Cruise for a Corpse

Adventure 1991 Dos Dosbox Delphine Software Third Person Mystery

Intriguing but dull murder mystery

The rather unsubtle title gives a pretty good idea of what you're in for with this game and it should be no surprise to find that it's a murder mystery adventure set on a cruise ship. Developed by Delphine, best known for Flashback and Another World, this takes the point-and-click interface of Curse of Monkey Island and Discworld and marries it to a complex whodunnit that is perfect for fans of Agatha Christie. The basic plot revolves around the murder of a wealthy businessman aboard his own yacht, but conveniently enough, there just happens to be a policeman on board to help solve the mystery. Players take on the role of this Poirot-like character and must solve the crime by speaking with the various shady family members and assorted hangers-on and gathering enough clues to find the culprit. Cruise for a Corpse differs from many similar games in that its puzzles are not so much inventory-based but which instead require you speak to the right person at the right time in order to learn the most useful information. While this does make the game a little different from others, it also leads to a certain amount of frustration and boredom as you simply have to trigger the correct train of events, rather than use your mind to solve a puzzle. Visually, the game is quite striking, with bright and appealing cartoon-style characters and environments that are packed with detail. The story is reasonably engaging but no murder-mystery classic and lacks the twists that would make it so. The gameplay is slow-paced, even for an adventure of this type, and is rather less than exciting, although the complex relationships and intrigues between the supporting cast do give it a strange sort of appeal. Ultimately though, it is all rather charmless and pointless and there are much better graphic adventures out there, including the Broken Sword series.

Classic adventure game set on a ship

Cruise for a Corpse is a classic adventure game, which puts you in the middle of a mystery that surrounds a ship at sea, voyage during which a corpse is found in one of the ships chambers/quarters. Luckily enough, you, an investigator, are on the ship and are tasked with finding what went on. The story has a Midsummer Murders feel to it, with lots of flash backs and flash forwards. Suffice to say that the game puts forth a story that is none too bad, though not too original either. Thus, you are going to have a good enough time investigating what happened, chasing for clues and talking with the people on the ship. The dialogues are none too bad, which adds another layer of excitement to the game, as you uncover more info about each and every of the ship passengers. In terms of puzzles, you are going to go hunting for all sort of items, get involved with some safe cracking puzzles and try to solve all sort of puzzles that are brought forth by the game. At any rate, while this is by no means the most original adventure you are going to play, it is none the less a good one, with nice graphics and enough different puzzles to keep you enticed for the entire game duration.

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