(XBLA) Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos
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Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos
AKA find the random items strewn about this picture!
Tikgames latest offering on Xbox Live is a little deceptive. Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos really seems to imply there is an adventure to be had. A secret-spy type adventure, you know? Unfortunately for us, that’s not the case. No, what you get here is a hidden object game that requires you to scour a photo and find random bits of "evidence" that somehow leads to you capturing your man. So what separates this game from the hidden object games available on the internet for free? 800 MS points and a really thin plot will only hold the interest of a very select few.
Gameplay
The premise of Interpol is quite simple: you’re a special agent on the trail of criminal mastermind, Dr. Chaos and his henchmen. You must traverse the world in order to shut down their operation for the good of mankind. Now if that sounds interesting, allow me to take the time to correct you. It’s not at all.
What you’re essentially given here is a text-based game in which you are given a static image with a vague reference to the city you’re exploring, and a list of items that you are to find within said image. While the goal is simple enough, the execution is absolutely terrible. The image you’re given is so blurry that finding any of the items listed is more difficult than it really should be. Granted the larger items are fairly easy, but the smaller items, such as pens or symbols are difficult to find, not because they’re so well hidden, but simply because the screen is just so hard to look at.
To try and make things easier for you, you are given the ability to magnify a small area of the picture by pressing X, and while this should help in theory, all it really accomplishes is showing you what was normally a “fugly” picture in greater...and “fuglier” detail. If you’re really stuck and can’t decipher exactly what it is you’re looking for (as some of the descriptions can be a little difficult to decipher), there is the option to use hints that will point you not just in the direction of the object, but literally to the object itself. This can be handy, but in the long run takes away from the overall challenge of finding the item yourself.
Still, all of that equals small potatoes compared to the one major issue with the game. The story, while it is somewhat interesting, is completely voided out by the completely random nature of the items you’re tasked with finding. When you’re tracking down a criminal mastermind, the last thing you’d expect to be looking for is two dogs, a statue holding a star and a couple of cowboy hats that are strewn about the picture. Making the items relevant to the case would have at least added to the game somewhat, but as it stands, you’re simply relegated to finding items that are selected randomly throughout each level. This is really disappointing and in essence kills the whole premise by not maintaining a central theme throughout. The one saving grace here is that if you choose to revisit an area, the items do change up so that you’re not replaying the same puzzle over and over again. While that’s a nice touch, most likely won’t opt to go back to the well for another run as there’s no real incentive to do so here.
Graphics & Sound
The load screen is the best looking part of this game. Pictures that you’re investigating are pixilated, blurred and extremely unpleasant to look at. There’s seemingly no consideration for those with widescreen televisions, and on a CRT television, there’s almost no way to play this without cranking the brightness of your screen as the darkened areas where some items are hidden are almost impossible to see. Ugly to the Nth degree.
The sound fairs a bit better. While there’s no voice-acting, (which I’m secretly thankful for), the music is bland, repetitive and forgettable. Normally that’d be a mark against most games, but its implementation here is decent compared to everything else here. The ambient music during an investigation actually isn’t that bad, but it’s also barely there, and hardly anyone will really notice it.
Value
Spending 800 Microsoft points on this game probably isn’t in anyone’s best interest, I’ll be honest. There are better, not to mention free, hidden object games all over the internet, and this one doesn’t do enough to justify its high price. There are plenty of levels, and there’s an online and local multiplayer component which do add to the package overall, but the price tag is just too steep for a bunch of badly rendered photos and a shallow, boring and barely there story.
Conclusion
Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos will likely only be enjoyed by a very select few, and even they will likely have a hard time swallowing the price tag here. While finding every object in the game can be slightly addictive, there just isn’t enough here to warrant a look if you’re not a huge fan of the hidden object genre.
Pros
+ On and Offline multiplayer can be fun.
+ Ambient music is nicely implemented during searches.
+ Can be mildly addictive to find all the objects in time.
Cons
- Seriously ugly photos that make it difficult to find what you’re searching for.
- Magnifying the image just makes it uglier.
- 800 points is far too much to ask for what pans out to be 3 hours of repetitive, boring gameplay.
- Random items nullify the story completely.
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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