Preview Martin Mystère: Operation Dorian Gray Developer: Artematica Publisher: GMX Media Release Date: Soon Platform: Preview by April 11, 2005

As a comics lover and collector for decades, when learning that Martin Mystère was soon to be an adventure game, my interest was peaked. While not a big fan of the Italian school of comics, I am familiar with it and with characters like Diabolik, Dylan Dog and, of course, Martin. The Martin Mystère series by Italian publisher Sergio Bonelli Editore sell around 1.5 million copies yearly and Good Ol’ Uncle Marty – as he is known to his fans – has appeared in well over a thousand different comics.

Martin Mystère is an investigator of anything out of the norm, with the paranormal as his field of expertise. Despite the fact that Martin comics have been published since 1982 - long before Gabriel Knight’s first adventure in 1993 - he will inevitably be referred to as a square jawed version of Gabriel Knight. He lives in his house in Manhattan, with his wife Diana and his helper Java – who communicates only by grunts - who left the City of Diafan Shadows in the Mongolian mountains of Hangaj to follow Martin on his many adventures.

Martin has not been getting much sleep lately; he is being tortured by nightmares. One of his nightmares will be interrupted by a call from Inspector Travis about the death of Professor Eulemberg of M.I.T. – one of the greatest minds of the year, as described by the Times. Although this sounds like a regular case with nothing to do with the paranormal, Travis insists that Martin meet him at the professor’s villa. For the professor might have been harboring a lot of dark secrets!

Martin starts off in his house, from where he needs to leave in order to meet with Travis. The problem is, his car is in the shop, he can’t find his cell phone, and on top of all that Diana has locked his wardrobe (so that he can get some rest and won’t be tempted to leave the house) and he can’t get dressed! Those are the first puzzles that will need to be solved, in order for the adventure to progress.

Martin Mystère: Operation Dorian Gray follows the 3rd person point-and-click inventory based adventure formula. Martin can walk around by a simple left click of the mouse, while a right click cycles through three different actions – examine, look/use, talk. A very welcome feature is that almost everything can be examined, and not only the important items. This is a small detail that has been missing from a lot of recent adventure games, where extreme simplicity seems to prevail. Another welcome feature is that Martin does not need to walk to an exit, but he can “teleport” there by double clicking the left mouse button.

The graphics are simply superb, running at 1024x768! Martin is a very well designed 3D model, casting a real-time shadow on an environment that is amazingly beautiful. The colors are perfect (just look at the floorboards in the living room!) and every single object has been designed in high detail. Cut-scenes and close-ups are presented in a comic strip-like fashion. The music is very atmospheric and plays according to the situation – the demo featured Martin’s house only, where some chill-out lounge music is playing that fits perfectly to Martin’s attire of pajamas, robe and slippers! The voice-acting is very well done, although I didn’t hear as much as I would like as most of the descriptions were still text only. Martin’s voice and a couple of short phone conversations were the only voices heard, since the only other person that appears in the demo, Java, limits himself to grunting! A grunting that changes tone and coloration according to what he wants to say – something that can provide useful hints!

All in all, Martin Mystère looks, plays and feels like a great adventure, and I can easily state that it will be one of the best adventure releases of 2005. I loved it from the second I started playing, and was very disappointed when the demo ended cause I wanted more! It will be a must-play for 3rd person point-and-click, mystery and paranormal lovers. Unfortunately, it will probably be unfairly compared as a Gabriel Knight knock-off by many misinformed reviewers who will not be aware of Martin’s lengthy history.

Martin Mystère: Operation Dorian Gray comes to us courtesy of Riccardo Cangini and Artematica. Artematica is an Italian development team founded by Riccardo Cangini in 1996 consisting primarily of members of good old Simulmondo. Of course, Simulmondo may not strike a bell with most of you, but they have over 30 Amiga games based on Italian comics in their back catalogue! Martin Mystère currently has no North America publisher, but it will be available in Europe from GMX Media.