As
a Polish-American myself, I enjoy all things Polish such as pierogi,
Wigilia (Polish Christmas Eve) & Bill Mazeroski’s 1960 World
Series home run. I only mention this because City Interactive – the
developers of Art of Murder: FBI Confidential (AoM)
– is located in Poland and this is their first game to be released
in the United States. Art of Murder was
designed by the creators of the popular PC adventure games Schizm:
Mysterious Journey and Mysterious
Journey II, both of which featured some of the most
devious and mind-boggling puzzles ever seen in an adventure game (wipe
that sweat from your brow, no Mensa-worthy math puzzles this time
around).

AoM
is a murder/mystery, third-person point-and-click adventure in the
tradition of Still
Life and Post
Mortem. It also, like the aforementioned, features
a young, female protagonist – Nicole Bonnet – who is an FBI agent
working her first case: a serial killer who removes the hearts of
his victims.

But,
AoM also calls to mind Sierra’s original
Police Quest series as mundane tasks must
be completed during the course of the workday. Yes, you will need
to put paper in the printer if you want to make copies and yes, you
will need to return to headquarters for a police warrant. Many adventure
gamers might cry foul though when Nicole asks the secretary for a
phone number and then, even though Nicole is standing right there,
the secretary emails her the phone number! But you know what, I worked
in offices for many years and such stupidity is actually normal.

Most of the puzzles are inventory-based and actually a lot of fun and there is even a *gasp* timed puzzle that for once makes a lot of sense in the context of the game. The in-game graphics and cut-scenes using the Wintermute Engine are extremely detailed and at times striking. Sound effects take extra care in little matters such as the difference in sound a character’s footsteps make stepping off cement onto gravel. Most games overlook such small details.

But
– I hear you waiting for the other shoe to drop and here it is – you
can never shake the feeling that you’ve played this game numerous
times before in better incarnations. It’s as though the developers
wrote the story by drawing slips of paper with clichés written on
them from a hat.

• Cliché #1 – While on
  a coffee run during a stakeout, Nicole’s partner is killed. During
  her first case. Give me a break.
• Cliché #2 – Nicole trained
  at Quantico in Virginia and is a Special Agent in New York City.
  The cliché? Has there ever been any game developed outside North
  America that is set in the U.S. that is not set
  in New York City? It would have been a welcome change of pace if
  the story had unfolded in Washington, DC or even Gary, Indiana for
  that matter.
• Cliché #3 – Maybe I’ve
  read too many Agatha Christie novels or watched too many episodes
  of Law & Order, but the identity of the murderer was obvious
  about a tenth of the way into the game. And there is one scene early
  in the game that all but screams “Look at me, I’m the murderer!”
• Cliché #4 – Nicole tracks the murderer to Peru (see any Broken Sword game, or any Runaway game or any…). And of course she does so against the advice of her superior, thus threatening her job.

There
is more, to be sure, but the clichés would be forgivable were it not
for the numerous glitches that distract from the gameplay: the sound
during cut-scenes is either non-existent or fades in and out; there
were a few instances where I had to guess at what had happened. Too
many words are misspelled in the subtitles. Regardless of whether
it is a one-man project or a Triple A title, a game immediately looks
amateurish when simple words such as ‘professor’ are misspelled. Most
egregious of all though is the blatantly poor grammar on the retail
box: ‘Fit all the element of the murderous puzzle’ (?) and ‘Become
Nicole Bonnet: A young female FBI agent and except (sic) the challenge.’

The
linearity of the game is also a determent. A map in Nicole’s car never
offers any locations to go to other than the one you must visit. Nor
are you permitted to leave a scene unless every puzzle in that area
has been solved and every necessary dialogue option heard. The in-game
hint system just piles on to the feeling that City Interactive is
doing everything they can to solve the puzzle for you and their next
step is a phone call with one of the developers walking you through
the puzzle.

There
is some mild profanity, but it feels and sounds entirely natural unlike
the recent Alone in the Dark remake where
the developer’s idea of maturity is to drop an f-bomb every other
sentence. Unfortunately, much of the dialogue is stilted and while
the voice-acting, especially that of the main character, is more than
passable, there are also occasions when either the emphasis is on
the wrong word in the sentence or the delivery is flat and emotionless.

Special
Agent Nicole Bonnet is a charming character with a lot of personality
(I even got a kick out of her off-key singing) and small touches,
like her calling a squad car to take a librarian safely home late
at night, brings her to life. It would be a shame if Art
of Murder were to be her only appearance, but it would
also be a shame if a sequel were to not correct the numerous minor
issues that weigh down the game.

System Requirements:

• Windows 98/ME/2000/XP(SP2)
• DirectX 8.1
• CPU 1 GHz
• 512 MB RAM
• Video card: Nvidia
  GeForce or ATI Radeon 32 MB RAM,
  DirectX 8.1 compatible
• 1 GB of free HDD
• DVD-ROM 4x or faster
• Mouse,
  keyboard, sound card compatible with DirectX 8.1