The game is afoot!
If your German is up to scratch and you enjoy a good mystery adventure, then this little known slice of interactive fiction should be right up your alley. It actually plays out as a sort of mix of graphical adventure, like Broken Sword, and traditional text adventure like Zork, thanks to the combination of control systems and parser input and it's all well enough put together to make it well worth a look. The plots finds you in the shoes of the titular inspector and who has been charged with solving a murder, mainly because there was no one else better for the job. The trick here is that you only have one day to crack the case, so as every move uses up valuable time, you really have to think about your every action, and it's this element which adds a nice sense of tension to proceedings. The story takes place in small village and you have to explore the surroundings and interrogate the locals in order to get to the bottom of the mystery and it's told with a lightness of touch and sense of humour that is refreshing for this sort of thing. If you're in the mood for a bit of detective work (and can read German well), this makes for a fun adventure. The visuals are wonderfully atmospheric and really bring the small town vibe to life, while the characters are interesting and unique, with their own distinct traits. The interface is pretty slick and intuitive so navigating the game is a breeze. The puzzles are pretty decent on the whole, not as obscure as some similar games, but satisfying to solve, so all in all, this makes for a fun and slightly quirky slice of old-school adventuring.
