An Act of Murder

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Most Helpful Member Reviews

Violins isn't the answer to this one., November 30, 2008
Act of Murder is interactive fiction in the style of an Agatha Christie murder mystery: an old manor in the countryside, five suspects and a dead body. You're charged with sorting out this whodunit in two hours or else face the displeasure of the Chief Inspector. Christopher Huang has added an additional layer of mystery to the game by randomizing the "who" in whodunit when the game initializes--the motives, clues and even the interactive hint system all switch to correspond with the randomly chosen culprit. This is a nice touch, and while I suppose it's intended to address replayability, I can't say I was in fact tempted to replay it. But that's not to say that this isn't a very good game; it certainly is. The writing is spare, but universally excellent and there are almost no typographical errors. The descriptions are not so filled with red herrings so that you go off chasing the wrong ideas, but do include just a few irrelevancies to turn you about here and there. The simple deduction puzzle that is at the heart of this game won't overly frustrate one, but still keeps one engaged. Technically speaking, the use of an inspector's notebook is helpful and clever and dispenses with the need for paper notes, but the notebook can inadvertently reveal the names of some objects that one has not yet unveiled through natural game play. Oddly, deducing the killer may not be the hardest part of the game--or at least it wasn't for me. The harder part was laying out the case before the Chief Inspector when he arrives. I don't think it is a spoiler to note here that if one fails to provide him with all of the evidence uncovered, the guilty party may escape prosecution on a not guilty verdict (which is so unsatisfying!). In other words, the prosecution of the case rests entirely on the evidence you relate to the Inspector at the end, so take care there.

Murder, Theft, And A Musical, January 22, 2008
Late at night, two men at a house party find their host lying dead on the beach below the study window. The police are treating it as a murder unless they find reason to believe otherwise. Five suspects, two hours until Inspector Duffy comes back to ask for your verdict. Time to go to work.

I realise, reading back on that paragraph I just wrote, that it sounds rather like one of Infocom's old murder mysteries. But that's the point -- it is. Just, as it's an IF Comp game, a lot shorter and easier. It also manages to avoid one of the main problems of the Infocom murders: you don't have to rely on being in the right place at the right time. Characters stay put and obligingly give their alibis on demand as many times as you ask them, and time passes slowly enough to give you plenty of time to finish your assignment. There's even an automatic notebook that records what you've found out so far. The in-game hints are very helpful, although I did find myself relying on them too much.

An interesting element of the game is the randomisation. There are five suspects; each time you restart the game a new suspect is chosen. The timing, murder method and motives also change to reflect this, making for five games in one ... except it isn't. Once you've played through it two or three times, you'll be able to guess what the motives of the other suspects would be in the other scenarios, and you won't really need to play them. (Plus even the best writing can get stilted on the fifth reading.) The basics stay the same in each variation: names of suspects and the main facts like the musical, (Spoiler - click to show)Cedric's theft from the Trust, and the secret passage.

Overall, I had more fun playing this game then I've had with IF in a long time. Highly recommended. Oh, and don't forget to type XYZZY.

"Moonmist" and "An Act of Murder" - Old and New, September 25, 2008
Whodunnits are so much more interesting when they have a random element to them, don't you think? And they are *that* much rewarding when there's an element of real-life urgency, an in-game timer... which still leaves you all the time you need to solve the game, provided you get your priorities straight and don't try to, say, solve the puzzle that involves setting all the clocks in the house to a specific time. That puzzle doesn't exist, and if you thought it did then you need a different mind-set to play this game. A man has been murdered, and you have two hours to interrogate the suspects, search a part of the house and apprehend the murderer, so get on with it!

This was just a little intro to "An Act of Murder". What I'd really like to do here is compare "Moonmist" to "An Act of Murder", in a sort of double review. From this point on, this review will be exactly the same as my "Moonmist" review.

These two games are amazingly similar. You're a detective; you're in a place you don't know; you've got a mystery to solve; there's either a randomized element or four pre-set different stories to play through; there's a time limit.

That's basically it. Really. This is at the core of both games.

But they are fundamentally different. Why is that? Because IF has changed over the years, and what was the very definition of IF in "Moonmist" has given way to a new definition and gameplay in "An Act of Murder". Curiously, what has changed is a reflection of this evolution, whereas some parts of it - the ones that form the very bulk and core of the game - remain intact.

In Moonmist, part of the whole experience is exploring the castle. It's not a huge castle, but it's very big. Descriptions are terse, but there's more in the brochure that comes with the game. And rooms are mostly empty of interactible objects - though it's very easy to furnish them in your mind.
In Murder, on the other hand, the game map is limited to a handfull of rooms, which are detailedly implemented. The point isn't exploration, it's getting to the bottom of the murder. You are forced to limit your exploration and make connections from what you can get.

Speaking of connections, there's little detective work in Moonmist. There are two puzzles to be solved, and a certain set of hints. Solving the mysteries is essentially a matter of collecting the right evidence - typical old-school style.
In Murder, you are expected to think, and your inventory really becomes unimportant. In fact, the notebook you carry will prove to be far muse useful than any other item, as it fills out as you proceed in your investigation.

The characters in Murder mostly stay in one place, making it easy for you to interact with them. And you'll need to! That's pretty much the bulk of the game - solving the mystery will require piecing together the clues you mostly glean from them, and watching their reactions to the things you show them.
In Moonmist, the characters do exist, and move around, and are life-like enough... but the keyword here is "enough", and no more. You can safely play the game ignoring the characters, focusing on exploration. Nevertheless, they are there, and are likely to surprise you at times, when conducting searches of their own.

The time limit is lax in both games, curiously - in Moonmist because it's an introductory game, surely, and in An Act of Murder because the player doesn't really need any more time than the allotted two hours... because he's not going to walk around a huge place solving quirky puzzles. And in both games it's rather obvious, after the first playthrough, what sort of mechanisms will change in the next session, and which game mechanics will remain the same... but you still want to go back and try something else.

Both games know what they want to deliver - mystery and fun. Both games deliver them amazingly well. The really interesting stuff is how different their deliverance is, and the best Old VS New I've ever seen.

In case my point was lost somewhere, I heavily reccommend these two games.

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