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MacPherson, ma'am. Gus MacPherson. Welcome to the Dark Side.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 129 / 135
Date: February 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

As any reviewer will tell you, writing reviews is a very personal experience. I was one of the few that found Microïds' "Road to India" to be an imaginative and overall pleasing little game (emphasis on little, since it took less than four hours to play through...a crime for the money invested). Other reviews from online gaming magazines backed me up, giving "RtI" scores of 80% and up. However, *ever other Amazon.com reviewer* gave the game two stars or less, and I felt positively guilty that some who read my glowing, five-star review had purchased the game and hated it based solely on my opinion. So, for Microïds' "Post Mortem " (distributed in North America by Dreamcatcher Games) I am trying a new technique: besides my own observations, I'm going to list the review scores from a number of sites that I regularly use to preview and purchase computer games.

"Post Mortem" is Montréal-based Microïds' newest offering, a grisly tale of murder, betrayal, lust and dark, dark secrets. Let me stress the word dark. This IS NOT a game for sensitive viewers, as there are a number of violent and disturbing images during the course of the game. The visuals themselves are dark and dreary nighttime views of Paris, with a moody jazz soundtrack. The interface is similar to "Road to India," with (occasionally grainy) 360-degree panning. The inventory is a bit tricky to navigate, and the dialogue is easily the weakest point in the game (as well as some of the voice acting). Although there are various responses that can be chosen for a given question, you must eventually choose nearly all the responses before continuing. Nor is there any way to skip through dialogue, which can be a boring pain after the second or third time, which diminishes replay value drastically. Some of the puzzles were trial and error, others were too easy and practically shouted out the answer for themselves (another flaw with Microïds' "Road to India" was that the puzzles were waaay too easy (but I still stand by my five-star rating for originality and beautiful visuals, as well as exploring a new country and culture, very much like "Post Mortem").

The game's psychic premise could have been further explored: you play Gustave MacPherson, an American private investigator living in Paris. Even as a child, you were "sensitive" and able to sense and see events, which you explore in your paintings. A beautiful and mysterious woman knocks on the door of your shabby flat and wants you to investigate the murder of her sister and brother-in-law in a posh Paris hotel. The story soon takes an occult twist, leaving McPherson to rely both on good old detective work (including an identity sketch puzzle) and his psychic instincts (mostly used as an excuse to show violent, gruesome flashbacks). As I said earlier, the psychic angle could have been further explored, allowing the player to interact with other characters or sites with McPherson's ability.

The game lets you explore 1920's Paris by night, a visual and aural treat never before seen in a game. You visit exotic locations and interview shady characters, all of which have secrets of their own. The psychic approach is a novel idea as well. The game is short, although much longer than "Road to India," offering 15+ hours of gameplay.

Why I am awarding "Post Mortem" five stars:

The Good:

+ The graphics. Microïds always makes graphics a strong point, as in "Amerzone," "Road to India," the unparalleled "Syberia" and now "Post Mortem." The freedom of movement with 360° panning really lets you feel as if you were in Paris, rather than watching a slideshow of it à la Myst. Characters are very lifelike and expressive, although synching may be off

+ The story: although the Templars have been dealt with in other games ("Gabriel Knight III"), "Post Mortem" makes an effort not to follow in the footsteps of past games with the same subject matter. The private detective angle in the Roaring Twenties, in Paris no less, is refreshing

+ The "Film Noir" inspiration, evident in the brooding, dark visual style, the sultry jazz music, the seedier dark side of Paris, the femme fatale and the PI

+ Legible subtitles. A very big plus for hearing-impaired gamers are the subtitles, which can be left on during gameplay and during cutscenes.

+ The locations: cafés, bistros, hotels, abandoned metro stations, houses and flats, a police station

+ Spooky, spooky atmosphere combined with Film Noir intrigue...you might not be so trusting of what lurks in the dark after playing this

The Bad:
- Gruesome subject matter that may not be appropriate for all gamers (over 18, that is, the game has a Mature rating)

- Awful lip synchronization

- Awkward French-to-English translations and bad voice acting

- Dialogue trees can lead you to inquire after already-dead characters and skip ahead

- The dialogue (and the fact that it can't be skipped or sped up)

- Music loops are too short and repetitive in places, including a "static radio burst" in one part of the game that has darn near driven people insane (or turned the music off, whatever came first)

- Several really frustrating, unnecessarily time-consuming puzzles

- The inventory only lets you cycle through a few items at a time, making it a pain to search for items buried in the pile

Ratings from other gaming sites (so you don't have to trust my opinion alone):

Adventure Archiv: 81%
Action Trip: 88%
Four Fat Chicks: Star (Mega Supreme, highest rating)
Just Adventure +: B
The Armchair Empire: 7.3/10
Game Nation: 82%
Game Rankings.com: 72%
Adventure Gamers: 2 out of 5 stars

I Enjoyed It Quite a Bit

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 42 / 42
Date: April 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

In _Post Mortem_, you play Gus MacPherson, a former Pinkerton Detective who has retired to Paris to be an artist (the setting is the 1920's). As the game opens, a mysterious woman -- in true film noir fashion -- appears at MacPherson's door. When MacPherson answers, he has a psychic flash of a horrible crime, and soon enough the lady explains. Her sister and brither-in-law, she says, have been brutally murdered in their hotel room while visiting Paris. The police aren't investigating to her satisfaction. Will MacPherson put on his gumshoes and help her?

As a rule I usually won't spend more than [amount of money] for a game unless it's part of a series I trust, but I hadn't had a new game in awhile and PM was the only title in the local game store that I hadn't played, so I took the plunge. And I was not disappointed. The game, distributed by Dreamcatcher and developed by Microids (makers of Syberia) features an engaging plot, very good graphics, decent characters and puzzles that, while not extremely challenging, often contained original features that I very much appreciated. There were no timed activities, no mazes and no getting killed over and over again. All in all, PM offered many of the features I look for in an Adventure game and few of the drawbacks.

As you might expect from a detective story, the game relies highly on talking to people and collecting evidence. The conversation trees are set up in a different way than is usual in these games: you are not actually expected to go through every single topic with every person you meet. In fact, you can't; choosing one may mean you eliminate others. So you have to be careful to look at every conversation option you have and think about what you're going to say. You especially have to pay attention to whether you might insult someone, thus cutting off further opportunity for their help. I liked this device quite a bit, because so often in games you DON'T really have to think about what you're saying or asking; you can (and must) just reel off every topic you're given. Here you have to try to ask the *right* questions and what you choose to say may affect the course of the game.

...however, there were a few glitches in this system: places where you were suddenly talking about someone who hadn't really been introduced, or [events] where...you had not yet been informed. I never found this intereferred with my enjoyment or understand of the game,though; where this happened it usually didn't make a major difference because the relevant information was easy to fill in or deduce with a little thought.

The game gives a pretty good balance of linearity and non-linearity. New locations are made available to you through conversation, or through the course of your investigation, but you may be given several new locations at once, which you can visit in any order. Also, there may be several tasks within a location, and these also can be accomplished in any order. I thought the puzzles themselves were very logical and tied into the story quite well. Several dealt with art, fitting in with MacPherson's role as an artist. Others ranged from deciphering alchemical formulae to breaking into locked rooms. As I've said, most of the tasks were pretty straightforward. Occasionally, though, it was hard to see what you were looking for, either because the location was dark or the resolution was a little off, or because two hotspots were so close together that you thought there was only one there until you stumbled on the other accidentally. This last led me to have to get one or two hints early on; then I realised I just had to pay closer attention to details.

In the middle of the game you suddenly and without warning find yourself playing as another character. I can't decide whether I liked this or not. The switch was a bit disorienting and it didn't truly add anything experience-wise. On the other hand, it was a keen way of hearing the story of someone who had a lot to say without enduring an interminable monologue.

For the most part the game ran very smoothly for me (from a full install). Inventory, as well as your map and your notebook, were easily accessible with a right click. There were unlimited savegames, your save was represented with a picture of your current location and saving was quick and easy -- a thing I always appreciate. I did have a problem with the cutscenes being choppy, however. I had this same problem with _Syberia_, another Microids game, which leads me to believe my system has some compatibility issue with this developer. It made for a mild annoyance. Far more irritating was the fact that there was no skipping through a cutscene once it had started.

