Death Off The Cuff

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I love a mystery story. Allow me to settle down with a nice little glass of sirop de cassis and twirl my moustaches.

This is quite an interesting take. We have reached the grand denouement (I love that phrase. Grand denouement. I wish I could pronounce it) and must reveal the murderer ... except he hasn't figured out whodunnit yet. It is not that his reputation exceeds his abilities; it is that he is, this time, unlucky in his prior investigation. So now he's grasping at straws, trying to surreptitiously ferret out the murderer while nattering on and on about what he's found.

A small, interesting thing with regard to disambiguation in this game: many objects are implemented as part of the suspects (their hair, their clothes, their beards, their hands and faces and so on), but the game always assumes you mean the object connected to the character you last examined. This very effectively smooths out the journey, reducing the breaks in flow caused by disambiguation issues. As well, it added to the sense of realism. Whose hair? Obviously the hair of the individual who currently has the hero's attention. Our hero is grasping at straws; he has to focus, he cannot be aware of everything at once; he sees that which has been brought to his attention either by his own examination or by the antics of his audience. This approach to disambiguation is a small and simple detail, but I found it highly effective, both in terms of easing gameplay in general and in contributing to the overall mood of this specific game.

I am disappointed, however, that the game does not allow me to talk about more abstract concepts as "the murder" or about that which is not present, such as the victim. I felt that this got in the way of the story; or, at least, in the way of how I wanted to proceed. I mean, I the player start off not even knowing the simplest detail of the murder -- who died? -- which I thought I might at least be able to find out with ">talk about murder".

Hot buttery croissants, clotted cream on raspberries, and a small cup of hot chocolate.