Jazz and Faust Preview

They are on opposite sides of the legal spectrum. One is a smuggler hoping to avoid jail time by raising the cash to pay off the court so that he can remain free. The other is the noble captain of a ship waiting to give passage to a stranger out of the port city.

But what starts as seemingly divergent paths soon melds into the one road called adventure.

The Jazz and Faust preview build, from Russian publisher 1C Company, was a little light in terms of a polished product. The game was narrated in Russian with English subtitles. And there was a lack of options within rendered scenes. For example, if Jazz goes into the bar, there were few active areas, and if you clicked in the same area in successive move turns, then the same action, with the same consequences were repeated over and over.

Still, this is a preview, not a review, and one hopes that these idiosyncrasies will be cleared up by the time the game has a full release.

At its heart, Jazz and Faust is an old-style game, with a sizable mapboard that bears exploring.

The passenger that Faust is waiting for does not return, and both Jazz and Faust learn that two foreigners were murdered the night before and as a result, the police have closed the port. The game's namesakes then try to uncover what is behind the murders, which leads to a bigger adventure.

Game players can take on the role of either Jazz or Faust, but not both. However, if when playing one role, it does help to "bump" into the other character. While each character has his own storyline to track, the game will wind up with the same ending - should you get that far.

This seems to be a very linear game, at least from the build received.

The game features the point-and-click style of gaming. As your character enters a scene, you scan around with the cursor, which will become active when an action is permitted. There are also exits built into the scene, which will enable players to move about the map.

This is much more of a cerebral challenge than a reflexive one.

The environments are lush, but two-dimensional. The animation of primary characters is a little rigid, but not to the point of terribly distracting from the game.

The game concept is quite good, and the overall play will enable just about anyone to jump right in and play immediately. The player interface is simple to understand and use.

As with most of the games within this genre, your inventory is very important. You can collect items which may be used down the line. It is important to talk to everyone you can, not only to pick up clues to the crimes (and what lays behind it), but to get the items you may need as the story progresses.

Dreamcatcher has done rather well in this genre over the past few years, and 1C Company’s Jazz and Faust has the promise of competing with games from that publishing house.

However, that does not mean that this is a game that will appeal to all gamers. But if you like your games with a little bit of exploration and adventure, and one that challenges your reasoning abilities, this may be the game for you.