The Goat in the Grey Fedora Review

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.