Oz Noir

[vovat]

I finished playing Emerald City Confidential last night, and I must say I enjoyed it. It's a film noir mystery story, taking place in a somewhat darker version of Oz than the one from the books, but was obviously written by someone familiar with the original stories. If you want to see the Cowardly Lion as a sleazy lawyer and the Frogman as a mobster, then this is the game for you! And if you don't...well, you and I are very different people. {g} What's even better is that the game usually sticks to the origin stories from the books. Yes, they do things that would be out of character in terms of how Baum wrote them, but the game explains this as their means of dealing with the aftermath of a tragic war against the Phanfasms. I do have to wonder why, if they stuck so closely to Baum's back stories in most cases, they made Cayke a Munchkin. And why does Cayke appear at all, while I saw no sign of some more significant characters, like Button-Bright and the Hungry Tiger? Also, while I realize the characters have undergone some changes, it's still kind of disturbing to see how much of a bitch the game's Ozma is. Actually, she kind of reminds me of the alternate-universe Ozma who shows up in Paradox in Oz. Getting back to the game, as far as gameplay goes, it's a fairly simple point-and-click adventure, with emphasis on following clues and solving puzzles. If you get stuck, there's a hint feature, which I must admit I resorted to a few times (and usually had a "yeah, I should have figured that out myself" reaction to). Since the plot and the solutions are the same every time, I wouldn't say it has a lot of replay value, but I'll probably come back to it someday.



By the way, a question for anyone else who might have played the game: Is the mirror in Ruggedo's bar supposed to be anyone in particular? I thought that would be revealed eventually, but I finished the game without its coming up again.

Comments

[aliste.livejournal.com]

I played this game a couple months ago, and I totally wondered if you knew about it and what you might think! I haven't read the Oz books so I recognized barely any of the characters, but I was amused when a few weeks later you posted about Scraps, whom I didn't know about until playing the game.

I enjoyed it too, although I also had to use the clues occasionally.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I didn't really like the game's portrayal of Scraps all that much. She was crazy, but not in the same way as in the books. Oh, well. At least she was there.

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about the game beyond what you've written here, but that picture is hot! :)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Jack is working as a smuggler in the game. You KNOW times are bad when the Queen's own son turns to a life of crime! {g}

[shadarko.livejournal.com]

same here, I had no idea. I know what I'll be playing this weekend. I'll report back soon!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

It's definitely worth playing.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Sounds *very* interesting!