Hotel “At A Lost Climber”: Inspector Glebskys Puzzle – Preview

Akella is a Russian software company based in Moscow that specializes in the development, publishing and distribution of computer games. They currently have five in-house development teams, a publishing house, a distribution center, a localization team and a quality assurance department that all together employs over 140 people.

Hotel “At a Lost Climber”: Inspector Glebsky’s Puzzle is without a doubt a strange title for an adventure game, but some of that may be owed to meaning that is lost in translation. Hotel is based on a science-fiction story by Russia’s Strugatsky brothers and Boris Strugatsky is actively involved with the creation process.

While the Strugatskys are known for their science fiction, their stories focus more on people and their problems then spaceships and advanced technology. While their name may not be familiar to our North American readers, the Strugatskys are the spiritual leaders of Russian science fiction and have been read by generations of fans.

Hotel will be a 3rd person point-and-click adventure. The characters will be 3D against a 2D-renedered background and the developers are promising ‘Syberia-like’ graphics (which seems to be the new standard for all new adventure games).

The hotel will be inhabited by at least 15 different characters, each with their own unique story and personality. Much like the classic The Last Express, the gameworld will be based on a ‘living world’ concept as characters will have their own activities to attend to in the game in real time.

What is most interesting about the game concept is that the developers also mention Colonel’s Bequest – A Laura Bow Mystery as an influence. So it appears as if we can expect an Agatha Christie type mystery set in a real-time futuristic hotel.

We’ll have a lot more about this promising game soon at Just Adventure.