Publisher: City Interactive
Developer: City Interactive
System Requirements: Windows XP\Vista, DirectX 9.0, 1.6 ghz CPU, 512 mb RAM, 64 mb DirectX-compatible video card, DirectX-compatible sound card, 4 gb hard-drive space, DVD-ROM drive
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available Now

Having a bad day at the office? Fax machine eating your documents? This is nowhere near as bad as being a federal agent hunting a serial killer. City Interactive’s Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer gives us a chance to experience what it’s like to be a G-man (or woman).

Art of Murder takes place in present time. You play as Nicole Bonnet, a young FBI agent sent to Paris to investigate murders thought to have been committed by an American serial killer. The murderer hangs his victims on hooks, leaving a little doll at the scene as a calling card. Nicole has to overcome pressure from her office and a lack of local assistance in her search, which takes her from Europe to Cuba.

Art of Murder plays like old classics such as Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle, but without their sense of humor. You pick up items and put them in your toolbar for later use. Puzzles are solved by combining items you have acquired and using them on some unexpected things. You move Nicole by clicking where you want her to go. Items that can be examined and/or used are identified by the mouse cursor, which changes into either a magnifying glass or a hand when important elements are found. Art of Murder is a mystery game and makes you use your brain. Each room has to be completely explored before you can move on to the next.

I really enjoyed how Art of Murder uses strong shadows or bright colors to bring emotion to each scene. The background music enhances the mood, as in the use of creepy opera music when Nicole examines a dead body. All the voice acting is believable, and the sound effects are excellent, highlighted by the flash you hear when Nicole takes photographs. The story is very linear, yet it’s interesting enough to keep me wanting to play through the tough puzzles.

There are a few problems, however. As good as the voice acting is, it did cut out at least once, which would’ve been a problem without the subtitles. I also felt that the help button on the interface takes some of the challenge away from the game, and sometimes offers more confusion than help. Some of the puzzles were hard and took a lot of time for me to figure out; gamers new to the genre will probably need a walkthrough to help them get to the end.

If murders were solved in real life as they are in Art of Murder: Hunter for the Puppeteer, this nation, continent and world would be a lot different. With good visuals, passable voice acting and a story that can suck you in, this mystery game will be entertaining to most. It has a few bad aspects, but overall Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer is truly an enjoyable game for those with the patience to keep plugging through to the end.

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Our Recommendation: