Crime Stories Review

There are a lot of good adventure games out there, but sadly a lot of them fall into the same trends over and over again. Somehow a famed detective is searching for something mysterious secret of life that is connected to an ancient culture long gone, and there is , of course, a rich evil mad genius who seems to be a villain. Crime Stories fits this trend exactly, but surprisingly, is quite good.

Crime Stories is the story of Martin Mystere, an FBI agent, who has to investigate the murder of a professor. Eventually your findings will lead you to Mexico and your findings about an ancient Aztec rite of passage. Like I just mentioned, Crime Stories is a victim of a terribly general plot category. The story itself is great. There are twists and turns, unique and believable characters, and when you beat the game, you wish it was longer (though it was long already). However, there is just this part of me that wished that it had nothing to do with the Aztecs. Why couldn’t it be something completely original?

The gameplay is pretty good. The puzzles are rather inventory-based and involve a lot of traveling. The game is rather easy, though sometimes the puzzles can be somewhat difficult. I recall the time where I spent almost 25 minutes on one puzzle, and I also recall the time where I spent 3 minutes on one puzzle.The graphics are gratifying. Note that this game was released a while ago in Europe under a different name, thus the graphics weren’t as amazing as the day it was originally released. However, it still holds its ground. The game is in widescreen, the character models are interesting and can show a good amount of emotion, while the backgrounds are great.

The audio is…decent. The voice acting can use a major overhaul. There are annoying pauses in speech, which might just lead you to punch your speakers. Remembering that this might to lead to your speakers breaking, I would suggest keeping your emotions down. The music, however, is much better. Sometimes the music just goes with the flow and compliments the mood, while sometimes the music redirects you to the feeling that you are supposed to feel, which you might not have because of the terrible voice acting.

The amount of gameplay depends on skill. I got 20 hours, but I consider myself a quick gamer. You can easily get 30 hours if you do more exploring. Like every other adventure game, the replay value isn’t that high. Crime Stories is a victim of a sad trend. While the story is amazing, the category could’ve been different. The voice acting could’ve been improved, but excuse that, and you have a great game. Get it if you don’t have anything else to play or you find it in the bargain bin.