Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos is a puzzle game developed by TikGames released to Xbox Live Arcade. It was previously released for Windows and Mac OS X in September 2007. Because every game needs a storyline, the token plot involves you playing the role of an Interpol agent who has a tropical vacation rudely interrupted by the escape of master criminal Dr. Chaos, along with three of his evil associates. But in reality this is as important to the game as the capture of Princess Peach by Bowser in every iteration of the Mario series.
The hunt for Dr. Chaos will take you across the globe to 11 cities where you will look for clues as to his movements and whereabouts. The game is essentially an electronic “Where’s Wally” book. In each level, the screen displays a scene from your current location, and the objective is to comb through the screen in search of a list of items which will supposedly lead you down the trail of Dr. Chaos.
Controls are incredibly simple – the right analogue stick controls an on-screen cursor, the A button inputs your selection, while a secondary button toggles your magnifier on and off. The magnifier is essential, as scenes are deliberately busy and complicated in order to hide your search items within them. Just as in “Where’s Wally“, you are sometimes literally searching for needles in haystacks.
In order to pass a level, all items on your search list must be found within the generous time allowance. However a misnamed “hint” system will walk you through if you get stuck. Rather than give you a clue, asking for hint gives you the exact location of the items you are seeking. A true “hint” system would not have taken much additional thought – perhaps an initial hint could have displayed a picture of the item to aid you in the search, or another possibility could have been to direct you to one of the four quadrants on the screen to allow you to narrow down the search.
Search items range from large and obvious, to tiny and obscure. Playing through the game, the “can’t see the wood from the trees” effect becomes apparent – after you have been searching for microscopic sized items for a while, it suddenly becomes difficult to find huge objects that are right under your nose.
The main frustration with the game comes from not being able to recognise items on the screen as being a match to your search list. For example, a sheep turned out to be the “bull” that was on the list, and some items are almost impossible to recognise because they are so heavily obscured or cannot be discerned from their surroundings due to lack of contrast. This may have been a deliberate production decision, but reduces the enjoyment of the game, especially when played solo.
Up to 4 players can join to play co-op, either locally or on Xbox Live. Each player controls their own cursor and magnifier, and having someone to talk to greatly enhances the gameplay. It gives you an understanding associate to complain to when a hint reveals the unfairly hidden item you’ve failed to find after endless searching. After playing with a friend, it will be hard to ever going back to play the game alone.
The game is reasonably fun while it lasts (the game can be completed in several hours), but offers little replay value, especially in the lonely single player mode. The items you have to find are randomised each time you play a level, but it is still not enough to entice most people to play through again. A couple of bonus “spot the difference” puzzles add another 15 minutes of gameplay, but again offer little incentive to replay.
If combing through your TV screen looking for tiny objects hidden in cluttered scenes is your idea of fun, then Interpol will keep you entertained for a few hours. However only the most serious fans of search and find books will find any replay value in this short game. It is difficult to recommend this game at an extremely steep 800 Microsoft Points ($13.33), and it would certainly benefit from a 50% price cut.
Sounds like a bit of a ‘Where in the World is Carmen Sandeigo’ rehash.
That’s what I thought it would be originally, but at least in Carmen, the clues would allow you to work out the next destination of the criminal. In this game, they’ve taken the globe-trotting element from Carmen, but the clues have no relationship to the next destination – or indeed the criminal at all!
Carmen’s got it all over Dr. Chaos!