Post Mortem

by Dreamcatcher

Product Features

• A rich and intriguing adventure in a  world where murders are committed according to ancestral mystic beliefs..where nothing will be the same again. Product Information A frightening ritualistic murder has taken place in an upscale hotel. Enter Gus MacPherson, a former American private detective, now hired by a mysterious and sensuous woman, Sophia Blake, to find out who murdered h

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000088NQP
• Item Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: February 28, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,398 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Product Description

Paris, 1920s: a horrific ritualistic murder has taken place in an upscale hotel. Enter Gus MacPherson: a former American private detective hired by a mysterious and sensuous woman, Sophia Blake, to find out who murdered her beloved sister and brother-in-law. The police are not handing the case to her satisfaction, causing her to seek out MacPherson's help.

You take on the role of MacPherson, a no-nonsense detective with a clairvoyant gift, and investigate this thrilling and suspenseful case. Interact with over 20 characters, and immerse yourself in the dark, moody and paranormal atmosphere.

Product Description

Post Mortem: enter a rich and intriguing adventure in a world where bloody murders are committed according to ancestral mystic beliefs... where nothing will be the same again.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

139 of 145 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MacPherson, ma'am. Gus MacPherson. Welcome to the Dark Side., February 1, 2003

By 

Sarah - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Post Mortem (CD-ROM)

As any reviewer will tell you, writing reviews is a very personal experience. I was one of the few that found Microïds' "Road to India" to be an imaginative and overall pleasing little game (emphasis on little, since it took less than four hours to play through...a crime for the money invested). Other reviews from online gaming magazines backed me up, giving "RtI" scores of 80% and up. However, *ever other Amazon.com reviewer* gave the game two stars or less, and I felt positively guilty that some who read my glowing, five-star review had purchased the game and hated it based solely on my opinion. So, for Microïds' "Post Mortem " (distributed in North America by Dreamcatcher Games) I am trying a new technique: besides my own observations, I'm going to list the review scores from a number of sites that I regularly use to preview and purchase computer games.

"Post Mortem" is Montréal-based Microïds' newest offering, a grisly tale of murder, betrayal, lust and dark, dark secrets. Let me stress the word dark. This IS NOT a game for sensitive viewers, as there are a number of violent and disturbing images during the course of the game. The visuals themselves are dark and dreary nighttime views of Paris, with a moody jazz soundtrack. The interface is similar to "Road to India," with (occasionally grainy) 360-degree panning. The inventory is a bit tricky to navigate, and the dialogue is easily the weakest point in the game (as well as some of the voice acting). Although there are various responses that can be chosen for a given question, you must eventually choose nearly all the responses before continuing. Nor is there any way to skip through dialogue, which can be a boring pain after the second or third time, which diminishes replay value drastically. Some of the puzzles were trial and error, others were too easy and practically shouted out the answer for themselves (another flaw with Microïds' "Road to India" was that the puzzles were waaay too easy (but I still stand by my five-star rating for originality and beautiful visuals, as well as exploring a new country and culture, very much like "Post Mortem").

The game's psychic premise could have been further explored: you play Gustave MacPherson, an American private investigator living in Paris. Even as a child, you were "sensitive" and able to sense and see events, which you explore in your paintings. A beautiful and mysterious woman knocks on the door of your shabby flat and wants you to investigate the murder of her sister and brother-in-law in a posh Paris hotel. The story soon takes an occult twist, leaving McPherson to rely both on good old detective work (including an identity sketch puzzle) and his psychic instincts (mostly used as an excuse to show violent, gruesome flashbacks). As I said earlier, the psychic angle could have been further explored, allowing the player to interact with other characters or sites with McPherson's ability.

The game lets you explore 1920's Paris by night, a visual and aural treat never before seen in a game. You visit exotic locations and interview shady characters, all of which have secrets of their own. The psychic approach is a novel idea as well. The game is short, although much longer than "Road to India," offering 15+ hours of gameplay.

Why I am awarding "Post Mortem" five stars:

The Good:

+ The graphics. Microïds always makes graphics a strong point, as in "Amerzone," "Road to India," the unparalleled "Syberia" and now "Post Mortem." The freedom of movement with 360° panning really lets you feel as if you were in Paris, rather than watching a slideshow of it à la Myst. Characters are very lifelike and expressive, although synching may be off

+ The story: although the Templars have been dealt with in other games ("Gabriel Knight III"), "Post Mortem" makes an effort not to follow in the footsteps of past games with the same subject matter. The private detective angle in the Roaring Twenties, in Paris no less, is refreshing

+ The "Film Noir" inspiration, evident in the brooding, dark visual style, the sultry jazz music, the seedier dark side of Paris, the femme fatale and the PI

+ Legible subtitles. A very big plus for hearing-impaired gamers are the subtitles, which can be left on during gameplay and during cutscenes.