_Post Mortem_ is rated "M" for mature and in this case I think it deserves it. The [violent event] is really disturbing and the [violent event] scene particularly gruesome.

PM took me about 15 hours to play, so it is not particularly long. It does offer some replay value if you want to go back and see where it gets you to follow different conversation trees. There are also 3 different endings. Overall, while there are some improvements that could be made, I enjoyed the game and considered it money well spent.

Is this an adventure game?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 32 / 34
Date: March 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is not a good game. For starters, there is a massive amount of unskippable dialogue, much of which makes no sense. You speak of characters you've never heard of leaving you scratching your head in wonder. There is also a dialogue with a character in the hotel (as stated by another review) which forces you to end task the game since there is no way to terminate the conversation. Did anyone play/test this game before it was released?

In addition, there aren't many puzzles, and the larger ones are not difficult, clever, or challenging, just tedious. I don't consider "trial and error" a puzzle, just annoying and a waste of time.

The only redeeming aspect of the game are the decent graphics. But, sorry guys, pretty pictures do not an adventure game make.

After this and Cameron Files 2, another stinker, I am wary of purchasing other Dreamcatcher products. They seem more interested in pumping out mediocre games quickly than making some good ones.

Let Down

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 16 / 16
Date: May 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Post Mortem is one of those games that has lots of problems, but that I still got some enjoyment out of. The graphics are good, but not as good as Syberia, or some of the newer games out there. I really enjoyed the story, although I think they could have done more with it. It reminded me quite a bit of Black Dahlia and the Gabriel Knight series.

Sadly, there were quite a few problems with Post Mortem. The "multiple choice" dialogs were not programmed very well. In theory, they are supposed to permit you to control the outcome of the game based on the dialogs you choose. However, I found that if I didn't follow the canned sequence, the responses stopped making sense before too long. Also, the dialogs were often not synchronized with the events in the game. I experienced several cases where a character would describe something that had not happened yet. Other times, I would solve a puzzle and much later in the game a character would give me a hint for that same puzzle. This lack of synchronization became very confusing at several points in the game.

My other complaint was with the inventory system. It consists of a single scrolling line of items at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, you collect a lot of "junk" during the game, so finding what you need can take quite a while. Also, when you use an item, it usually stays in the inventory instead of getting deleted. As a result, the inventory just keeps growing and growing. There's no reason why an adventure game today should have a clumsy inventory system.

Overall, I enjoyed playing Post Mortem, despite it's defects. I'm disappointed that the developers didn't put a little more effort into the game. It could have been excellent instead of just average.

Better than I thought

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 16
Date: June 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

After reading several reviews for this title, I was skeptical going in. My expectations were for a descent game with several flaws that kept it from being perfect. What I found was an excellent game with only a few minor issues.

The biggest issue I had heard about the game was that in its attempt to be open ended it allowed for you to talk of events or people that you had never heard of up to that point. While that does happen, I found it actually worked with the storyline and characters. Whenever I came across dialog I should not have been able to access, I found, soon after, that the character I had that dialog with was more involved in the plot than first appeared. Therefore, while most people felt this was from a poor beta test, I felt it actually improved the story by increasing my suspitions of the characters involved.

The characters, though, are the greatest plus of this game. Nobody is who they seem, leaving you to uncover who is good and bad, or if anybody can be called either.

What keeps me from giving five stars is two small issues. First, while the puzzles fit the game well, the two times you are forced to manipulate paintings were frustrating at best. The problem was not the puzzles themselves, but the lack of leeway on the part of the game engine to allow for close enough. The game forces you to be so precise that I found myself suffering from eye-strain after each of those puzzles. The other issue is that according to the adversement, your dialog options have an influence on how the game is played and finished. With only a couple of exceptions, I found that it didn't really matter what you said to whom so long as you didn't alienate them in the process.

So, while the game is not perfect (and so few games are) you will find yourself happy with this game if you enjoy adventure games, moody atmosepheres, detective stories, occult lore, or are just looking for something different.

