There are very few constants in my life that inspire joy; one of them is Robert Smith,
Interviewer: “Are you as excited as I am?”
Robert: “By the sounds of it, no.”, another is my conure, Needles, and the arguably one
of the biggest things is MYSTERY.
Any kind, really.
True Crime, Whodunnits, Noire, Horribly written forensic shows that I watch aimlessly at night
because I’m having an existential crisis; they all get me there.
Aside from my aggressive interest in shows like Murder, She Wrote, and my love of works
of Agatha Christie, I also have a fondness for mystery games, and my god there are a
LOT of them.
Even though mystery mechanics often work perfectly in digital form, there seem to be just as
many misses as there are hits, and a lot of them go forgotten over time.
FMV was a popular way to go; we had games like The Black Dahlia, which is a cult classic
at this point, The Dame Was Loaded, which has been buried into obscurity, and modern
games like Contradiction.
I liked Contradiction.
It made me giggle.
Jenks: “If I did THIS, would that mean anything to you?”
And of course I can’t go on without mentioning THEE mystery franchise to end all others…
EAGLE EYE MYSTERIES.
Fine, it’s Carmen Sandiego.
We all know that, okay?
But out of so many mystery games I’ve played over time, an adolescent game called Eagle
Eye Mysteries is the one that really nailed the very nature of mystery gaming.
Some of my other favorites include the classic Laura Bow games: The Colonel’s Bequest and
The Dagger of Amon Ra which do utilize collecting evidence and interrogation somewhat well,
but I find they suffer from the classic Sierra quirks.
Meaning the puzzles were bullshit.
The Carmen Sandiego games are classic but I look at them through an educational lens
more than a mystery lens, and for whatever reason I haven’t been the most impressed
by a lot of modern titles, but I always seem to go back to Eagle Eye Mysteries, and it’s
Sequel, Eagle Eye Mysteries in London.
I’m not too cool to admit that I play these games from time to time; and yeah a big reason
I enjoy them is because I grew up on them.
In fact, they were the first games I played that had talking, and it blew my mind.
Announcer: “We interrupt this program for this bulletin!
The Radio Richview Newsroom tells us that a large monster was spotted by several people
early this morning at Buccaneer Beach!”
Shout out to soundblaster.
But even without the assistance of rose colored glasses, I do believe these are both genuinely
good mystery games, and I think the mechanics used here would still work perfectly in any
modern game, with the exception of the blatant 90s fashion and locations.
Remember baseball card shops?
Ahhh.
So what makes these games stand out to me?
Well, as Jennifer, my partner in crime would say: Jenner: “let’s check the evidence!”
Kids’ entertainment sure is ripe for crime plots, isn’t it?
Remember the Adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley where they would like… find out what’s
in your little brother’s dresser or something, or the Detective Barbie Games, the Mystery
Files of Shelby Woo, Scooby Doo, Ghost Writer - it’s a great market.
Teenagers may be obnoxious in real life, but in imagination they are amazing detectives,
which is the case for Eagle Eye Mysteries.
This game is basically a PBS show come to life.
Or maybe some kind of Nickelodeon or Disney channel live action series where a few kids
are in charge of solving crime; I equate it more to a PBS show because these games do
have an educational quality to them, and they LOVE to promote the library.
Jennifer: “Let’s see what we can learn about compasses in the library.”
“After that we can hop over the the British Library.”
“Maybe we can find out more about those bones here in the Library.”
In the London version, the emphasis is of course on European history, which I thought
was vastly more interesting but I will try to focus on the first game for this video
since they do have similar gameplay.
Jake and Jennifer Eagle own The Eagle Eye Detective Agency in their hometown of Richview,
where they help the town’s inhabitants solve various crimes because for some reason, the
police cannot.
Jennifer: “Police Chief Barnes said we could see the police files on the four criminals.
Let’s see what we can dig up.”
Why are kids being allowed to solve bank robberies?
