Having played the demo alpha/beta version of this game, I looked forward with anticipation seeing this game published so I could play the full version. Living in Australia and very familiar with the city of Sydney, the concept of an adventure game set in Sydney appealed thoroughly. I have said in other reviews that I am a sucker for full motion video, further adding to my anticipation.

The game runs from the CD-ROM but I recommend copying the whole of the game to a folder and using the increased response time of your hard drive rather than relying on a slower CD-ROM. Your movies will play smoother.

The game starts in a typical old Sydney suburban house, the house of your uncle, a private investigator. Your uncle is attacked and gameplay begins. You have returned to your home from a short trip to find an urgent message from your uncle on your answering machine. The search for your uncle and quest to discover what he was investigating begins! Unfortunately, the story degenerates from about midway through the game. The story is somewhat topical, being about terrorism, and it may be of interest for people to know that the security on the Sydney Harbour Bridge has been stepped up substantially since September 11. Character development occurs very little, much as in a B-grade movie. There is little connection to the characters, and the potential drama is watered down making what could have been tension feel like the level of drama experienced in children’s movies. There is never a sense of the ramifications of failure.

I enjoyed the introductory video though the quality of the filming is less than optimal. Grainy at times, at others passable, for an amateur production, this is of a relatively high standard. The game itself consists of slideshow photographs navigated by somewhat traditional point and click controls to another passable video. I say “somewhat traditional” because the cursor size appears to be developed for those with cataracts or severe myopia. I admit that the average adventure gamer is probably older than the average gamer with a bent toward other types of games, but we are not all geriatric! Put simply, you will have to work very hard to miss a hot spot! The photographs are absolutely sensational, as the screenshots will attest.

It is nice to see voice acting in an independently produced game, however prepare for a shock. I laughed continuously through this game and my wife became quite annoyed when I kept calling her to see the next gem of unintentional humor. The acting is truly awful in this game, and many of the characters appear to be reading their lines or have no idea how the lines ought to be delivered. It was rare that I actually became immersed in the game when other characters were present for this reason and contributed to a decreased sense of fun and enjoyment. More animation in the voice over of the main character and some variety in sentence structure when finding inventory items would have made it more interesting to (struggle to) hear: “now I have a…”. Subtitles would not have gone astray either, not just because of the two or three places where the recording was so hampered by wind or rain that it rendered speech unintelligible. If there was not the competition of the ambient noise, there was music soaring over the voice acting. I realize that this is an amateur production, but how much more difficulty would it have been to make sound options a part of the game or at the very least rerecord poorer quality sounds? The game was obviously a labor of love but I kept feeling I had an unpolished gem in my hands that could have benefited from a little more tightening up. For the record, though, the quality of the music was quite good and very suited to the different environs of this game.

The interface is easy to use and intuitive. Games are saved as a description of the location at the time. This can become confusing if you visit a location twice. A recommendation for next game would be to take a leaf out of the book of action games (like Quake and Return to Castle Wolfenstein) that have a proposed name, usually with a number to distinguish earlier from later games, that can be altered to suit the individual. I would have welcomed the opportunity to save my games as I usually do (chronologically i.e. “Alex01”, “Alex02”, etc.). The game can be saved at almost any point in the game. A particular strength of the game is in the inventory-items are removed from inventory once used. This eliminates clutter but also makes the game a little too easy. It does not take much thought to work out which item of five to use! as is the case with most adventure games, puzzles vary in logic-some require a certain inventory item yet another item logically could have done the job. A particular puzzle requiring retrieval of a key does not make any sense; having actually been to the seat in question, it is quite easy to reach for something under the seta. Another aspect making this game too easy is that non-player characters actually tell you what to do (a criticism of the game Timeline also). Only about half of the puzzles actually require some kind of deduction or rational thought.

Keep an eye out for bloopers in the game (does not everyone love out-takes and bloopers?). Here are some I noticed:

-the “Exa Corporation” is called “Leda House” in reality (on its entry doors)!
-a boom microphone is plainly in shot on occasion!
-one of the bad guys turns up later as a cop!
-the camera operator is unintentionally visible in a reflective surface!

Am I glad I got this game? Yes, I got a review copy from Twilight Software. If I had had to pay for it, I would have been disappointed having expected the standard of the initial part of the game to be maintained. However, there is enough adventure to while away a few hours and enough unintentional humor to put this in a category with The Curse of Monkey Island and The Feeble Files. My experience with The Sydney Mystery was akin to purchasing a CD after hearing a good song on the radio, only to find the rest of the songs are not near as good as the song you heard. You will probably find something to enjoy but it will not be the favorite in your collection. I give this game a C+.

The game is available for purchase from Twilight Software.

Final Grade: C+

System Requirements: