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| Pffft. Some service | It's all action in the life of a crime-stopping rabbi |
After its release, it gained critical acclaim from various press around the globe, not just the obvious gaming places, probably in no small part due to its unorthodox (no pun intended) setting, surrounding a rabbi, Russell Stone, and the murder of a member of his synagogue. After being left a substantial sum of money by the recently deceased – who had a heated past with our protagonist - Stone finds himself the suspect in the murder case. Deciding to take investigative matters into his own hands, Stone pays the victim’s wife a shivah visit and slowly begins to uncover a conspiracy that goes far further than he could imagine.
Another game that features the classic “SCUMM” visual style of the legendary Lucasart’s games of the mid-nineties, it isn’t the prettiest of adventures, especially when put up against Syberia or the CSI titles, but as any fan of the genre can attest, the graphics aren’t important (I mean, this genre is an evolution of the text adventures, which didn’t feature graphics at all!). A few pop up heads during dialogue sequences add a little bit of sparkle to the game but overall, this is a very workman-like affair – the graphics do their job.
The gameplay is also exactly what you expect of the genre – you point, you click, you interact with items, scenery and other characters to solve the puzzles and progress the story. Lovely VGA graphics, reminiscent of the classic Monkey Island games, backdrop the proceedings; Gilbert’s clearly beloved home of New York City again captured in great detail. Sure, they look dated here in 2007, but that doesn’t mean they lack a charm of their own. Full voice acting of a high quality adds to the narrative, giving the characters life and drawing you in to the already very compelling storyline.
It’s difficult to talk about this sort of game as its true appeal lies in the quality of story on offer, and to let slip some of the better moments within the plot would be tragic for any of you who haven’t played it, but the game does offer some memorable moments, such as the Rabbi vs. Rabbi speechcraft battles, again, almost a tribute to the aforementioned genre landmark Monkey Island.
Between this and The Blackwell Legacy, Gilbert has proved he is a force to be reckoned with not just in the independent game circuit, but it the entire adventure gaming world. With the DS causing a resurgence of this kind of gameplay, it’s no better time to start staking your claim to be one of the best out there. Some developers out there are going to be kicking themselves for not releasing something of this quality. For the rest of us, a few clicks to a website and then dropping five dollars on a game that entertains and offers loads more than 90% of the generic “big man vs. the aliens” first person shooters available to the PC is the smallest price to pay for such a great adventure game. You’d be a fool to not try it.
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| The plot thickens | Sometimes, a puzzle can be solved with a good slap |
Outro – The independent game scene is thriving right now, and Dave Gilbert’s adventure games are one of the highlights. $5 is a steal.
Top Game Moment: The Monkey Island "insult swordfighting" is still excellent fun all these years after its first appearance, only with added Rabbis.
