Crime Stories puts you in control of Professor Martin Mystere who has been asked by the FBI to help in a murder investigation. Judging from Mystere's artifact-filled home and wide range of knowledge, the character has a very Indiana Jones feel to him. In fact, there were plenty of times when
Crime Stories reminded me of the classic LucasArts adventure title
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. The games resemble each other mostly in the interaction of characters and the way the environments are conveyed.
Anyway, one of Mystere's colleagues, Professor Eulemberg has been shot and now Mystere will have to figure out what it was Eulemberg was working on that could have gotten himself killed. As the story progresses, you will not only control the adventuring prof, but also his busty wife, Diana. As your small band of mystery solvers travel the globe, you will find yourself not only in New York City, but also deep in Aztec temples following clues that the late professor left behind.
In general, the story is okay, but nothing really wonderful. The developers did a fairly good job in getting me hooked and making me want to find out what the big secret was. Unfortunately, the journey to the game's conclusion was riddled with little issues that kept distracting me from the gameplay.
One such issue that kept cropping up was the translation problem. There were several occasions when the text that popped up over an item-of-interest was very obviously not what the item actually was. A case that stands out very clearly was when I hovered over a statuette of a griffin and was told it was a police car. There were other instances where the phrases the characters used just weren't correct, but they were not nearly as bad as some games I have seen (Midnight Nowhere is an example that springs to mind).
