More of the failure to provoke suspense comes from the meager sound design. The cemetery looks nice, but there are precious few animations within the environments, the lighting is often flat, and character models tend to get swallowed up by the shadows. But the environments, while attractive, aren't atmospheric enough to encourage tension. Moor's brogue lends him some charm, even though the actor playing the thief is too laid-back during times he should be communicating terror or annoyance. Briscol's temper occasionally erupts, and his anger is used to good effect in a few scenes within a church. This is storytelling at its most putrid, and it is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who sticks with this murder mystery hoping for closure.įurthermore, Alter Ego fails to communicate much suspense, but at least there are sparks of personality. Where there should have been a climax, there is a 15-second speech that clarifies precious little where there should have been a conclusion, there is instead a final cutscene that might be trying to set up a sequel but instead makes the entire game feel like a pointless endeavor in which you learned and accomplished absolutely nothing. Instead, the simple puzzles get even simpler, you only control a single character, and important facets of the mystery get either completely cast aside or explained away in a bit of hasty dialogue. The events just prior to the crossing of these paths, including a sequence that plunges you into total darkness, seem to hint that something exciting is finally about to happen after hours of busywork. The paths of the two characters don't even cross until two-thirds of the way through the game, thus failing to capitalize on the potential of a story told from two angles. What secrets does a reclusive grandmother harbor? What goodies might be hidden in the trunk in Briscol's office? Who really was this man known by locals as the White Beast?Īlter Ego regrettably does nothing to resolve such lingering questions. As Briscol, you talk to a few suspects and investigate the crime scene, which is boring, but at least it tantalizes you with a few choice tangents. As Moor, you spend most of the game totally unaware that a mystery even exists, sneaking into mansions and inspecting crossbows. Alternating between the two, you slog through cemeteries, laundries, and sewers, combining inventory items and clicking on environmental objects to progress the story. Detective Briscol is a by-the-book investigator new to the town of Plymouth, England, where the funeral of a suspected murderer hasn't ended the chain of murders terrorizing the populace. You play as two different characters throughout the course of this "mystery." Timothy Moor is an Irish thief joining a fellow crook on a heist that will pay their way to the United States. Alter Ego's easy and unremarkable puzzles, which can be solved with a bunch of random clicking, offer no relief and make for a soggy and unfinished adventure that even genre fans should avoid.īriscol is not happy with the wallpaper in his new office.
The end result is a story that makes the average episode of Scooby-Doo look like a sophisticated whodunit and will have you throwing your hands up in the air in disgust. After an excruciatingly slow start, the tale seems like it might finally come together, only to pull the rug from underneath you with an ending so abrupt and incomplete you feel as if you just read a novel with the final two chapters ripped out of it. Though point-and-click adventure game Alter Ego tries to involve you in its story with a few gruesome crimes, the crime that will strike you as most hideous is its own storytelling offenses. Unfortunately, there's a disastrous corollary to this tenet: A bad ending insults the reader and renders the plot that came before it hollow and insincere. As any fan of a good murder mystery will tell you, there's nothing more satisfying than a surprising reveal and a shocking payoff.