After spending time with the less than stellar Armikrog, I had an itch to scratch with regards to point-and-click adventures. After playing a little Ben there Dan That (seriously, pick that one up) I got an email asking to check out MISSING: An Interactive Thriller – Episode One, as the game was just released on Mac a little while back. After checking out some screenshots I was hooked on the premise and unique gameplay mechanics. You see, MISSING is a mix of some really cool ideas that include an escape the room game done with full motion video à la games on the Sega CD, or CD-i, or 3Do, or… well, you get the idea.
I know, I know, the days of full motion video died out ages ago, probably before most of you reading were even born, but let me tell you that things have come a long way since those early grainy days of sewer sharking and vampire stopping. The first thing that stands out with MISSING is the sheer quality of the production. The game itself feels like a decent enough film, with some solid acting, especially with regards to emotionally impact that the characters portray. These aren’t just some dull people that the team found wondering on the street, and the direction with each scene is to be commended.
Graphics are a weird thing to discuss here as everything is FMV, but the video quality is on point. It doesn’t seem to be in HD, but as this game was designed for a mobile platform and recently ported to Mac, it still looks good enlarged to a bigger screen. I did run into a few inconsistencies with regards to the video segments during the game. Sometimes when I would complete a puzzle and the video would play, it would stutter and have to catch up with itself almost like someone accidentally hit the fast forward button on the VCR DVD player. While a majority of the game is laid out like one of those hidden object games, you’ll also have to contend with a few quick time events during the movie bits. I know this was done to up the interaction, but I’m just not a fan of these as I either want to play the puzzles or watch the movie bits; not both.
Gameplay is what you are used to in these sort of games, and while MISSING doesn’t break the mold, it does do a fantastic job with regards to immersion. The locations that you must escape are all photographed in great detail and this helps the transitiosn from video to gameplay and back to be silky smooth. The game itself isn’t very hard, mostly focusing on the story and intrigue, but the puzzles are varied and will get you thinking. No obtuse Kings Quest style of puzzles here and you’ll be able to figure everything out if you take a logical approach to the tasks at hand. In fact, this is the first point-and-click that I completed without having to rely on any sort of guide. The sound also works well within both the confines of the puzzle bits with ambient sounds and effects adding to the tension, as well as the movie segments that have all been recorded in great quality.
As you could tell from the title MISSING: An Interactive Thriller – Episode One is just the first entry into an ongoing series. So far there has been only one release, but it already has me hooked thanks to the interesting story and great production value. The only real issue is that the game is short; almost painfully so. I know everyone will beat it as different paces, and the game does have a functioning auto-save feature, but even as a casual fan of these games it took me about an hour and a half to beat the entire thing. Still, the game comes in at $3.99 and for the sheer production quality of everything, I think that’s a really justifiable price point.
MISSING: An Interactive Thriller – Episode One is hands down the best FMV style game that has ever been released, and the game comes highly recommended. Just be warned that it’s pretty short, so if you want a complete adventure you may want to hold off on picking this on up. But if I were you I’d pick this one up on whatever platform you can, as supporting good developers that are taking risks is always a good thing.
*A review copy was provided*
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