A madman drags his victim.

Murder Most Foul



Still Life is an interesting adventure game being put together by the more than capable MC2-Microids that combines chilling and dark imagery, forensic investigation and a gripping storyline set in the present day and in the far flung past of the 1800's. The game is being developed by many of the same team members that created the popular Siberia adventure series, and though the style and presentation in far removed from those two titles, the level of quality is not. Still Life may be a different kind of adventure game than your used to from MC2-Miroids, but it's certainly an appealing effort.

Still Life uses a point-and-click interface with a few slight modifications (which we'll discuss in a bit) as you control present day FBI field investigator Victoria McPherson in Chicago and her grandfather in Prague in the 1800's. Both are hot on the trail of a serial killer that has a personal distain for prostitutes - evident in the body count he seems to be racking up and the bizarre way he presents them to the police.

A little midnight painting

Fans of the Post Mortem series will immediately recognize Gus McPherson, the mysterious detective whose psychic senses helped him solve many a mystery. It's an interesting concept that allows players to use both Victoria and Gus to uncover clues about similar murders that are taking place in different timelines. These characters are clicked around locations, clues, and interactions in a third-person perspective as they collect evidence using high tech gadgetry (Victoria) and good old detective skills (Gus) to unravel who's behind these strings of murders involving women. The camera is locked most of the time, which isn't a bad thing because each scene or area is limited and offers usually only a handful of interactions (whether it be clues, hints or NPC's).

Still Life is not for the squeamish and has certainly earned the "M" for Mature rating that it will carry when it is released in April. Besides the heavily colorful language in the game, there are some pretty visceral and visual acts of violence, nudity and other extremely adult and bloody situations. But what can you expect from a game where the murder of women is the lynch pin of the entire storyline? Sure we've seen horror survival games with some pretty scary and disturbing imagery, but this game uses both extra creepy visual scenes and settings that are a little too real for comfort. Sometimes it is the reality of a story that can be more disturbing than the gore.

Special lighting uncovers vital clues.

Just the Facts, Ma'am



There's some very interesting things going on under the hood here that I've never seen in an adventure game. For instance in Still Life you can control the stream of a conversation to be casual or professional by clicking the right or left mouse button. One path leads to more colorful dialogue that tends to be more personable and sometimes divulges additional information, while the other path is a kinds of SGT. Friday "Just the Facts" method of speaking that gleans the pertinent information you're looking for. It's an interesting concept for an adventure game and it certainly adds some additional flavor into the mix. Sure we've seen these kinds of conversation paths in role-playing games, but the technique is rarely used to any degree of success in an adventure title..

CSI Made Easy



The other unique aspect of the game is the way in which the player uses tools from the inventory. Instead of simply using them, players must initiate a number of steps to make a given tool work properly. You can simply click on the "use" button to instantly use your toolkit or your camera, you have to prepare it for the meticulous work you face at each crime scene.

A blood sample is collected.

Players will also come to the conclusion pretty quickly that taking picture in conjunction with the right kinds of lighting equipment to preserve crime scenes is of the utmost importance. It is only after capturing the mess around you that you can really begin gathering various types of forensic evidence. The camera in the game is the one gameplay mechanic that allows you to get up close and personal with your surroundings. These photos also serve as a means to send the player back into the past as they reveal clues to elder McPherson's investigation in Prague. There are a number of other tools that Victoria will need to use during the deep investigative process like a black-light filter and luminol. There will also be a fair share of blood collected and other forensic evidence that will ultimately unravel the mystery behind these murders.

In a typical evidence gathering situation players will have to complete multiple steps to do the job right. For one, you'll have to get up close with a lot of the blood trails and pools you'll find at these grisly locales in order to collect samples - luckily the game offers a lot of visual cues that will let you know when you're in the right position to do something.



As we already mentioned, you don't just click the "use" button in your inventory to use one of your many tools - first you'll have to figure out how things work. The inventory offers three icons you can click to make things happen - a hand (your use button), an aye (obviously the look button) and a third button with a small box near a box called the combine button. The way combine works is that you click on it first, then the object you want to "combine or use in conjunction with another object. The best example of this is getting the memory stick into your digital camera. First you'll click on the first item (in this case the camera, then the combine button and then the memory stick. this should add the memory stick into the camera so you can start taking pictures. While the process sounds simple enough to accomplish, the first few moments trying to figure this out without the benefit of instruction is a real pain...

Preserving the evidence on film.

Case Closed



Still Life is a solid endeavor on the PC and we expect the gameplay is even more streamlined on the Xbox - though we haven't had the pleasure of playing that version first-hand. While I don't think that this game will be a runaway hit outside of the genre it represents it will certainly have some crossover appeal to certain types of gamers who like to be spooked and surprised (Silent Hill, and the like). Adventure gamers that can stomach the adult themes and gore in the game will certainly enjoy what MC2-Microids has in store for them and the visual mix of the bizarre cutscenes combined with even more disturbing depictions of crimes scenes real puts the exclamation point on the game's overall dark premise. Still Life is set for release on the Xbox and PC in April.