Emerald City Confidential Preview

Indie studio Wadjet Eye Games (the Blackwell series) has finally come out of stealth mode about its super secret PlayFirst project. The two companies are collaborating on Wadjet Eye Games' first fully-funded adventure game, Emerald City Confidential.

According to Wadjet Eye Games:

The magical land of Oz is put through the gritty filter of 1940s film noir.  Harsh city streets, grey rainy skies, femme fateles, tough guys, trenchcoats, fedoras and plot twists.  It's Oz, seen through the eyes of Raymond Chandler.

You are Petra. Emerald City's only private detective.  One dark night, she is approached by a strange woman named Dee Gale.  It appears Dee's fiancé is missing, and Dee is willing to pay high and above the going rate in order to find him.  Lacking any other prospects, Petra agrees.  What starts off as a simple missing person case soon takes Petra deep into the seedy underbelly of the Emerald City's criminal underground and beyond.  She will encounter many characters both familiar and new, learn several magic spells, and uncover the answer to a dark secret that has haunted Petra all her life.

If you've read or watched The Wizard of Oz then many of the charactesr in Emerald City Confidential will be familiar, albeit with a few twists. The Lion is Emerald City's finest, most ruthless and cunning lawyer. Nick Chopper, aka the Tin Man, was made Governor of Winkie Country after the Wicked Witch of the West was killed, but has since fallen on hard times. And then there's Queen Ozma, the ruler of the kingdom whose decision to ban the use of magic (except for a select few) was unpopular with her people.

The game will feature more than 40 hand-drawn 2D backgrounds, more than 6,500 lines of spoken dialogue, 35 characters, and a story that takes place over 5 chapters.