Art of murder is a 3rd person point and click adventure – a present day gritty murder investigation beginning in the backstreets of New York and venturing into South American territory to locations such as Cusco in Peru and the border of the Amazonian jungle. The murderer targets high society leaving a rather sickening calling card of removing the victims heart. Your job as a young female FBI agent Nicole Bonnet is to solve the case
The brief preview opens with a cut scene of agent Nicole Bonnet reporting for duty at the observation point in an abandoned building. After being despatched for coffee she returns to hear a shot and discovers her dying comrade Steve who only has time to say “take the message to Nick” before passing away. The game then begins.
For the preview we were able to investigate the scene of Steve’s murder and recover his phone.
Interface
To go to our location we clicked on the appropriate photograph on the car seat and entered the abandoned building . The cursor takes the form of a computor mouse and changes to a “ring” with a dot in the center for action hotspots and with a small hand and eye either side of the ring when an object is to be viewed or lifted. During periods when story is running or character conversations the cursor changes to a spinning ring. The inventory is displayed along the bottom of the screen along with three static icons – the shortcut to main menu, hints icon, and notebook.
The main menu is presented well with all the necessary options
The hint system takes the form of a magnifying glass. Should you need a hint click on the icon and not only will magnifying glasses appear on screen to indicate clues but directional arrows appear suggesting where you can go.
The notebook, although I did not have the opportunity to use in the preview, is to store information and suggestions for use either in other parts or later on in the game.
Items collected are also displayed on the inventory bar.
Puzzles :
On first impressions most of the puzzles appear to be inventory based whether it be combining the collected items (or separating!) within inventory or using them on screen . it is a simple procedure to access and utilise inventory items with a right click and drag
Sound and vision :
The background or environment graphics display incredible attention to detail with the suitably grubby walls, the litter strewn floors of the building, and the shadows of the characters and objects. The movement of Nicole meanwhile is extremely fluid and feminine ! Double clicking will make Nicole run and you will see what I mean.
We had interaction with one other character which demonstrated the good quality voice overs and the effective ambient sounds and original music contributes to the atmosphere.
Summary.
Although the detective/ murder is a tried and tested formula, it is refreshing that Art of Murder has not got a middle aged detective or carried out in some hygienically scrubbed laboratory.I especially look forward to the transition from bleak New York streets to the green Amazon areas. With this fresh concept , promises of so much more in the full version ( unexpected twists, extraordinary characters, interesting dialogue and mind-tangling riddles ) and the quality of the preview copy – Art of Murder is definitely a game to look forward to.
