Jack the Ripper

With a Maniac terrorizing citizens in New York 1901, it's up to you James Palmer, a reporter for one of the competing New York papers to uncover the clues to what is shaping up to be the return of Jack the Ripper. As inept policemen stumble through the crime scenes and you in turn find clues to the killer you become somewhat of a curiosity to the Ripper and it becomes only a matter of time before you meet him yourself as you attempt to stop the murder spree.

Man, this game was different. In lieu of a traditionally controlled game, the developers chose to bring back an almost Myst-like interface. Players move from fixed position to fixed position where they look around the location and place the cursor on points or objects of interest. If the area of interest proves to be something of relevance, the cursor changes and an action is enabled, whether merely getting a better look at a poster or speaking to one of the many people you come in contact with.

Players will find the initial trial and error period kind of a put-off as it felt to me like it was a throw back in terms of gameplay. The cursor players use is somewhat spotty and even though you may see something of interest, sometimes you would need to put the cursor in the exact precise pixel for the cursor to change. Needless to say this was quite frustrating for me as one can only be so patient when playing a game of this type. The map function was also somewhat confusing to me since the programmers made an unnecessary step when going to other areas. This step also took me about 10 minutes to understand but only because I broke the "Guy" rule of actually looking at the instruction manual.

The game has strong rendered graphics that look engaging and authentic. The items of interest do stand out clearly against them so I felt like I was being led around by my nose as it was almost too easy to find items. The characters in the game also look authentic and appropriate for the time frame that the game takes place in. The game developers did their homework in trying to make the game appear as authentic as possible and I felt this was the game's strongest qualities. The voice work provided in the game was also done quite well with characters having accents and quirks that seemed correct for the time period. Remember, the game takes place in the early 1900's and good grammar wasn't found in the seedier slums of New York city.

Our friend Jack has been subject of several games, TV shows and Big screen movies with varying opinions on who he was. With the exception of the Graphic Novel and movie From Hell ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120681/ ) there hasn't been a commercially successful medium on which the subject can be examined. Yet, our curiosity remains the same. I guess I was hoping for a game with a little more sinister tone and scary feel. I just can't recommend this game to the average gamer, only fanatics of the subject will get something out of the game, the other 99% of the gaming population won't play it more then 30 minutes as it goes by a tad too slow and the gameplay is scattered.

Gameplay: 5.0
A clunky interface that only lets you examine items and places if the cursor changes. No real movement to be found and the puzzles are simply not challenging.

Graphics: 7.7
Not bad for rendered graphics and 3-D modeling. But if you think about it, it's really just like looking at a picture since there is very little movement and the programming difficulty is scaled down considerably.

Sound: 7.1
Nice voice acting done by the cast. Accents, shady voices and even a song or two give the game some credibility of skilled game making.

Difficulty: Easy
The only real difficulty is the spotty controls. The puzzles are fairly simple and the game just doesn't take that long to complete.

Concept: 6.0
It's not an entirely new idea, having the Ripper come back to wreck havoc on the populace. Been there, done that.

Overall: 5.8
It's too easy, the controls stink, the game is not engaging and it's too short. I was really disappointed in this title because I had really thought this was going to be something special.