An
esteemed scientist has been found shot to death in his car in midtown
Manhattan. You must first take on the role of detective and investigate
the crime by uncovering clues, gathering evidence and interviewing
witnesses and suspects. Then, after arresting the suspect, you must
assume the role of Assistant District Attorney and build a case against
the defendant that will convince the jury to return a guilty verdict.

I had high expectations
for Law & Order 2: Double or Nothing and looked forward
to the promised improvements from its predecessor: Dead
on the Money. Developer Legacy Interactive went as far as
to approach the adventure community for their input on ways to improve
the game’s quality and, in many ways, their advice was invaluable.

After inserting the installation
CD, I was very surprised by the lengthy installation. It was a good
20 minutes before I could finally start the game [We installed the
game on 3 different systems and the install time varied between 15-20
minutes – Randy]. Be patient, I scolded myself, some of the
best games require a lengthy install. Anyone remember The
Longest Journey?

Once
installed, you must choose between two different screen modes: Full
Screen or Centered. The Centered screen mode is so small that it is
questionable why it was even offered and I can only assume it was
to improve the game speed on slower systems or those without a 3D
accelerator card. I wonder though if this was an unnecessary option
as most gamers today should have machines more than capable of running
this game.

Law and Order 2
is divided into two separate parts: the investigation and the court.
For the first half of the game you act as a detective who must gather
evidences from places related to the murder scene. You also collect
statements from the people who know about the murder to support your
case in the court. It was during the investigation that I was hoping
for more puzzles and items to interact with, but my hopes were soon
dashed. In most of the scenes – about 80% of them – you’re only
allowed to question suspects. Overall, there are a total of 15 witnesses
and 8 locations to search for clues, but even when there is the possibility
for puzzle solving, most of the time it is limited to collecting items,
unlocking a door or safe, decrypting notes or a very simple puzzle
like moving a crane. In fact, there are only two ‘real’
puzzles inside the game: the encrypted note and the shredded note.
This is a major drawback as interacting with items in the game world
and solving puzzles are a few of the more important reasons I play
adventure games. Interrogation and cut scenes are a nice addition,
but if they comprise the main segments of the game then it could,
and does, become repetitive. If I only wanted to listen to conversations
from the stars of Law & Order, then I would just turn on the television
and watch the show

There
are four different skills – or strengths – offered at the beginning
of gameplay. Team Work, Case Organization, Interview/Questioning Witnesses,
and Evidence Collection. The first two are basically hint features
that help manage the case. Choose Team Work and your colleague will
provide hints from time-to-time about the on-going case through cell
phones or other means. The Case Organization skill will give you hints
on selecting which items could be used to support your decision to
obtain a warrant or subpoena. Good Interview skills eliminate unnecessary
questions during the interrogation. Evidence Collection is the most
crucial skill and one that every player should use unless they can
stomach some of the ugliest pixel-hunting I have ever seen in a game.
Evidence Collection positions a magnifying glass icon over any object
that can be picked-up or used. Without the magnifying glass icon,
you are asking for major eyesore. Choose Team Work or Case Organization
and the difficulty level of the game drops a few notches. Law
and Order 2 is supposedly more difficult than the first game,
but only if you do not use the option to choose these skills. Still
if you just pay close attention to the clues and conversations you
will not need these optional skills.

Legacy has thankfully eliminated
the Efficiency Skill featuring a time constraint that was universally
despised in the first Law and Order game. This is a great
enhancement as you can now visit witnesses and locations at your own
leisure. The other major improvement is the interrogation replay feature.
In the first game, once you selected an incorrect response, the only
way to continue was to reload the game prior to the interrogation.
Now you can simply click the replay button to redo the process at
the end of the interrogation.

You
need not be a rocket scientist to figure out if you are on the right
track as long as you ask at least most of the questions to the suspect.
Response options are randomly shown after each choice until you choose
the one statement that terminates the conversation. My advice –
identify that one statement and avoid choosing it until you have exhausted
all of the conversation options. In other words, Interview is quite
a worthless skill.

Another improvement is
in case management. Legacy has added additional spaces for more inventory
items, but the problem is that you could end up with a messy suitcase
if you do not organize items based on their functionality. It would
be nice if Legacy had added a feature to organize the suitcase by
functions so that witnesses, clues, lab results and evidence are not
all mixed together.

A useful case log also
has been added to the game. This feature is useful to keep track of
your progress, but unfortunately it also logs a lot of unimportant
information so be sure you know what you have been doing or you could
be drowned in information overload.

There are fifteen save
game slots available though you will probably only use a quarter of
them – I only used three saves throughout the game. Law and Order
2: Double or Nothing is quite a short game. Overall, it took
me about five hours from start to finish.

The
game graphics are rich and detailed and are much better than another
similar game: CSI. Even though some of the characters have
disproportional body shape – the arms of some characters look too
small for their bodies – Legacy has improved the lighting effects
so that the graphics appear livelier and more vibrant. The voice-acting
is quite professional which is understandable since Jerry Orbach,
Elisabeth Rohm and S. Epatha Merkerson voiced their respective characters
from the television series.

The trial part of the game
is where it finally shines. You must now aid the prosecution’s
assistant District Attorney to get a trial verdict of ‘Guilty’.
It is divided into several sections that need to be completed in order.
You can not progress to the next section until you reach the current
sections goals, but there is still more variety in solving the crime
than there is in collecting evidence as you can conduct ‘mini’
investigations in-between trials.

Cross-examinations
are interesting as you must defend your statements utilizing all of
the evidence you have collected. It is a pity though that you are
not given a second chance if you fail inside the courtroom.
Law and Order 2 is – especially for the first half –
an easy game. As long as you pick-up and analyze all of the items
and exhaust all conversations with witnesses, a score of 100% is not
that difficult. The second part is much more involving since you need
to prepare yourself with appropriate evidences and witnesses for the
trial. It would have been nice to have a more complex story or additional
cases especially as there are no twists or surprises whatsoever and
it’s very easy to figure out the identity of the ‘bad
guy’.
I miss the days when a detective story required more item interaction
and puzzles. The Laura Bow mysteries, especially The Colonel’s
Bequest, are the perfect examples of how a classic detective
game should be constructed. It also is divided into two parts, the
first being items and statements collection and the second part the
interview, but the game requires more hands-on involvement by the
player. Law and Order 2 has taken a step forward by incorporating
needed improvements from its first installment and is highly recommended
for fans of the television series, but it is simply not quite ready
to be compared to numerous classic detective games of the past.

Final Grade: C+

System Requirements:

• Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
• P III 500Mhz
• 96 MB RAM
• 650 MB HD Space
• Direct X 7
• Direct X 7 Compatible
  16-Mb Video Card
• Direct X 7 Compatible
  Sound Card