Review MURDER IN THE ABBEY Developer: Alcachofa Soft Publisher: The Adventure Company Genre: Adventure Release Date: August 2008 Platform: Review by Ray Ivey October 1, 2008		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

Murder in the Abbey is a classically-structured third-person adventure game with an intriguing setting, a strong story, quality music, and generally excellent graphical presentation. Unfortunately, it’s also got problems that undermine whatever potential fun there is to be had.

Before I go any further, though, please indulge me in a little digression. I need to criticize my friends at The Adventure Company for a minute. I’ve long disapproved of their annoying habit of changing the titles of the games they acquire. Perhaps I would be easier on this practice if the titles they picked were regularly better than the originals, but they’re not.

In this case they changed the name from The Abbey to Murder in the Abbey. First of all, duh . . was that change worth it? Reminds me of a few years ago when they changed the name of the university I attended from “North Texas State University” to the “University of North Texas.”

Actually, they only sort of changed the name. Meaning they were too cheap to change the name of the game in the actual game. Yep, they just slapped the Adventure Company-approved moniker on the box. What’s worse, they also plastered the box with utterly misleading images which have nothing to do with the look of the game.

It begs the question, doesn’t it? Hey Adventure Company, if you hated the name and how the game looked, why did you publish it?

Okay, back to the actual game. Let’s first talk about what the game gets right. The setting is a lonely monastery high on the top of a mountain during Medieval times. Ever since Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose created this genre of story, it’s been a solid venue for mystery and intrigue.

Heading up the twisting mountain path are Brother Leonardo and his novice Bruno. Leonardo, a highly intellectual monk with a mysterious (and possibly checkered) past, is headed to the abbey to look into a death that occurred under suspicious circumstances.

So far, so good. At the monastery Leonardo learns that a 200-pound censer has fallen on one of the brothers and killed him. The rope, it turns out, looks to have been tampered with . . . and the wheels of the story start spinning. The tale that follows is surprisingly rich, dealing with alchemy, the Inquisition, church politics, avarice, murder and beyond. The mystery is nice and chewy, complete with vivid characters and a decent red herring or two.

The story is presented in an old-fashioned 2D animation style which is most welcome to this player. The art is solid and the hand-painted backgrounds several times reminded me of the beautiful work in the early Disney films like Pinnochio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. There are some lovely lighting effects as well.

The score is suitably grand and evocative and (thankfully) used sparingly.

The mechanics of the game are pure classic 2D third person point-and-click. The mouse is used for everything, including movement, interaction and menu choices. I’m pretty sure the Esc key is the only thing you ever have to touch on the keyboard. The inventory is handy and easy to use.

The majority of the puzzles in the game are of the inventory-based, fetch these several things and use them together to solve this problem variety. For the most part they make sense and reward clear and logical thinking. There are also a couple of more “puzzley” puzzles as well, but nothing very impressive.

So why, after all I’ve described, shouldn’t you race to the store and pick this game up faster than you can say a pater noster?

First of all, the graphics are marred by two problems: The character faces are not expressive at all. They behave more like stone-headed puppets than living beings. Even worse, character design artists have a baffling affection for making characters severely cross-eyed. This is simply dopey, and proves to be a real distraction. It also accomplished absolutely nothing, character-wise.

Compounding this problem is a problem with the voice acting. Okay, stay with me here, don’t click the Back button in disgust quite yet. I know I have a reputation at JA for being overly harsh in this department. So I’m going to be extremely specific with my complaint this time around.

Actually, most of the voice work is at least above-average in the game, which is a relief. However, there’s one big gaffe which pulls you out of the game several times. It’s because the voice work was obviously recorded with absolutely no context given to the actors. It’s not enough to simply say to an actor, “Say this line: ‘Now we have it.’” There are several different ways you could say this sentence, each affected by the circumstances during which you would say such a thing.

For example, if one character said to you: “Bill had this handkerchief. He was killed. Then Emily had the handkerchief. And she was killed.”

If your line in response to this was “Now we have it,” you would, in all likelihood, say, “Now WE have it.” Otherwise the line makes no sense.

Mistakes of this nature happen over and over in this game, and each time it happens it pulls you right out of the drama. It’s a mistake for which there is really no good excuse, and it undermines the game.

So, will you like this game or not? The answer depends on how much its flaws bother you. If you’re more forgiving than, say, me, you could have a really good time with Murder in The Abbey. But if wooden faces, absurdly crossed eyes and baffling line readings bother you, be warned.

Final Grade: B- (find out more about our grading system)

If you liked this game, then Watch (of course): The Name of the Rose Read: Dissolution by C.J. Sansom

System Requirements:

• OS: Windows® XP/Vista
• CPU: 1.4 GHz or Equivalent
• RAM: 512 MB
• Disk Space: 3 GB Free
• Video: 64 MB graphics card, GeForce4 Ti generation or ATI Radeon 9500 (DirectX® 9.0c compatible)
• Sound: DirectX® 9 Compatible Sound Card
• CD-ROM: 4x
• Input: Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers

This review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link back to Just Adventure.