MazM: Jekyll and Hyde

[Jen]

I am playing the strangest game on my iPad, strange in that I’ve never played anything quite like it. It started as free to play, and I had the option to watch ads to get something that I was not quite clear on. I did watch a couple of the ads and then ended up ponying up the scratch to buy the game via in-app purchase.

It’s basically a retelling of the book Jekyll and Hyde. It has a little bit of everything. The graphics and conversation style are like the old Game Boy Professor Layton games, there are some various little tasks like dodging three coppers to get to your door (easy after you figure out the pattern), you collect info but not objects (there is no inventory), and it’s sort of like a choose-your-own-adventure, only so far there haven’t been any choices.

My character is Jekyll’s friend and lawyer. I am traveling to locations throughout London that I unlock as I go, and talking to everyone. Sometimes I get trivia about Victorian-era London, sometimes “clues,” sometimes new “cases” in the timeline, sometimes achievements (these things are the collectibles)... and for all of this I haven’t really had to do much but tap on everything and talk to everyone and go everywhere.

I think after I finish as the lawyer, there are two or three other playable characters to pad out the story.

The game feels very Asian-influenced in style and art, but whoever did the writing is highly English-literate. The only English errors that I’ve spotted are a couple of transitional screens saying “one days later” or “one years later.” That’s just me being a grammar snob.

At first I found it enchanting, but that was a week ago. I just played another couple of hours tonight, and now that I have a good feel for all of the weirdness, I am bored with it. There’s really no game there, it’s more of an experience.

I am not going to give it a rating because I’ll probably never finish it and this is a classic YMMV situation. I have no basis for comparison to recommend either for or against. If you have even a slight interest, it is free to try.

[Ghostlady]

I have noticed that some of the newer games I’ve been looking at, that at first look really interesting, also mention the experience of being in the game. No puzzles or really any clues just the interaction with people and things. They are definitely not for me.