Martin Mystére - Operation Dorian Gray
 

As I promised several times in my other thread, I finally finished the game and I'm quite ready to review it. I'll cover my AG background: I'm a huge MI fan (who isn't? :P), I like horror AGs, the Broken Sword series, Sam & Max etc but I'm also quite fond of underdogs like Blackstone Chronicles or Dragonstone. I've even come to like the Myst series after years of hatred. Anyway, here it goes. It does contain some minor spoilers, so read carefully if you're absolutely bound of buying it no matter what. I'm gonna keep it rather short, don't worry.


Martyn Mystére is an italian game, done by Artematica, the same italian company that brought us the rather horrible Druuna - Morbus Gravis. It seems like the idea of a Martin game had been around for years, Simulmondo was the first SH presented with the project, but they were quite busy with Dylan Dog at the time and could not do it. So after years of waiting, Artematica became interested in the project, Alfredo Castelli (author of the comic book) gave the ok... and so it went. The story is quite adherent to the original Operation Dorian Grey comic book: our dear Martin becomes involved in a murder; Professor Eulemberg was killed, he was researching life after death and particularly the Mayas' way of 'transferring the soul to another body'. I'm not gonna spoil anything more than that, but let's say the plot was quite interesting, although it suffered from the rather common 'everything in a dialogue' fault. But I don't think it was that bad, I enjoyed it.
As I said in my other thread, the screenshots I saw on various magazines looked like 'Broken sword 3', but that was not the case. First of all, the game is plain 2d backgrounds with 3d characters, everything NOT graphically accelerated. So while the bgs do look very good (although some could have enjoyed a bit more animation), the characters are grainy and do not look beautiful. But they do not look bad either, so I found graphics to be very good, I would say even better than Black Mirror.
I'm not gonna comment that much about the voices, since they're obviously gonna be changed in the english version, but they were pretty decent. Music was, generally, quite good but I would have appreciated it more if it was top notch all the time. I don't like when some tracks sound excellent (like in the museum) and some are a 20 secs looped affair.
So, I'll make my first point right here: this is a budget game. You can't escape the truth, it definitely looks that way, so DO NOT expect top notch quality in any department and do not expect the game to be flawless.
That brings me to the 'puzzle' department, and they depressed me quite a bit. I mean, not because of the puzzles themselves, but because most of the time you're left with knowing exactly what to do but having no clue as how to accomplish it and no clues lying around. Example: you find a rather old clock, you think 'I gotta give this to a man in exchange for a key', and this man says' nah, that thing does not interest me', and so you think you're wrong right? Nope, you just gotta attach a necklace to it, and make it look more 'expensive', then the guy accepts it. And there are no clues to this riddle, I really can't see why not. So, puzzles are never that difficult, but you're left completely on your own as to what to do. Some people may like it, but I'm sure most of you don't, and that is my biggest complain with the game. I mean, not every puzzles is clueless, but some really require dumb solutions that you can figure out in 20 secs, and you're not happy at all when you do figure 'em out.
So I must say I was quite unhappy with Martin, being a game graphically and musically good but with poor riddles. Then the last part of the game came, and I really found myself enjoying it quite a bit, and that is one of the main reasons I'm recommending people to buy it, while knowing of course what you're bound to encounter sooner or later.
Are there any bugs? Yup, not show stopping ones, but you can easily see people walking through walls or not facing the person you're speaking to.
Don't let all this get you down however, if the price is bound to stay fixed (here it costs 20 euros/25 dollars) I'd say is quite a nice catch for any Broken Sword fan or anyone who read the comic book. It's not very long either, so I also recommend not using walkthroughs every five minutes.

All in all, I'd give it a 7 out of 10.
Lower the vote if the game costs more than 20 euros/25 dollars/12 GBP.

Congratulations on doing a good review, MDMASTER, and I may decide to try it out.

Just one question, though: I thought Druuna:Morbius Gravis was developed by Microids. Did they really make this game, or did they just publish it?. I'm just curious, though, and I have no intentions on buying it because of all the bad reviews I read for it on the internet.

Thanks, I tried my best in the little time I had (and it shows from the 'italianish' grammar :D).
Yeah, Artematica did develop Druuna:Morbius (or Morbus) Gravis and Microids published it. But really, Martin Mystére is waaaaay better, especially cause they actually had the courage to sell Druuna at full retail price (50 euros)! :crazy:

Like someone did, uh? :P

Well, MDMaster is right, a good game tough you don't have to expect a milestone of the adventure genre. The game has various glitches like Diana speaking with Martin's voice :eek: and other similiar things... but you know, italians like do it buggy :D

Oh well, sometimes you gotta finish a game if you want to review it... hehe :D

Just upping my review to avoid any more disgruntled Martin buyers :D

Hahaha... I've just reached the part in the game where it happens... scared the sh*t out of me!! :D
Anyway, I remember it also happened in a more "polished" game, Gabriel Knight 3! I think it happened only once, but could be more, when you played as Grace and heard Gabriel's voice. Does anyone remember that?

What? They didn't correct it in the english version? Haha!
So I guess all the bugs are still there, nice to know my review doesn't need to be changed one bit :D

It happened in the first Broken Sword game as well.

I'm thinking of buying Martin Mystére if not anything that looks even more interesting is released soon. :D

Just don't hold a grudge against me, Henke :P

I think there was a Cartoon show call Martin Mystére

Well, I did encounter something weird in my Tri-Synergy copy that probably wasn't there in the Italian release - in act 6, when you play as Diana, you have a notebook in your inventory that tells you what needs to be done, just like Martin has in other acts. Martin's notebook is named "Block notes", while Diana's notebook is named... "???".
Yup, "???". that's what it says. Was that in the Italian version? How about other people with the Tri-Synergy release, did you notice that too?

45 euros here...

:frusty:

May I suggest ordering it on play.com? 22 euros it's still a bit too much but if you can't really live without it... :D

I think I'll pass for now; your review isn't really encouraging, and the french review I've read was awful.

I love Broken Sword, im certanly going to try it out!

Did you read AG's review?

Many of Tom's gripes have to do with translation issues and subtitles, so they probably wouldn't apply to a French language version (has the game come out in French?) But he makes it sound like a game I'd like to play. After hearing some problems people are having with GMX, though, I won't bother unless it becomes available in the states.

Dunno, from what MDMaster said, the problems of the english version are the same as the ones in the italian version, so I don't expect the french one to be that much better.
And the french review was so bad, it doesn't make me want to pay 45 euros for this game. And I still am reluctant to order on the net.

Yes, you can definitely expect the same problems as the italian version, they didn't really correct any bugs, it seems (i.e Diana speaking with Martin's voice etc).

I ordered the English version from GMX and am playing it now.