Jack Orlando: A Cinematic Adventure (PC)

CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
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Overall score: 6.8 (3.0 stars)
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Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Ron Dulin
• Reviewed on: 10/15/2001
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 10/14/2001

Jack Orlando manages to avoid most of the clichés that plague adventure games inspired by film noir. And the one it doesn't avoid is the most obvious--Jack Orlando, who is a down-on-his-luck private eye, has been framed for murder. He has 48 hours to clear his name. You, as Jack, must solve a series of pretty good puzzles, stomach some of the worst dialogue and acting ever heard in a game, and navigate so many red herrings that you'll occasionally wonder if you're playing a game or swimming in Agatha Christie's fish pond. Jack Orlando is a strange game that manages to be both very good and very bad at the same time.

The hand-drawn art is the game's best feature.

But it isn't just a strange game--it's a strange game that's three years old. Originally released in 1998 by the Polish developer TopWare, Jack Orlando is being released in the US for the first time. The only difference seems to be the addition of "Director's Cut" to its title, but by all accounts, it is primarily the same game. The fact that a 3-year-old game can seem so unfinished is equally strange. Many of the game's problems, from the endless streams of meaningless dialogue to the enormous areas in which there is nothing to do, seem to imply that the game isn't done. You'll navigate a huge catacomb of ancient artifacts and secret passages, and all of it is completely unnecessary. You'll walk through an abandoned café filled with dozens of TV sets, and yet the game takes place in 1933, six years before the introduction of commercial television.

These are simply surreal moments in a game that is, at its heart, a straightforward murder mystery. There's no link to the Knights Templar and no strange alien technology to be found. The murder at hand is a case of organized crime and the military, and there's little more to it.

The game takes place at the end of prohibition, and Jack Orlando has gone from being a hero of the people to a drunken lout. He happens to witness a murder on his way home from getting soused and gets sapped on the head and left at the crime scene. He's the only suspect, and the police chief gives him 48 hours to solve the crime and clear his name. That's the whole story, and you'll be investigating a pretty generic organized crime syndicate from the beginning on. With the 48-hour deadline, it's strange that the game takes place in what appears to be a single night. But the thin story is not a problem because puzzles, not plot, make up the backbone of the game.

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