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Three Cards to Midnight hands-on archived preview

Three Cards to Midnight
Three Cards to Midnight

Editor's Note: Since the writing of this preview, the developers have taken this and other early feedback to heart, and significantly redesigned aspects of the game. The changes promise to increase the game's story focus, better integrate puzzles, and improve the cinematic quality substantially, among other enhancements. Therefore, this preview no longer presents an accurate reflection of the game's finished form.


Remember Tex Murphy? If not, you may be wondering why all the hoopla about Three Cards to Midnight, the upcoming title from Big Finish Games. But anyone familiar with the lovable gumshoe will know exactly why there's so much anticipation surrounding the long-awaited return of Chris Jones and Aaron Conners to the adventure fold. Still, it's been a decade since Overseer and this time its developers are going the independent route, suggesting a much different experience than those Tex games of yesteryear. So what should we expect of the new title? Recently I had the opportunity to play through an early section of Three Cards to Midnight, and while it won’t be long now until a playable demo is released publicly, if I write fast enough, I may just have enough time to squeeze in a few first impressions before then.

Surprisingly, my immediate reaction is… well… surprise. The storyline of TCM has been established already, but where gameplay is concerned, Chris Jones and Aaron Conners have held their cards close to the vest, so to speak. As a result, I had few preconceptions going in. Certainly I wasn’t expecting an ambitious FMV title along the lines of the beloved Tex series, but nor was I anticipating exactly what the game delivers. Brace yourselves, then, for a word that some may – unfairly, I believe – consider a nasty word:

Casual.

That’s right, I said it. Casual. At least to first appearances, Three Cards to Midnight is a much closer relative to the “hidden object” games than to any traditional adventure. But before anyone writes off the game as a lost cause sight unseen, let’s not lose sight of two things. First, casual games can be pretty freaking fun if you give them the chance. And two, this one’s made by Chris Jones and Aaron Conners. If these guys are dealing, you just know they’ve got a little something hidden up their sleeve. Which probably explains why, even while acknowledging the similarities to hidden object games, they themselves refer to the title as a “new hybrid style of game” that they’re calling a “Story Game”.

While the demo I played only teased at a much larger story yet to unfold, I can tell you that players assume the role of a young woman named Jess, who awakens in unknown surroundings with no memory of how or why she’s arrived at this place. She’s not alone, as an unidentified man is there to help her remember with the aid of Tarot cards. It’s a decided twist on the otherwise-overused “amnesiac protagonist” theme, as Jess knows who she is, and indeed her existing memories are key to rediscovering the missing pieces.

As play begins, images are shown to Jess that trigger particular thoughts through word association. These then form the basis of her ongoing task of finding other objects related to those words. To use the example of the demo’s tutorial, an image of her childhood home inspires a memory of its living room and the word “note”. A predetermined number of objects associated with that keyword are located in the image, and players will need to help her find them.

Here already is the first divergence from most seek-and-find games. Usually you’re given a list of items to look for and you simply try to spot them in insanely cluttered images, but in TCM the first task is to figure out what items are actually required. It’s a welcome puzzle element that adds an entirely new layer of strategy, but it does come with the caveat of demanding a firm grasp of English. While most people could piece together “love note” or “notebook” for themselves, some word connections seemed a stretch even to me.

Fortunately, there are hints available for when you’re stuck, though there are a limited number to get you through each level and an even more limited number of wrong answers you’re allowed. By finding correct items, you tally up points that eventually add more hints, but clicking on any incorrect objects costs you precious error points. The sequences are not timed, but run out of points and you’ll fail the task and are forced to start over from the beginning of that memory sequence. There seem to be no permanent repercussions for such failure, so it’s easy enough to try again, but the added hassle is certainly enough to prevent you from madly point-and-clicking on random objects instead of deducing things yourself.

To balance out the difficulty, the first-person screens you’ll spend the bulk of your time looking at aren’t crammed full of irrelevant items. Obviously there are enough to require a discerning eye, but where other hidden object games really do hide their objects, here everything is in plain sight. Any given item won’t necessarily be something you need, but you’ll certainly have no problem seeing it. Identifying it is a whole other matter, however. The graphics are certainly functional, but not overly crisp, and there will undoubtedly be times where you’re not sure what you’re looking at. There is no way to zoom in or change the angle for a better view, and naturally (as it would defeat the purpose of word association) there are no hotspot subtitles. It’s at these times where you may resent the mistake points, as you’re forced to ignorantly click on something unknown in the hopes that it’s an item you need. For the most part, however, the images are clear enough to inspire many “aha!” moments.

Each stage can be fairly lengthy, with up to four different keywords and a varying number of required objects for each (three keywords and seven to thirteen items in the segment I played). You can freely switch between keywords, but all the items you need are on the same screen. Completing each keyword in its entirety will introduce the next memory sequence, and if early experience is any indication, it’s a payoff well worth pursuing.

It’s here that there are no surprises, as Conners and Jones have always excelled at the storytelling element in their games, and Three Cards to Midnight appears to be no exception. While presented this time with modest cinematics, the scattered memory cutscenes generate instant intrigue. The recollections aren’t sequential, or even apparently connected at first, either to Jess or the player, but this only adds to the sense of mystery. What happened to Jess that’s so traumatic that she blocked these memories out, and what will happen to her when she remembers? I don’t know yet, but I certainly want to find out now that I’ve seen the first few scattered pieces, whether an overheard conversation between concerned parents or a wickedly threatening phone message, all of which is fully voiced with quality acting.

Of course, there may not be only one answer to those questions, as the game offers multiple endings. According to Aaron Conners, the outcome you get will depend on such criteria as how skillfully you handle your tasks and how much attention you pay to the story details, plus a final choice of strategy. As the early sampler left me a long way from the end, I didn’t get to see these variations personally, but their presence certainly attests to the degree of emphasis given to the storyline throughout.

The demo also included a standalone puzzle that’s related thematically but not directly integrated into the game. Each of the game’s eight chapters will feature one of these, which serve to tie together the various elements of that level and, once solved, unlock even more of the backstory. The crossword-style puzzle I encountered was only accessible through the main menu, where you could also choose to play the regular game in “Entertainment” or “Challenge” mode, an option that Tex fans should remember. The differences I saw were minimal, mind you, with less margin for error in the harder version and a slight variation of objects to discover.

It’s hard to say exactly how Three Cards to Midnight will be received by adventure fans. There’s liable to be at least a certain amount of disappointment, at least at first. Bad enough not to be getting a new Tex adventure, but no traditional adventure at all? It’s an inevitable response, and one that Conners and Jones themselves anticipate to an extent. But hopefully people will look a little further, because with the right expectations there’s fun to be found in the better casual games. And as a “story game” by developers who know how to do story as well as anyone, there’s plenty of reason to think that Three Cards to Midnight will be able to follow through on its early promise.

 

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