Game Reviews

Again is the second interactive novel experience from Cing Inc, who also brought Hotel Dusk to the Nintendo DS. In this story, you slip into the shoes of FBI Agent Jonathan Weaver who is investigating a string of serial murders mirroring a similar chain of events as the Providence killings from 19 years earlier. Agent Weaver has special “visions” – flashbacks of the past – which have been bringing new evidence to light as you and your partner Kate Hathaway retrace and re-investigate the original crimes.Being an interactive novel adventure, Again is very reliant on the story-telling and dialogue. It is important that you exhaust all options in order to gain the most knowledge to help you in solving the case. Talking with one witness can unlock new text for another, which in turn might have you bothering the first witness once more. For the more interactive parts of dialogue, you will notice questions are presented in orange text and answers in white. For questioning people, select which lead you want to pursue until you have run through all of the available choices. Sometimes one set of questions will be replaced with a new one, depending on the answers received from the witness. When it comes to having Agent Weaver answer questions, you want to select the correct choice from the white text replies. If you choose the wrong answer it’s not a huge deal. After a brief comment from the person youare speaking with you can select another answer.Once you have access to new crime scenes you will get to experience Past Visions and the Psyche Gauge. In these Past Visions, one screen of your DS turns into a past version of the room you are in. The touch screen side remains the current version of the room, and using this screen you will move about the room and compare the differences in each scene. You need to find the variances and make the present scene the same as your Past Vision. This usually entails looking for items that are out of place, searching the room for clues on opening hidden safes, maybe even just turning on a tap. The Psyche Gauge will drain if you Focus on an area or item that does not trigger a Past memory. Once you have drained the gauge, you’ll get a Game Over screen. You can Retry from this point, taking you back into the room. Just be sure to remember what you have failed to flash on so you can avoid draining too much from the meter.