Black Dahlia

The Good
From start to finish this package was incredible. The cast was hand-picked from Hollywood, the virtual sets were the finest ever, sound and music were totally spot on, and the story was a masterpiece. Even the standard adventure engine featured some nice tweaks that kept me interested in the game without breaking the illusion of reality. The music especially helped set the tone, and was at a constant low in the background, just on the edge of concsiousness and pushing the story forward as necessary. The virtual sets, as stated, were incredible. There were many times when I forgot completely that they were computer generated, that the actors were working with blue screen technology. And the actors themselves worked well in front of a blue screen, something which normally hurts a performance.

The Bad
Perhaps the only real issue to put an adventure gamer off about this one is the difficulty. This was hands down the HARDEST game I've ever played. The puzzles involved have a certain logic behind them, but I only tended to pick up on it in hindsight. Also, of course, is the fact that this is an FMV game; The bane of the common gamer. This is definitely for those who want a story and enjoy film clips interspersed along the game, and this constitutes a small minority at this point.

The Bottom Line
Excellent all the way through, pick this up for a great cinematic, mind-bending experience, but be ready to flush a little bit of pride when you have to go look up a walkthrough.