with other characters, but for all of the attention to
detail, sometimes the levels can be solved within 30 seconds - just find the
nearest weapon to the scene, speak to the nearest person to find out who
had a motive to kill the deceased, and accuse them - very often this turns
out to be correct! Of course, this really isn`t the correct way to play the
game, but once again, it all comes down to whether it`s your cup of tea. If
you can be bothered to spend time questioning suspects, trailing people
etc., they you will probably enjoy this game. I personally am indifferent to
it - I occasionally have a quick go at it, but only if I can`t be bothered
to play anything else, or if it`s a rainy Saturday afternoon - but the
majority of gamesplayers would probably be better off steering clear of it,
as it`s quite an acquired taste. Also, there`s not too much direction in the
game, i.e. no predefined order in which the levels must be played, which can
limit it`s lastability. Try before you buy.

Alphabetical list.