Review of Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer by emric
definitely better than the first 'art of murder'. still hindered by poor english translation
The main problem i have with these “Art of Murder” games (this is the second one) from City Interactive is complete lack of originality. The characters are stereotypical and the plot is totally trying to emulate much better games such as “Still Life”. However, what they have going for them is a strong implementation of the traditional adventure game constructs with pleasingly acceptable production values. So I still had a very enjoyable time playing this title.
The puzzles showed a mostly pleasing balance of challenge, without becoming so illogical that you’re stuck for long—although on a few occasions it dropped into the realm of overly MacGyver-ish inventory combinations.
This sequel came out quite quickly after the original game and is based on the same engine. It feels exactly the same to play. I enjoyed it more though mainly due to more atmospheric locations and more interesting story.
City Intercative are still showing some problems with translation of their games to English and I hope this is addressed in upcoming releases. None of these hinder the gameplay too much, but certainly make the title seem a bit unpolished (the translation of the user manual is categorically atrocious!).
Voice acting, music, graphics, cutscenes… all quite strong.
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Time Played: 10-20 hours
