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7 people found the following review helpful:
 Fun, short murder mystery, June 21, 2010by ZUrlocker (Traverse City, Michgian) Related reviews: mystery, infocom, inform7, short, hints, easy This is a great, short piece of mystery. It's the classic "locked house, dead body, 5 suspects" genre of murder mystery done in an infocom style --complete with Sgt Duffy. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Remove vote | Add a comment
Jörgs Wort[be]reich Dein Vorgesetzter überträgt dir als Inspektor die Ermittlungen in einem Mordfall: Frederic Sheppard ist tot am Strand, unterhalb des Fensters seines Arbeitszimmers, aufgefunden worden. Noch in derselben Nacht beginnst du deine Untersuchungen, und mußt dabei die fünf weiteren Anwesenden im Hause des Ermordeten geschickt ausfragen. ...
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23 of
24 people found the following review helpful:
Violins isn't the answer to this one., November 30, 2008Act 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. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Remove vote | Add a comment
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11 people found the following review helpful:
Impressive, March 29, 2008by jingold (UK) I admire the concept of this enormously (I remember that game Sleuth, it was brilliant!) The implementation is also deeply good, and the NPCs are good examples of interesting characters with rich conversation but without the need for too many bells-and-dongles. I also liked the system for making an accusation; it felt natural and smooth. But I found some of the details of the puzzles frustrating and thin and all to quickly I was just prodding and poking my way forward blindly. There are so few IF mysteries that it's almost a shame the author didn't just write one great one! But a deserving award-winner and a neat bit of coding. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Remove vote | Add a comment
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