Each clue will lead to several possible deductions, recorded within a tree chart. Depending on how the clues are interpreted, they will lead to different conclusions. Cases will be solved or failed based on whether or not the player can identify the correct culprit, and in some instances, the correct murder weapon as well. Each case has 3-5 possible solutions and 6-10 different endings, depending on the player's moral choice.
Once a culprit is chosen, the player must make the moral decision to either absolve or condemn the guilty party. Absolving is the 'emotional' option that will shorten their sentence or offer them an escape route. Condemning is the 'lawful' option that will hand them off to Scotland Yard, resulting in the harshest of sentences. The moral choice does not impact the other cases, but it does offer a nice bit of moral dilemma for the player.
The are over 50 different puzzles and mini-games scattered throughout the game. None of them are particularly difficult, but it is sometimes hard to tell what you are expected to do in order to solve them. There are some tutorials, but the few instructions provided are often purposefully ambiguous or deceptive. Fortunately Frogwares seems to have been aware of this and included a "skip" option on every puzzle. During my entire playthrough I ended up only skipping 2 puzzles.
My biggest complaint is the lack of a smoking gun in any case. I was always left feeling as though I had missed something important because each suspect seemed equally plausible as the culprit. Most of the evidence also happened to be circumstantial, or there were discrepancies in the evidence. For Example (highlight to read):
In the case "Blood Bath", there are 2 possible weapons - silver knife or ice knife. The ice knife is the correct murder weapon. This means the killer either:
a.) Had to get out of the steam room to retrieve the weapon from the ice bucket, and the heavy doors would have made noise. No one reported any noise.
b.) The killer took the ice knife with him and kept it there for 20 minutes before the murder occurred. An ice knife left in a steam room for 20 minutes would not be a capable murder weapon.
c.) The killer took the ice knife with him and immediately killed Rodney with the other two men present and somehow did not get a drop of blood on him.
It also doesn't explain why the knife cast was at the dig site. If Rodney made his ice weapon that morning or recently, and put it in the champagne bucket, how would he get the cast blocks back to the dig site?
The lump of melted silver in the brazier is explained as silver coins put there by the superstitious Garrow to ward off evil. This does not explain why the amount of silver in the brazier happened to be precisely the amount needed to recast the knife or how the near naked Garrow managed to bring that much silver coinage into the steam room.
First posted to videogamegeek.com
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