+ The locations: cafés, bistros, hotels, abandoned metro stations, houses and flats, a police station

+ Spooky, spooky atmosphere combined with Film Noir intrigue...you might not be so trusting of what lurks in the dark after playing this

The Bad:
- Gruesome subject matter that may not be appropriate for all gamers (over 18, that is, the game has a Mature rating)

- Awful lip synchronization

- Awkward French-to-English translations and bad voice acting

- Dialogue trees can lead you to inquire after already-dead characters and skip ahead

- The dialogue (and the fact that it can't be skipped or sped up)

- Music loops are too short and repetitive in places, including a "static radio burst" in one part of the game that has darn near driven people insane (or turned the music off, whatever came first)

- Several really frustrating, unnecessarily time-consuming puzzles

- The inventory only lets you cycle through a few items at a time, making it a pain to search for items buried in the pile

Ratings from other gaming sites (so you don't have to trust my opinion alone):

Adventure Archiv: 81%
Action Trip: 88%
Four Fat Chicks: Star (Mega Supreme, highest rating)
Just Adventure +: B
The Armchair Empire: 7.3/10
Game Nation: 82%
Game Rankings.com: 72%
Adventure Gamers: 2 out of 5 stars

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Enjoyed It Quite a Bit, April 5, 2003

By 

wysewomon "wysewomon" (Paonia, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Post Mortem (CD-ROM)

In _Post Mortem_, you play Gus MacPherson, a former Pinkerton Detective who has retired to Paris to be an artist (the setting is the 1920's). As the game opens, a mysterious woman -- in true film noir fashion -- appears at MacPherson's door. When MacPherson answers, he has a psychic flash of a horrible crime, and soon enough the lady explains. Her sister and brither-in-law, she says, have been brutally murdered in their hotel room while visiting Paris. The police aren't investigating to her satisfaction. Will MacPherson put on his gumshoes and help her?

As a rule I usually won't spend more than [amount of money] for a game unless it's part of a series I trust, but I hadn't had a new game in awhile and PM was the only title in the local game store that I hadn't played, so I took the plunge. And I was not disappointed. The game, distributed by Dreamcatcher and developed by Microids (makers of Syberia) features an engaging plot, very good graphics, decent characters and puzzles that, while not extremely challenging, often contained original features that I very much appreciated. There were no timed activities, no mazes and no getting killed over and over again. All in all, PM offered many of the features I look for in an Adventure game and few of the drawbacks.

As you might expect from a detective story, the game relies highly on talking to people and collecting evidence. The conversation trees are set up in a different way than is usual in these games: you are not actually expected to go through every single topic with every person you meet. In fact, you can't; choosing one may mean you eliminate others. So you have to be careful to look at every conversation option you have and think about what you're going to say. You especially have to pay attention to whether you might insult someone, thus cutting off further opportunity for their help. I liked this device quite a bit, because so often in games you DON'T really have to think about what you're saying or asking; you can (and must) just reel off every topic you're given. Here you have to try to ask the *right* questions and what you choose to say may affect the course of the game.

...however, there were a few glitches in this system: places where you were suddenly talking about someone who hadn't really been introduced, or [events] where...you had not yet been informed. I never found this intereferred with my enjoyment or understand of the game,though; where this happened it usually didn't make a major difference because the relevant information was easy to fill in or deduce with a little thought.

The game gives a pretty good balance of linearity and non-linearity. New locations are made available to you through conversation, or through the course of your investigation, but you may be given several new locations at once, which you can visit in any order. Also, there may be several tasks within a location, and these also can be accomplished in any order. I thought the puzzles themselves were very logical and tied into the story quite well. Several dealt with art, fitting in with MacPherson's role as an artist. Others ranged from deciphering alchemical formulae to breaking into locked rooms. As I've said, most of the tasks were pretty straightforward. Occasionally, though, it was hard to see what you were looking for, either because the location was dark or the resolution was a little off, or because two hotspots were so close together that you thought there was only one there until you stumbled on the other accidentally. This last led me to have to get one or two hints early on; then I realised I just had to pay closer attention to details.

In the middle of the game you suddenly and without warning find yourself playing as another character. I can't decide whether I liked this or not. The switch was a bit disorienting and it didn't truly add anything experience-wise. On the other hand, it was a keen way of hearing the story of someone who had a lot to say without enduring an interminable monologue.

For the most part the game ran very smoothly for me (from a full install). Inventory, as well as your map and your notebook, were easily accessible with a right click. There were unlimited savegames, your save was represented with a picture of your current location and saving was quick and easy -- a thing I always appreciate. I did have a problem with the cutscenes being choppy, however. I had this same problem with _Syberia_, another Microids game, which leads me to believe my system has some compatibility issue with this developer. It made for a mild annoyance. Far more irritating was the fact that there was no skipping through a cutscene once it had started.

_Post Mortem_ is rated "M" for mature and in this case I think it deserves it. The [violent event] is really disturbing and the [violent event] scene particularly gruesome.

PM took me about 15 hours to play, so it is not particularly long. It does offer some replay value if you want to go back and see where it gets you to follow different conversation trees. There are also 3 different endings. Overall, while there are some improvements that could be made, I enjoyed the game and considered it money well spent.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Is this an adventure game?, March 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Post Mortem (CD-ROM)

This is not a good game. For starters, there is a massive amount of unskippable dialogue, much of which makes no sense. You speak of characters you've never heard of leaving you scratching your head in wonder. There is also a dialogue with a character in the hotel (as stated by another review) which forces you to end task the game since there is no way to terminate the conversation. Did anyone play/test this game before it was released?

In addition, there aren't many puzzles, and the larger ones are not difficult, clever, or challenging, just tedious. I don't consider "trial and error" a puzzle, just annoying and a waste of time.

The only redeeming aspect of the game are the decent graphics. But, sorry guys, pretty pictures do not an adventure game make.

After this and Cameron Files 2, another stinker, I am wary of purchasing other Dreamcatcher products. They seem more interested in pumping out mediocre games quickly than making some good ones.