Still Life Preview

Adventure games appear to be making a serious comeback, with the help of The Adventure Company, which publishes games from many different companies for the North American market. This Spring, they will be publishing The Moment of Silence and Still Life. Great news for adventure enthusiasts!

Still Life is an adventure game that takes place in two different time periods, 1920's-era Prague, and present-day Chicago. Developed by Microids, who also gave us Post Mortem and Syberia, Still Life continues some of the story elements from Post Mortem with the return of Gus McPherson. However, this time the story focuses mostly on Gus's granddaughter, Victoria McPherson, who is a Chicago police detective.

A serial killer is stalking Chicago, targeting young women. So far, there hasn't been much evidence left behind and the police are becoming frustrated. Victoria is assigned to the ongoing cases, along with this latest murder. The killer is becoming more bold, and is leaving behind messages in blood. During her investigation of this 5th murder, she begins to experience flashbacks to an eerily similar string of murders in long-ago Prague, which her grandfather investigated.

This is a third-person, point-and-click adventure game in the traditional style. Players will engage in dialogue with various characters, and collect inventory items. The dialogue sometimes involves choices of things to say or ask, which opens up different outcomes, similar to the Tex Murphy games, where players could choose to play a straight-up Tex, or a "down-n-dirty" Tex. The choice here isn't so much about good or bad actions, but is presented as a choice between "professional" or "personal" responses.

The game begins with an intro movie of the most recent murder. Once the movie is over, Victoria is called in to the crime scene, and meets up with a member of her investigative team. Along with her partner, the medical technician is also on the scene. Victoria has to help examine the crime scene, and uses the kit provided by the medical technician to collect clues.

The interface is elegant and easy to access. Simply right-click and it will pop up. Inventory items, as well as notes and other handy functions, are available from the same menu. Players can either select items to use, examine them in close-up, or combine them. The game is rigid on item use, though, and players won't be able to just pick items at random and use them on everything in sight. Only when Victoria is standing by a hot spot will the player be able to use an object.

Still Life is very close in appearance to Syberia, one of the best-looking games in recent years in terms of graphics. The mood is dark, and the cities of Chicago and Prague, as envisioned by Microids, reflect the somber tone with wintry weather and overcast sky. The characters are drawn very realistically and move smoothly, but sometimes tend to repeat motions when talking. Victoria is dressed a little oddly for a detective, especially in the winter. I doubt that many female detectives go around investigating in a short mini-dress and knee high boots with high heels. It doesn't look very warm for a Chicago winter, nor would wearing heels be comfortable. But, at least it's not a metal-plated G-string.

The show CSI comes to mind while playing this game, not because of the gameplay, but because of the macabre story-line and graphic nature of the material. The corpse is shown in disturbing detail, and other clues are equally shocking. These elements are displayed rather early on in the game, so it follows that items of an even more horrific nature may be forthcoming in the final game. The game's promised Mature rating will be a given. There are also quite a bit of "colorful metaphors" present, as Spock would say.

I love a good mystery, and also love adventure games. Still Life, so far, is a treat to play, with its intriguing story, involving gameplay and detailed characters. In fact, the characters are some of the best I've seen for a long time, in terms of realistic appearance and actions. The physical movements of each character fit in with what people usually do for certain actions. However, some of Victoria's actions themselves weren't thought out very well beforehand, as when she casually tosses an empty coffee cup into a sink at the crime scene (contamination) and blithely walks through a blood spill on the floor every time she moves across the room.

The dialogue and voice acting is very good. Some of the language is a bit vulgar, but is mostly of the tame variety and seems to be character appropriate. There was one instance, though, when a very strong expression was used for a very ordinary occurrence, which didn't seem realistic.

I am absolutely looking forward to the completed version, and if the game's continuation and ending is as exciting as the beginning moments, adventure enthusiasts are in for a rare treat.