Often, the game's plot will not advance until each of the dialog choices (or Repeated without restoring a saved game, so you'll have to pay close attention. To identify with the Jim Pearson character. Some of these dialog prompts should haveīeen written in the first-person, rather than third-person, to make it easier Your interaction with characters is based A large cast of supportingĬharacters serves to fill out the live-action sequences and gives the whole gameĪ greater degree of verisimilitude. Hopper and Teri Garr are not much more than cameos. Game's credits, since the appearances by the "name" actors Dennis Our estimation, Eliker should have definitely received top billing in the Standards for the adventure-game genre (certainly higher budgets, anyway). The caliber of his work is better than someįirst-run movies we've seen lately - hopefully this is an indication of higher He's great at looking confused, the way we sometimesįelt while playing the game. For the most part, a lot of research effort has obviously beenĮxpended in order to portray an accurate depiction of the game's scenes.Īcting is absolutely first-rate, with Darren Eliker as Jim Pearson doing a
Greatest strength in immersing you in the mood of the various times and locales Non-animated idle cursor, which would make the cursor changes easier toīlack Dahlia's graphics are very impressive, arguably the game's Is usual with this type of game engine, hotspots and movement options in theĮnvironment are indicated by a change in the cursor. "flashlight" mode), but most of the time this was not confining. Motion is less than in JP3 (especially noticeable when in Movement around the node-basedĮnvironment is intuitive, using a 3D game engine very similar toģ - at any node in the game, you can smoothly move the viewpoint a fullģ60 degrees, as well as up and down. Lines, so they end up having a television-like appearance that thankfully isĪbsent from the first-person gameplay portions. In time or place, particularly effective with their slightly-scratchedĪppearance suggesting a 1940's newsreel. There are frequent grainy, sepia-tone "filmĬlips" shown at key plot points throughout the game to indicate a change The game's interface is a mixture of first-person gameplay on renderedīackgrounds and third-person full-motion video segments using live actorsĪgainst the same backgrounds. Tells a gritty detective story set in the 1940's. Contents subject to change! For theīlack Dahlia, the latest release from Take 2 Interactive Software, Redistribution or conversion is expressly prohibited without the prior writtenĬonsent of Balmoral Software.