Frustrating...but Beautiful.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: July 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought Post Mortem quite some time ago, I would say...three months and I still have not beaten it. I would not say that it is particulary hard, but, if you make a single wrong move, as in click the wrong dialouge (which I did HUNDREDS of times) you can completely mess up the game and it won't go any further.

I got so close to the very end, and then what happens...I can't talk to the character I need to talk to...the game won't let me!

The graphics are good, the backgrounds are very realistic. The real gems are the cut scenes. I love the re-play feature, I watch the cut scenes I have unlocked over and over again.

The biggest downfall of the game, the voice acting. All the voices are monotone, there is absolutly no emotion in ANY of the voices. The worst of all, wouldn't you know it? Is the main character.

I would recommend this game to those who like complex puzzles, like murder mysteries and don't mind the horrible voice acting. Aside from its downfalls, the game is very entertaining and [it drew me] in for a long time.

Whatever you decide to do, have fun n_n

-Majestyic

Packaging sells

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: August 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The packaging for Post Mortem makes it look like an exciting, dark and mysterious game. Its not. Graphics for the main character are repetitive and annoying. You can't skip the dialogue no matter how long and repetitive it is and absolutely none of the witness are the least bit interesting. Simply didn't like it. Save your dough.

Should have been better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: January 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game should have been better that it was - it had great potential. The story was good, the graphics were excellent, the acting so-so. Like others that played this game, I have to agree that the dialogue was terrible. At times there were up eight different dialogue choices - pick the wrong one and end up at a dead end. The flow of the dialogue sometimes made no sense or was contradictory. I did enjoy the French accents, though.

The inventory was a real pain - you end up collecting quite a few objects and have to go though them one at a time to find the item you need. When an item is just entered into inventory and you want to access it, it should be the first available item. It's not - for some reason I always ended up going though all the items just to look at the newest item.

The music also got very annoying after a while. There is an option to turn it down and I had it at the lowest setting but I still found it intrusive.

Even with these criticisms I would still recommend the game and I enjoyed it anyway.

Don't waste your money

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: March 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Post Mortem left the quality control lab waaaay too soon! What were the developers thinking when they designed the dialog tree? Revealing clues in the dialogs before you're even introduced to the characters they involve... found myself going "huh?!" all of the time. Also, when talking to one character in the hotel, I wasn't able to terminate the conversation because I hadn't completed some obtuse task; had to ctrl+alt+del the game. There is also no way to advance conversations ala ESC or right-clicks found in other games.

The background music is boring and grates on the nerves.

This game lacks all that makes an adventure game an adventure game, but the pictures are real pretty.

Post Morem is decent

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: April 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is pretty good. Graphics are well-done, except for NPCs at times. For example, the Alambic Cafe. The patrons you cannot interact with don't even move.. they're stationary, placed in some position like taking a neverending sip of wine. The story is pretty cliche.. I mean, humble detective, 1920's film noir setting, suspicious female with black hair and thick makeup hiring you. It's all present, but Post Mortem lacks a bit more than the other cliche titles do. Walking around isn't fun at all.. on the back of the box it shows Gus MacPherson (the antagonist) walking into a train, so I automatically assumed the game was free-roaming. WRONG! You stand stationary in positions when inside a building, and you have to continually click forward to proceed, moving your mouse up/down/right/left to view the current area. To go from place to place (for example, from the Alambic Cafe to the Police Station), you have a map which you bust out in times of need and click the place you want to go to. At this point, the game loads up the area. The load times aren't bad at all, so I'm not going to complain. But if this game was free-roaming I'd like it a lot better.

All-in-all, the game is nothing spectacular or breath-taking.. nothing noteworthy or of value to come out of it. Although, I was rather partial to the sketchpad. People would describe the suspect, and you have a sketchpad (seeing as how you decided to step from detective to artist.. how convenient) which would allow you to move around and create the suspect based on peoples' testimony, then you can show NPCs the picture and ask if they know the person. Creative, but nothing marvelous.. it certainly doesn't save this game from its own mediocrity.

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