Post Mortem (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.7 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Ron Dulin
• Reviewed on: 02/28/2003
• Released on: 02/27/2003
• Originally published on GameSpot: Post Mortem (PC) Review

In the newly released graphical adventure game Post Mortem, you play as Gustave MacPherson, a former private eye. Gustave is an American expatriate living in Paris and trying to eke out a living as a painter. When contacted about a strange murder by a stereotypically mysterious dame named Sophia Blake, he cracks easily. Though you, as Gustave, are allowed to say "no" to the would-be client, eventually you'll have to take the case...unless you actually want to pace back and forth in Gustave's tiny studio for the remainder of the game. The fact that you have the option to turn down Ms. Blake's offer is interesting and shows one of Post Mortem's best features: Specifically, the choices you make while conducting your investigation actually affect the game, presenting new puzzles, new solutions, and new destinations based on what you do and when you do it. While the system doesn't work so well in this instance, in other situations it does, and in one particularly inspired section of the game, it actually, single-handedly, keeps Post Mortem from being just another rote adventure game. Unfortunately, the game doesn't generally put enough emphasis on its own interesting features, and the rest of the time, it's just another formulaic adventure.

The inspired sequence mentioned above involves a scene in which Gustave tracks down a primary suspect in the beheading of two American tourists. He and the suspect sit and talk, and the game suddenly places you in the role of the suspect. You control his actions on the day of the murder, and what you do affects what information is available to Gustave once the flashback ends. It's an interesting take on the normal investigative adventure game formula and is one that may lead you to believe the whole game will be a series of similar flashbacks. Unfortunately, this is the only time it happens, and the rest of the game is just a typical series of sealed doors with mysterious machines for locks.

Not that there are many sealed doors. For an adventure game, Post Mortem has a notable lack of traditional puzzles. There are only a handful, and most of them are fairly easy, with two exceptions. One puzzle, the game's best, involves deciphering an alchemical formula and then using it to create a mysterious compound. It's fairly difficult, if only because it requires several layers of deciphering to even understand what you need to do. But it makes sense in the context of the game, a rare thing in modern adventure games. On the other hand, Post Mortem also includes what may be the single most boring puzzle ever devised--one that requires you to slowly drag a lit candle over a painting over and over again until hidden images reveal themselves.

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