You begin your adventure as the prevalent Dr. Henry Jekyll. And, as you all know the story, you will soon be transformed into Mr. Hyde. As Jekyll, you are on a quest to save your daughter from kidnappers. Along the way, you must solve many puzzles and accomplish many feats. To do so, you will have to resurrect the evil behind your eyes and relive your past... bringing out Mr. Hyde. But in your path are escaped mental patients, people in a whorehouse, and many other characters just waiting to knock you off.
As great as the premise is, the gameplay is unfortunately tainted by two horrible flaws. The first is the way you must fight. First off, Dr. Jekyll uses a walking stick to club his enemies. Mr. Hyde uses his bare hands. Neither one is easy to do. You must have absolute perfect timing to hit the baddies or you WILL get nailed yourself. It's hard to describe on paper, but if saying the words 'Extremely Frustrating' gives you any idea, I've done my job. I promise you that you will find yourself practically screaming at the screen after you work your way through 90 percent of a complicated level, only to be struck down by some not-so-tough loony-toon. The only thing that may save you is that there are checkpoints along the way.
The second disappointment is the way the camera seems to have a mind of its own. You play the game with a third-person point of view, and the camera does everything but follow you. There are points in the game where you must make death-defying leaps of faith, but it will take you many restarts before getting it right. The only helpful aspect of the camera is that at (almost) any point in the game you can switch to a subjective (first-person) view while standing still. There is even a point in the game that I couldn't scuttle (move sideways) while hanging on a ledge simply because the camera jerked back and forth and I couldn't get a good angle at it without falling off.
However, if you can get by these faults (and they are big ones), then Jekyll & Hyde's imaginative concepts and puzzles are pretty good. Voice acting for the cut-scenes is above average, but it would have been nice if the characters' mouths moved while talking. Along your journey you will need to pick up items and use them on your quest. Undoubtedly, the best item for your inventory will be the formula for turning into Mr. Hyde. With it, you will be able to accomplish feats that the good doctor could only dream about.
