Talk:Black Dahlia (video game)

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I seem to remember this game as being one of the biggest flops in the history of adventure games. Can anyone see if this is right? --Monkey&Bell 16:47, 27 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Eh well. Some game reviews state it as disappointing with low scores, while many regard it as marvelous. It is not very well marketed, and few seem to know about it. A friend that owns it has it in high regard (I'll borrow it to see myself). Compare the gamespot review and user reviews there. Seems as a love it or hate it thing. 146.124.141.250 (talk) 13:15, 19 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'd second the OP's hazy memory... IIRC, it wasn't just "poor reviews" but fans complaining about highly obtuse puzzles (or perhaps bugged puzzles), etc. following those of 'Ripper', which culminated in a "if you don't like it, we won't make any more of these games" from Take 2!!! I can't confirm that, but it seems a strange thing to remember if it wasn't somewhat true.--Banjo oz (talk) 06:57, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Most of the point-and-click adventures from this generation, that had live-action actors regularly involved in the story line, had very black or white reviews - similar to how most people either adore or despise the film A Christmas Story. The Daedalus Encounter, which starred Tia Carrere, was the same way - some thought it was fantastic, others thought it was pretty awful - and some of the later Myst titles had the same responses.

There were such limitations to what the technology could do at the time, when mixed with the live element, and many people didn't think it was worth adding in the live element at the sacrifice of some of the puzzle elements. Plus, the point-and-click adventure market was always hit and miss, because it wasn't a particularly interesting genre to some people - but those of us who loved the games were pretty loyal to anyone doing something new in the genre, and Take 2 was definitely trying to innovate. And as mentioned above, if you look at existing sites which still have it (like Amazon) the reviews are overall pretty solid.

I, for one, adored Black Dahlia, and wish like hell I still had a system that can play it - and some day I'll scrounge together a functioning Windows 98 machine, just to run these old games, many of which are still sitting in a cabinet in my house. When my Windows ME (I know) machine finally died, I refused to give up my favorites, and Dahlia was one of them. The puzzles were good if not great, the storyline was fun if occasionally holey, the characters were well conceived and the acting was a good blend of realistic and fanciful. Plus the easter eggs were pretty funny, mostly making fun of the exact cheese factors people complained about in the game - in particular when you'd make Jim spin around in his office chair. And the thing some people missed, in their reviews, is that this WASN'T a puzzle game - it was an interactive story game. I played both kinds (a notable version of the former being the 7th Guest/11th Hour games) and they both had their appeals. But Dahlia was more about the story and the mystery of it, than the puzzles. Plus it was about the novelty of having known actors, like Garr and Hopper, in it - even if they were clearly not given ample instruction or rehearsal time, for these kinds of performances. CleverTitania (talk) 21:00, 18 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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