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Emerald City Confidential User Reviews

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starrenz's picture
starrenz

Nov 8, 2011, 11:02am

User review by starrenz

5

This was the best game I've played in ages! True adventure game fans will love this one - not a single Hidden Object scene to deal with, just pure adventure gaming in every sense of the word! Yes, the game was relatively easy and the graphics nothing to shout about, but the fantastically woven story, acerbic humour - which reminded me a bit of the Monkey Island series from the early '90s, and excellent voice acting throughout (I LOVED the voice actor who did Shaggy!) really made me feel as if I were in Oz exploring and interacting.

You play a female private detective on a case to find a missing man in the country of Oz. The main characters in the game are loosely based on those in the original Wizard of Oz story, but with an adorable spin. All the characters are instantly likeable (especially Toto the dog!) and fit in very well with the plot and puzzles. I couldn't fault the storyline at all - everything unfolds brilliantly, and comes together nicely in the end.

Although the game's graphics seem cartoonish, the game is actually meant for adults, not kids, as is evident from the story, which deals with some pretty heavy topics despite its cutesy, fluffy presentation.

My only gripe was that the text which accompanies the voiceovers sometimes had bad spelling/grammar mistakes. And I encountered a bug twice: once after you complete a quest and end up coming out of your office door instead of being shown the country map; and another time when the text and voiceover didn't match - a male character was supposed to be speaking, but a female voice sounded, saying something completely different.

That aside, I would highly recommend this game to anyone who wants to enjoy a day or two of fun and adventure, with a fantastic story filled with loads of memorable characters to boot. I was certainly brought back to the good ol' days of '80s/'90s PC adventure gaming with this one.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Mallie's picture
Mallie

Jul 1, 2011, 1:32pm

User review by Mallie

5

Wow. If I could give this game six stars, I would do it. I absolutely adored playing it! The story of the witty detective with the tragedy in her past has been done before, but the gameplay, graphics, voice acting, and clever quests ALL more than make up for it. The story begins in Emerald City, 40 years after the events that brought Dorothy Gale and her four companions to Oz (and they have all aged well, I must say). You, as private-eye Petra, are hired to find a man who disappeared while on a "field trip" of sorts for the Emerald City university. If the concept seems simple, trust me, it doesn't stay that way for long. You soon find yourself investigating, among other things, the use of magic (which has been banned), smuggling, and clues connected to an event in your (Petra's) past that keep popping up in conversations. I loved the clever puzzles, which were just challening enough but not overly difficult. One disadvantage to the game is that you can easily bypass all dialogue with a click of the mouse. This means you could miss vital information with an ill-timed click. I know I did this more than once. Even so, I definitely enjoyed playing Emerald City Confidential. The noir-inspired graphics were stunning, not to mention absolutely adorable. The voice acting was very professional and well-performed. The ending didn't leave me disappointed either, which was a big plus. Highly recommended!

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farfromthefar's picture
farfromthefar

Feb 24, 2011, 9:32pm

User review by farfromthefar

4

I loved this game! It was very linear but that was comfortable for me right now and it was a hoot.

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kellieghy's picture
kellieghy

Oct 30, 2010, 10:36pm

User review by kellieghy

5

I need to know if there a more games like this. I love a great story. Great voice acting and interaction. Please let me know when this developer comes out with something else as brilliant as this.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
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KitretsuPF's picture
KitretsuPF

Sep 5, 2010, 4:00am

User review by KitretsuPF

5

WOW! Its just my fvorite game. It stands in fiirst position in my favorite games. Petra is a wild detectiive. The story is spell binding. Its about magic and I enjoyed using the magic. The corruption, cruelty was shwn very well. Ozma's corruption was also very well shown. Characters are very nice. it deserves a sequel for sure. I LOVE THIS GAME

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Lucious2's picture
Lucious2

Aug 4, 2010, 4:45pm

User review by Lucious2

4

I love this game! I have to admit a first glance it didn't seem like it was interesting but once I tried it, it was just gripping.

The story line is so gripping, it has it's own take to the Wizard Of Oz story line being set way in the future where magic is banned and I love the way old and new characters intertwine.

The dialogue is just great with a mix of useful information and those extra lines that give this game a likeness to reality.

The graphics are quite good with the background music adds to the whole Sleuth atmosphere.

The quests are interesting and it is never difficult to solve any quest.

The whole game has a decent length and the story progresses gradually but never too slow.

There are some drawbacks however for example sometimes if you click too fast it is easy to miss a bit of information given by any character. At some points in the game you were overloaded by heavy speech by other characters and you just end up clicking past most of it which means you sometimes miss information.

But overall a great game and this definitely deserves a try :)

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Diskette66's picture
Diskette66

Jul 25, 2010, 11:22pm

User review by Diskette66

3

Fun game, has sense of humor (often sarcastic), well written but a little too simple at times. Still entertaining. Nice game.

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danmar's picture
danmar

Jul 15, 2010, 2:28pm

User review by danmar

4

I loved this game. It was one of the most fun games I've played in a while. For me "fun" is the defining criterium for a game. I had an "iffy" reaction at the start but that dissipated fairly quickly. The storyline is interesting and the dialogue is great and pulls you along through the game. That the story is based on the environment of "The Wizard of OZ" is a big part of this game's success. The voice-acting is good (with a couple of weak characters), the graphics are appropriate and well-done, I thought the animations were just fine for the style. Other than a few minor issues like slow responses to mouse clicks and a couple of bizarre page displays which looked like forgotten debugging code the execution was perfect. The main character is well developed and endearing. I was pulling for her all the way. :-) In fact there are few weak characters in this game. The only real negative comment I have is the ending, which appears to be most game's Achilles heel. The end comes somewhat abruptly with the main problem resolved too easily. Still, It's one of my favourites and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys modern adventure games and to anyone who wants to find out about adventure games. It's a solid 4.5 but I can't give it a 5. This game was produced by talented people.

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scarletdark's picture
scarletdark

Jun 3, 2010, 11:08pm

User review by scarletdark

2

The idea of what this game could be is very cool. I love point-and-click adventures, and I would be uber-psyched if the choose-your-own-adventure genre made a comeback. Emerald City Confidential, however, doesn’t quite deliver. The main character is what I can best describe as a prickly pear, but without all the soft sweetness on the inside. She’s cranky, bitter, and difficult to like. This set a poor tone for the whole game. Speaking of poor tone, everything in the game is green. This must be what it feels like to be colorblind. Got rubbed too far in the wrong direction about halfway through the trial and couldn’t force myself to play any longer. I am pretty disappointed with ECC. I wish it could have lived up to what I had hoped for.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Ambrosius's picture
Ambrosius

Jan 7, 2010, 1:54am

User review by Ambrosius

5

I found this game involving for both the story and the puzzles, and the graphics were excellent. I've only read the first two novels in the series so some of the characters were new to me but this didn't detract from the experience. The only sight downside is that there is little replay value, I can't imagine going through the story again to score the last few awards.

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