You'd think that Microsoft would want to start their 2009 Xbox LIVE Arcade releases with a bang rather than a whimper, but after playing “Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos” I can’t even begin to imagine how they thought this game would be a good segue into the rest of the year’s weekly releases.
Despite the fairly cool sounding name, “Interpol” is anything but. Basically, the game is a "Where’s Waldo?"-esque title; part of the extremely limited search and find genre, which until now has largely been kept to the PC, books, children's magazines, and at times the DS. The “story” revolves around you, a detective with the international law enforcement agency, Interpol. While you’re on vacation, it seems the evil Dr. Chaos is causing problems all over the place, so it’s goodbye beaches and sun, and hello magnifying glass! Because, you know, you're a detective.
To track down Dr. Chaos, you’ll need to travel to various locales throughout the world, searching for clues which will get you one step closer to catching the nefarious evildoer. Sounds exciting, but it’s really not. Each area you’re searching in is represented by a picture, and you use your analog stick to scroll around the screen and locate clues by finding the objects listed at the top of the screen within the in-picture clutter. Unlike "Where’s Waldo?", these clues are almost never fun and don't stand out in any way, so finding them is a bit boring at times. Want to find a dog wearing a fedora and riding a tricycle? Too bad, you need to find two pairs of shoes and a neckband.
You would think that, in a game that revolves 100% around searching pictures for clues, the pictures would be decent quality, right? Not so in “Interpol,” where the resolution is awful even on an SDTV. And when you pass over objects with your magnifying glass to zoom in whilst searching for clues? The image is just magnified like you’re using Photoshop; the clarity actually decreases. I have no idea how someone could make a game of this nature and not put "make the pictures look nice and function well" at the top of the list. I'm not even sure I want to know. But in the event future search and find developers are reading this: please pay attention to the images, and make them look good.
The clues themselves are also frequently frustrating, largely due to the fact that they’re only explained with text and repeat constantly. Even though there are multiple correct answers for some words (such as fan), only specific objects actually count as clues, while the others result in a missed guess, which will hurt your remaining time. Having the same clues multiple times is also a huge annoyance; are you telling me that no one could come up with a better clue to replace “cup” rather than use it for the millionth time?
Even with all of the bad, I do admit that "Interpol" can be enjoyable at very limited times when someone happens to be watching you play, and your time is running out. Frantic screaming of where to search next makes the game almost worthwhile, but then those two seconds pass and you're brought back into the reality that is "Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos."
Ultimately, it feels like an utterly unnecessary XBLA title. Search and find games just don’t work well with a regular analog controller in the first place, and when the game has incredibly shoddy presentation, numerous repeating clues, and can’t even always accurately explain what you’re looking for… It’s just a mess. Had this game come out on the Wii (where you can use the remote) or even Steam (where you can use a mouse) I could see some people enjoying it, as it’s still cheaper than a copy of "Where’s Waldo?" or whatever book has replaced it for this generation of kids. But on Xbox LIVE Arcade? Unless you’re a gamerscore whore, do yourself a favor and pretend this week's release never existed.
Leave a Reply