When you think of the FMV interactive movie adventure genre several titles should come to mind. Most notably several games in particular stand the test of time as classics. The Tex Murphy series was one of the best, especially The Pandora Directive. The story and pacing had dramatic flare. The 3D Graphics engine was gritty and really helped to create a realistic world. An accomplished cast lent their talents and made the characters believable and memorable. The Black Dahlia was another FMV with incredible production values and it featured Terri Garr and Dennis Hopper. The story was creepy and the movies were astounding, but the game elements were insanely frustrating. Even Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within, as silly as some portions were managed to attract attention from a large audience.

Unfortunately these games were the exception not the rule. As a whole, FMV doesn’t work so well when it’s incorporated into a game. It is very hard for a developer to focus on both filming a movie that is worth watching and creating a game that’s worth playing at the same time. Conspiracies is another example of a grand story being hampered by unintuitive gameplay.

The story involves a down on his luck detective who appears to be working for two different people. Drugs and murder are at the very heart of this mystery, but the plot is so convoluted and overwrought with confusing story progression that it’s hard to follow through to conclusion. The cut-scenes were not filmed in English and the voiceovers leave a bit to be desired. The overall atmosphere is supposed to be futuristic. It seems there are several inspirational nods to Blade Runner and even several things that resemble or pay homage to Tex Murphy Under A Killing Moon.

At one point Nick the central character you play will travel back in time and bring a scientist back to the future. A large portion of the game is spent looking for him, however that particular story arc peters out later in the game and it isn’t clear as to the scientist’s relevance. None of the characters have much depth. The clues offer little information so the people you question don’t have much personality. Most interviews only have one or two specific plot progressing items despite a whole list of things Nick can ask about.

Much of the game requires you to search environments for clues. The mouse allows you to spin completely around and the directional keys handle movement. Dragging the pointer across the screen to find objects of interest is especially frustrating because there are no hotspots. That is, if you do manage to run over something important the mouse cursor does not change. So you must click on everything. The graphics and environments are insanely sparse so this method of searching shouldn’t prove too difficult. However some items are hidden very well and are so small that it is hard to see them. 

Once you do find something it goes into an inventory that holds a limited amount of objects. There are plenty of red herrings so you run out of carrying space very quickly. When this happens you are forced to dump your inventory contents onto Nick’s office floor. Each item stacks on top of one another so you must be careful not to misplace anything because you might need it later. Limited inventory space just means a lot of traveling back and forth until you have the necessary items to complete a puzzle.

The puzzles in Conspiracies range from silly to completely illogical. I haven’t seen solutions this ridiculous since the cat mustache puzzle in Blood Of The Sacred, Blood Of The Damned. Nick feeds vitamins to plants, uses fish bowl water to make coffee and gets around attacking robot dogs with a giant rubber ducky filled with water. Some adventure gamers may find all this humorous. It is a game after all, but it is never made clear exactly what is going on or how one should feel about the proceedings. Should the player feel sad at the conclusion or are we supposed to laugh at the puzzle solution that required six pieces of gum to stick a homing beacon on to a speeder. Or are we supposed to cry out of frustration because tracking down those six pieces of gum was an irritating pixel hunt.

In short Conspiracies has a complicated story that never seems to go anywhere. It has puzzles that I felt were ridiculous, but others may find hysterical. The acting, voiceovers, environments and puzzles seemed forced, inadequate and illogical. I’ve read other reviews that praise it as charming and quirky. I’ve also read several reviews that point out the games serious pitfalls. If you are a fan of the FMV adventure genre then you know how few and far between these titles are as of late. The price tag is encouraging, but if you’re looking for an engrossing Tex Murphy type experience Conspiracies will disappoint.

Gameplay:  6
The limited inventory is annoying. You must travel to certain locations to launch the travel map. There are no hotspots so you must click everything on the screen. Manipulating items within the inventory screen is a nightmare. Interviewing characters feels pointless. The story is hard to follow and the puzzles just don’t make a whole lot of sense in the context of the plot. The large hedge maze inside the space station was completely out of place and not much fun to navigate through. Go left (hint).

Graphics:  6
The environments are bare and uninteresting. The objects in them are flat with very little detail. Many rooms consist of several plain crates and that’s all. The movies are blocky. The game supports higher resolution, but when I bumped it way up I saw no difference.

Sound: 6
The music and sound are both unremarkable with the exception of the time traveling device, which is very loud.

Difficulty: Hard
Poor pathfinding, weird graphic warps that can shoot you to the opposite end of a room. Tricky unlabeled hotspots and small objects like tiny pieces of torn paper.

Concept: 6 
I’m still not sure what it’s all about. There are several plot points that never seem to be tied together. The end is even more unsatisfying than Tomb Raider The Angel Of Darkness.

Overall: 6
The story is grand indeed, but I haven’t a clue as to what it is. In my humble opinion Conspiracies is lacking in several categories. If you simply love the FMV adventure genre then you know there isn’t much to choose from. Maybe Conspiracies will find a home in your gaming library by default. Maybe the story is coherent and I just missed it. Maybe Conspiracies is so quirky that the silliness went over my head. The funniest part of the game was watching the outtakes during the credits. I’d rather replay The Pandora Directive or reinstall The Black Dahlia instead. That’s just my two cents worth. In the end a review is just that. A couple of adventure websites have written very favorable reviews for Conspiracies. I recommend reading both pro and con articles before committing to the game. If you truly are a FMV junky and can’t resist then by all means go to town. And good luck.