In Post Mortem you assume the role of Gus MacPherson, an ex-private eye from New York City who has traded in his gun for a paint brush. His situation changes fast when he meets Sophia Blake, a sophisticated lady with a problem... the problem being the brutal double homicide of her sister and brother-in-law in a Paris hotel. Our former detective, you, is back in business!

Travelling to the various locations in the story is accomplished with a map of Paris, and the further you get in the game, the more locations become available.

It was a very difficult task making a review of a game of which I had such mixed feeling about because of its many disturbing elements.

Graphically, the game is pleasing, especially the cut scenes. The character models look pretty good, though their movements during conversation are often arbitrary and silly. The conversations are ok, although not in sync with the text. The worst problem with the dialog, however, is that the voiceover performance by the actor playing the game’s lead character is absolutely dreadful.

Another disadvantage –ok, it is an interesting innovation, but…- is that the developers wanted multiple solutions to the clues in the game, which gives you the impression that the people you are talking to are not always answering your questions. Let me make myself clear : You can choose between several questions and it happens often that you get a response you didn’t ask for or a clue to a problem you didn’t even know existed…This is very disturbing and you should try to avoid this as much as you can.

I started of playing and the storyline took such an absurd turn that I started all over, trying to think along predefined lines and I must say that I loved the game a lot more that way… Much of the puzzling is conversational—you talk with various characters to pick up clues, go to new locations, get news of others who might know more, or be given new inventory items or documents.

The puzzles are original and most of the time not as easy as one would expect. At one point in the game, for instance, you come across a locked door. Using a lock pick set, you need to choose five out of six of the picks, placing them each into a different side of a keyhole and fidgeting them into just the right place to unlock the door when you turn the handle.

All in all, Post Mortem is a creepy, challenging, intelligent and atmospheric thriller that will be welcome for adventure game lovers like me – but if you are not an addict of the genre , just drop it…