I’m pretty sure that’s the real mystery, here.
As we boot up the game we get a snazzy introduction to Jake and Jennifer.
Look at this TREEHOUSE; it’s incredible.
A computer, TV, an Iguana, FOOSBALL, a large ass globe!
I mean, you laugh but have you seen those globes at World Market or Pier 1?
They’re way overpriced.
Is everyone in this neighborhood Rich?
Is that why it’s called Richview?
The duo invite you to join their agency and show you a video that explains the neighborhood;
this is a very clever way to present full motion video, I’m impressed.
It would have taken up too much space if it were a higher resolution so they hid it in
a TV; very nice.
Also, are these miniatures?
This is badass, who did this?!?
You choose who you want to work with, and you’re presented with a list of mysteries
to solve - they last anywhere from 10-20 minutes and there are three levels of difficulty.
Richview is basically the Cabot Cove of this universe - seems like every day there’s
a new crime happening.
I’ll briefly go over one.
Now a lot of these are pretty tame and of course, no one ever gets murdered; It’s
more like... someone cheated on a school test, or someone’s skateboard was stolen - stuff
like that.
But I’m goin’ deep for this review, these teens are gonna solve a BANK Robbery.
Very simple UI; you click on the hotspot you want to go to, the red ones being of priority,
then start interrogating and clicking on clues, perfectly outlined by this blue box.
This mystery involves sussing out who stole 100,000 dollars.
Police guy: I’m sure it was one of the four escaped criminals who robbed the bank.
We have all four downstairs in the city jail.”
This suspect has seen better days.
He’s supposed to be 32?
He looks fucking ANCIENT, like he’s been trampled on by...life.
After you visit each location and interview all the witnesses, it’s time to go over
your notes and solve the mystery using the Travis, which stands for Text Retrieval And
Video Input System - it’s basically a PDA specifically for solving crimes.
If I had a device like this you would never see me again; I’d be out taking so many
digital notes and solving the pettiest of offenses.
This whole process is very easy and provides a challenge to preteens - you just select
the relevant clues that support your theory, and click solve.
If it’s wrong, you will be given a chance to select new clues, and there is also a hint
system.
If you solve the mystery correctly, you get to Jennifer: “check the evidence!”, and
you get your own newspaper clipping that you can put in your scrapbook, just in case you
wanted to revisit that horrible bank robbery any time you want.
On top of having a very easy to use design, the game also has some great recurring characters.
An impressive amount honestly, and all with age appropriate actors as opposed to 30 year
olds desperately attempting to sound like a teenager.
Character: “Hey Jennifer, I heard that you guys had to go out looking for Mark Moriarity.
I can’t believe he go lost!
I bet Sgt.
Marrow’s really gonna lay into him.”
Because there are so many characters you get to know throughout the game, and the scenery
and screens are so lovely and inviting, it makes it fun to play; there’s an entire
world that’s been built and as a kid especially I loved learning more about it.
The characters are quite tropey but in a charming, 1990s way.
To showcase just a few, we have Mrs. Garcia, the librarian, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold who run
the Richview historical society, Mark Moriarity, your average troublemaker character who suffers
from excessive mullet.
I...think that’s a mullet.
It’s almost like his mullet has a mullet, and so many others.
Though this town seems to house a lot of crotchety old people.
Mrs. Meniski, is a walking “old person yells at cloud” cliche.
Meniski: “I don’t appreciate you children playing on my property.”
Mr. Arnold also suffers from chronic grumpiness and cares way too much about his prized beans.
Arnold: “STAY AWAY FROM MY BEAN PLANTS.”
This actually becomes a motive for one of the mysteries - protecting the integrity of
Mr. Arnold’s beans.
I think Eagle Eye Mysteries in London does an even better job at world building and character
development; even though we’re visiting places that already exist it still feels like
we are in this imaginary story, it’s believable, and the devs made a very wise decision in
including a story arc.
