A good, but still flaws Laura Bow game
In my review of 'The Colonel's Bequest', I noted that it was a good game, but with flaws in its execution. Naturally, I was hoping that its sequel, 'The Dagger of Amon Ra', would improve on -- if not keep -- what worked in the first Laura Bow game.
Visually, 'Dagger' is a beautifully drawn and animated game. The closeups of the characters, especially the corpses, were detailed, with the latter also chilling and shocking. The dialogues and object descriptions were also well-written, with the occasional dark, witty humour to them. Most dialogues were well performed, too, though I did find the voice acting for the Steve Dorian (the stevedore!) distracting and unfitting.
Unfortunately, while the spoken words were on point, the overall story was lacking. The pacing was uneven, and there were some plot holes that, even after having observed or overheard all character interactions, seemed unexplained. 'Dagger' and 'TCB', both of which were inspired by Agatha Christie's novels, failed to do what the Queen of Crime did brilliantly in her works -- that is account for all characters' whereabouts and actions. While I could forgive this flaw in 'TCB' given the technical limits at the time, I expected 'Dagger' to rectify this.
One of the biggest flaws in 'TCB', which somehow many people failed to address, was that Laura Bow technically didn't solve the murders. She observed and took notes. However, she never got to identify the murderer(s) and explained what happened, but was told what happened instead. Thankfully, 'Dagger' allows the player to actually identify the murderer(s), as well as his/her/their motivation(s) in the final act. Your conclusion, based on what you observed and eavesdropped, would result in different endings to the game.
Yet, while finally getting to incriminate the murderer(s) in the game is welcoming, the game's inconsistent account for the characters' whereabouts and actions made this challenging. This was in part due to having the same event-triggering mechanic in 'TCB', which results in the player missing crucial conversations and character interactions if Laura happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The game gives you this false sense of freedom, but really expects you to play it the way the designers exactly planned out for optimal experience. Plus, all characters, seemed oblivious or unresponsive to the murders around them, and they would just merrily continue with their preprogrammed paths. To overcome this, the designers made some clues very obvious, making deducing who the murderer(s) actually is/are less gratifying.
So, while 'Dagger' is not a bad game, it didn't really improve upon 'TCB' either. The user interface for questioning suspects was cumbersome, making this supposedly fun part of the game a drag. 'Dagger' is definitely worth playing, but again best enjoyed using a walkthrough at some point. While it was not what I expected, 'Dagger' still offers a decent mystery adventure game with some thrils and shock.
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