Hitchcock: The Final Cut
Score: 60% ESRB: Mature Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Arxel Tribe Media: CD/2 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Overlaying 3D characters into 2D backgrounds, the visuals in Hitchcock: The Final Cut are generally well done. All of the artwork is set in eerie dark mid-tones, which help provide a chilling setting for the homage to the 'Master of Mystery.' Some of the settings even bare striking resemblances to some memorable locations from Hitchcock's movies, such as the Bates' Mansion from Psycho. Each room or surrounding has multiple camera angles, which are triggered when the character moves into specific locations. Although the trigger locations are not properly defined, they do provide a sense of realism and space. The three-dimensionally modeled characters look much like characters from the original Resident Evil. An obviously aged look compared to that of more modern 3D engines, Hitchcock lacks necessities such as shadows and reasonable animation speed. Throughout the game, the models just look out of place in front of the highly detailed maps behind them. Voice acting is nice. Each actor performs a believable rendition of the character moving on the screen. The dialogs however could have been scripted better. Sometimes the lines sounded too rough and unpoetic. Nevertheless, the sense of movement was not lost in poor voices.
Gameplay: A psychic Private Eye, Joseph Shamley, has been hired to investigate a strange disappearance on the set of a film shoot. Joseph, your character, gained his abilities on the day his parents died in a car accident, which happens to be the same day Hitchcock was buried. As you find out, his psychic visions are in fact snippets from Hitchcock's films. Inspired by Hitchcock and his genius for filmmaking, Hitchcock: The Final Cut attempts to pay tribute to this elaborate and memorable director. As Private Eye Shamley, your investigation takes you through a series of plot twists that could even make Hitchcock insane. The complications in what begins as a simple disappearance turns into purely excuses to put as many references to Hitchcock masterpieces as possible. Thankfully, the references were inserted into The Final Cut at interesting spots. The story itself lags as a whole, but finding the plot elements of classic Hitchcock interspersed keeps the game interesting. However, as I played, I paid less attention to the plot centered in the game, and more on figuring out just which movie one element was taken from.
Difficulty: Calling to mind a little bit of Hitchcock trivia should get you past the majority of the puzzles. Most are presented with the answer spelled out clearly within the context of the puzzle. For example, early in the game you will need to arrange sheets of paper to complete the titles to some of Hitchcock's films. Later homage to such films as Psycho and Vertigo require you to recreate some more important scenes from those movies. Even without being an Alfred Hitchcock guru, using common sense and taking a few glimpses in your inventory should get you through every puzzle and situation in The Final Cut without breaking a sweat.
Game Mechanics: Making use of an awkward keyboard/mouse combination interface, The Final Cut makes something as simple as opening a door complex and unreasonable. Using the keyboard to control your characters movement, like in Grim Fandango, a signal indicates when you pass by something of interest. From there you will go into a 'puzzle view' which is entirely mouse operated. The multiple interfaces make The Final Cut complicated and the design of the keyboard interface is less than fully functional. I often found myself wandering around the same area before I hit the exact location to perform an operation. There are also times when the character walked out of the range of the camera the angle will not change, leaving your character unseen somewhere off the map. Although the concept is incredible, Hitchcock: The Final Cut does not add up to the same level of greatness as the director in which it pays tribute. In the sense of purely paying tribute, The Final Cut accomplishes it beautifully. A huge Hitchcock fan should find this game highly intriguing as you encounter the many resemblances to Hitchcock's greatest works. However its poorly laid controls and reasonably simple puzzles leave something to be desired, which The Final Cut simply does not manage to produce.
-==Boy, GameVortex Communications AKA Kyle Prestenback
Minimum System Requirements: P333, 64MB RAM, 300MB HDD, 8MB 3D accelerator   Test System: HP Pavilion 8776C, AMD Athlon 1Ghz, 512 MB RAM, 12X DVD, 16MB NVIDIA Vanta 3D graphics.
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