Black Dahlia (video game)

Black Dahlia
Developer(s) Take-Two Interactive
Publisher(s) Interplay
Designer(s) Steve Glasstetter
Programmer(s) Greg Brown
Artist(s) Jack Snyder
Mike Snyder
Writer(s) Patrick Freeman
Composer(s) Michael Bross
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release
  • NA: February 28, 1998
  • EU: 1998
Genre(s) Interactive movie, Point-and-click adventure
Mode(s) Single player

Black Dahlia is an interactive movie point-and-click adventure game that was released on February 28, 1998 by Take-Two Interactive.

The story, while fictional, is inspired by the real life Cleveland Torso Murderer and the infamous murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles.

This interactive movie point-and-click adventure game ties Elizabeth Short's murder to Nazis and occult rituals which the player has to investigate. The game features 2 big Hollywood star named actors, Dennis Hopper and Teri Garr.

Plot

Agent Pearson is the newest member of the COI, and is somewhat dejected to find the job not as glamorous as he was initially told. After being given a case where a local munitions manufacturer was invited to join the Brotherhood of Thule, an American branch of the Thule society, Pearson is puzzled by the apparent connections with Nazi occultism. Along the way he encounters Agent Winslow, apparently a bumbling Federal agent who is more concerned with his press appearance than solving cases.

After making a connection between the Brotherhood of Thule and the Cleveland torso murders, Pearson leads a local detective to the butchers lair after finding bizarre Gaelic documents left by his predecessor regarding a ritual involving Odin and a gemstone called the Black Dahlia, which is a key instrument that can render a ritual user the ability to control dreams.

Years later, Pearson is a member of the OSI, and recovers the Dahlia from a Nazi bunker, but it is quickly snatched away and then sold on the black market by a corrupt quartermaster. Following the Dahlia, Pearson again encounters Winslow, a Nazi SS operative following the final orders of Hitler to perform the Dahlia ritual.

Pearson pursues Winslow across the USA, finally cornering him in a California home, where Winslow has just completed the final ritual murders regarding the Dahlia. After tearing out his own eye and performing the remainder of the ritual, the player has one choice with his pistol. If he shoots Winslow or hesitates, Winslow stabs himself, and possesses Pearson, becoming an American version of Hitler, and able to control large portions of the populace through their dreams. If Pearson destroys the Dahlia, Winslow dies and Pearson is blamed for the locals spree of killings, though he is overjoyed and content with having stopped the Nazi plot to take over the world.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
GameRankings72.00%[1]
Review scores
PublicationScore
CGSP[2]
CGW[3]
PC Gamer (US)87%[4]
PC Zone79/100[5]
PC GamesB-[6]

The game received an average score of 72.00% at GameRankings, based on an aggregate of 9 reviews.[1]

Black Dahlia was a nominee for CNET Gamecenter's 1998 "Adventure Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to Grim Fandango. The editors wrote, "With its endless secret doors, encoded messages, locked boxes, and a little gunplay, Black Dahlia did not disappoint."[7]

In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Black Dahlia the 63rd-best adventure game ever released.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 "Black Dahlia". GameRankings. Archived from the original on 2012-10-10. Retrieved 2012-01-24.
  2. ↑ Royal, Tim (April 2, 1998). "Black Dahlia". Computer Games Strategy Plus. Archived from the original on March 23, 2005.
  3. ↑ Scorpia (July 1998). "Black and Blue". Computer Gaming World (168): 154, 157.
  4. ↑ Poole, Stephen (July 1998). "Black Dahlia". PC Gamer US. Archived from the original on March 8, 2000.
  5. ↑ Rose, Paul (May 1998). "Reviews; Black Dahlia". PC Zone (63): 86.
  6. ↑ Morris, Daniel (August 3, 1998). "Black Dahlia Review". PC Games. Archived from the original on September 1, 1999.
  7. ↑ The Gamecenter Editors (January 29, 1999). "The CNET Gamecenter.com Awards for 1998". CNET Gamecenter. Archived from the original on January 21, 2000.
  8. ↑ AG Staff (December 30, 2011). "Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games". Adventure Gamers. Archived from the original on June 4, 2012.
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