As you go through the mysteries in THIS game, you start to uncover the identity of Macavity,
a recurring character who has never been seen and keeps slipping past Scotland Yard.
“This is obviously the work of that catty cad Macavity.
This time he’s really gone too far.
He’ll go to any lengths to embarrass the Yard.”
I like the short mysteries in the first game, but it feels more like a genuine detective
experience when you are working to an end goal.
As I went through all of them which ones would be about Macavity.
In regards to the educational aspect; I once said in another video that I didn’t think
this game was edutainment, but it’s sequel was.
After replaying this a lot I’d like to retract some of that; I think I was just too distracted
by the crimes themselves to really pay attention to the educational parts, but they do exist
in a greater capacity than most children’s games.
I also think just by comparison, Eagle Eye Mysteries in London felt more like a true
edutainment title; perhaps because even as an adult I still learn a lot of fascinating
things about England and European History from this game and retained information that
wasn’t just used for collecting clues, whereas in the original game, it was commonly used
as evidence only.
But I suppose I would still count it as edutainment since it did make an effort to teach me about
human remains.
Police dude: “Come here to see Mark Moriarity's bones, eh?
I’m not surprised.”
Um.
I realize that this mechanic of go to place, talk to people, gather clues, pick clues to
solve the mystery sounds very simple, and it is.
It’s EXTREMELY simple.
And that is what I want in a mystery game, and I think this mechanic STILL works.
Compare it to Contradiction which uses the exact same gameplay, moving around hotspots,
interrogating characters, and saving information in a notebook, but has a little twist.
In this game you use information to find discrepancies in the suspects stories to move the plot along,
but it’s very similar and it’s a big reason why I like both.
The reason Dagger of Amon Ra is so clumsy is because it is needlessly cruel to the player,
and even though you get a notebook for interviewing purposes, you’re never working with evidence.
You piece the mystery together in your head and if you don’t get every damn question
right at the end of the game, you meet a rather grisly death.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Dagger, but in terms of being a mystery game, this one is
rather clunky.
I don’t need the game to hold my hand or anything, I just need it to work, and the
Eagle Eye Games still do that.
They are super charming and truly act like a mystery game should; I would love a modern
take on these titles using the same mechanics and UI but targeting them towards adults instead.
Maybe add some sex and intrigue; perhaps Mrs. Garcia is in a weird love triangle with Mr.
Green or Ms. Polaria ends up embezzling money from her weird antique shop.
I’m also not opposed to some murder or maybe even a double murder.
I like it when there’s a double murder.
Peacock: “Everything all right?”
Mustard: “Yep, two corpses.
Everything’s fine.”
I feel like these titles have been forgotten over time, and that’s such a shame to me;
I always thought they stood out among the other games I received in childhood.
It always made me feel like I was a detective and is probably the main thing that sparked
my love for all things mystery in general.
Could you imagine if I had never discovered Eagle Eye Mysteries?
There would be no Murder, She Wrote videos on this channel.
I can’t even fathom such a thing, what a depressing thought.
These games were developed and sold under the now defunct EA*Kids, a division of EA
that was only active for a few years in the mid 90s; I am guessing these games will not
be available to purchase for download but if you can find the CDs they run nicely in
DOSbox.
I also recommend these games for budding gumshoes, so if you have children in your life I truly
think these games will be a hit with them.
If you feel slightly silly playing these on your in in adulthood; remember: This case
of the baffling bones isn’t gonna solve itself so put on your deerstalker and get
ready for mundane crime.
No shame, I won’t tell anyone.
Jennifer: “All the kids think mark is cool now that he’s found a skeleton.
Let’s hear what he has to say about these baffling bones.”
Hey everyone, thanks for listening to me gush about Eagle Eye Mysteries, I hope your interest
is piqued.
If you want more mystery content be sure to check out my Murder, She Wrote video; Solving
crime isn’t cheap so consider supporting me on Patreon, and if you could like and share
this video, I would surely appreciate it.
As always, I’ll see you in the next one.