Have you ever played an
independently developed game or watched a low-budget
movie and thought, “I wonder what this developer/director could do with
a big budget?” Well, Nick Bounty: The Goat in the Grey Fedora is
that type of game.

It is over way too soon – in my case under an hour – but
every minute is enjoyable. Goat is a much-improved follow-up to Pinhead
Games previous effort, A Case of the Crabs and can be downloaded
and played for free on a pc or Mac or with an Internet browser that
supports Macromedia Flash.

Goat is a black-and-white
3D mystery strongly influenced by the Hollywood noir films of the
1930’s and 40’s, specifically
in this instance by the classic Maltese
Falcon right down to Nick
Bounty’s resemblance to Sam Spade.

The story opens – and closes – with a nice touch as Nick relates
his latest adventure to his poker-playing buddies. This time, Bounty
is searching for a missing ceramic goat for Kitty Ledbetter, the
niece of a recently deceased lawyer. As expected, he soon discovers
that he is not the only one searching for the elusive statue.

To make a game like this
succeed it is necessary to not only have a feel for the subject
matter, but also the appropriate voice actors
to convey the atmosphere and Goat has these in spades. Mark Darin – head
honcho of Pinhead Games – has managed to collect a cast of
talented voice actors that would put many retail games to shame.

Marc
Biagi – the voice of Brian in the North American version
of Runaway, Lani Minella – the voice of Nancy Drew (among many
others), Jason Ellis – known for his anime voice-overs – and John Bell, the master of accents (80
Days, Al Emmo & the Lost
Dutchman’s Mine) are all extraordinary and provide the game
and characters with a life usually absent in a non-commercial game.

But the voices would be for naught if the dialogue was flat and
luckily, it is not. There are a few lines in the game that had me
laughing out loud and I thought a Stick Puppet Theatre bit to be
riot. And if you are familiar with noir films, you will also appreciate
small touches such as Sills the hit man, an obvious homage to Peter
Lorre.

The 3D Flash graphics
do justice to the noir atmosphere and though they are not always
top quality – occasionally a character’s
features will seem sketchy – the characters have a Lego-like sheen
and oval look to their faces that is somewhat reminiscent of Art
Clokey’s Davey & Goliath. Overall though, the graphics
do a splendid job of making it seem as though you are participating
in an old black-and-white film on late night television.

The puzzles are in short supply, but what few there are, are excellent,
if overly easy. An experienced adventure gamer will breeze through
them, but a newcomer should find them refreshing. I also noticed
in the credits that Just Adventure staff member Ryan Casey was part
of the puzzle development team. I swear, I never know where the JA
staff is going to show up next.

Finally, the music by
the Emperors
of Swing simply rocks. If you’re
at all into Brian Setzer then turn up the volume and be ready to
tap that foot.

Mark Darin seems to have
a knack for recognizing and combining the various elements that
make a good adventure game, now he needs to
take it to that next step and go commercial. The Goat
in the Grey Fedora ate up eleven months of his spare
time and he is offering it as freeware. It is only a matter of time
until
some smart company
hires him.

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

Just Adventure is proud
to have Pinhead Games as a member of our Just
Adventure Independent Developers. Nick
Bounty: The Goat in the Grey Fedora is
now available for download. Make sure to also read our profile
of Mark
Darin and Pinhead Games.