BLACK DAHLIA

The infamous unsolved murder of the aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, dubbed the Black Dahlia, has become one of Hollywood's biggest true-life stories. Over forty years after the tragic death, Take 2 has taken the mystery and mixed it with mythology to create an epic FMV adventure.

Made by the same team as Ripper, Black Dahlia was released at the tail end of the FMV craze in 1998. People were beginning to get savvy to their apparent lack of quality in both the film production and gameplay. Black Dahlia is one of the better efforts, but after a strong start, it quickly lapses into laziness in both its story and puzzles.

You play as Jim Pearson, a new recruit to the Office of the Coordinator of Information (the COI) in Cleveland. It's 1941 and, with the world at war, paranoia surrounding the Nazi spy next door is high. It's your job to root them out. But this is also the time when the real-life Cleveland Torso Killer was terrorising the city. The two cases intertwine with the Thule Society, a German occult group founded after World War I, and events quickly escalate into fantastical Indiana Jones territory.

The puzzles often devolve into the jigsaw variety. Don't complete the diamond puzzle (right) until you 
need it. There's a bug that will render the game unwinnable if you do.

The gameplay is traditional for a first-person point-and-click adventure. Locations can be searched in full 360 degrees with hotpots zooming you in on points of interest. There isn't much in the way of exploration beyond individual rooms, so in that respect, the game feels quite claustrophobic and contained. It's a testament to the storytelling that the game still feels epic and on a grand scale.

You do have some familiar tools to aid you through the adventure which are accessed by right-clicking or pressing ESC. First, there's your inventory which allows you to look at items in finer detail. You may find additional clues or items if you inspect them more closely, but to use them you simply need to click on the icon while in the correct location. The map is your quick travel and is necessary to get out of some areas where the door is inaccessible. Photos of the locations will be added or removed depending on what you've accomplished. The last tool - outside of the standard game functions - is a notepad which is completely controlled by the user. Only certain clues will automatically show up and it's not entirely clear which ones won't. In any case, you'll need to pay attention no matter what. Or you can jot down any kind of vulgarity you want.

The puzzles are often well designed, at least to begin with. They are completely diegetic to the plot in the first half too, with items hidden in other items and passwords trapped behind codes. You'll need some basic cryptology skills is some cases too, making the in-game free-typed notepad - or a real-world paper one on standby - a must. These can be incredibly fun to figure out, even if scrolling through phonebooks and Nazi watch lists seem daunting. Remember, if you have heard of a name within the game before, chances are it's important.

Unfortunately, these clever puzzles devolve into the standard sliding puzzles and jigsaws with more frequency as the game goes on. It gets to the point where it's no longer amusing. It's as if the designer's creativity ran out halfway through. The same could be said for the story too. Those with any knowledge of the Black Dahlia case will know that Elizabeth Short was murdered in 1947, six years after the events of the beginning of the game. This is because the Black Dahlia of the title is not about the tragic death of an actress, but a mystical gemstone used in occult rituals. There is a time jump later and we do have a role in the famous case, but much like the Cleveland Torso Murders, it's little more than window dressing.

Some puzzles will ask you to call on your maths skills or decode hidden messages. Some will even 
require a bit of research making you a true investigator.

The game spans eight CDs - to my knowledge, the single largest game at that time - and each CD is packed full of video. Considering the reputation for FMV games, the acting and production quality is pretty damn good, though the declaration that it stars Dennis Hopper is a bit misleading. His role is that of your disgraced predecessor and has a very minor impact on the overall story. It will be several CDs before you get to meet him too no doubt disappointing several gamers at the time. That being said, the unknown actors we'll be seeing more of do a great job.

I was incredibly engrossed with the first half of Black Dahlia, making a mental note that this could be a forgotten masterpiece of interactive fiction, but as I kept playing, that line of thinking gradually disappeared. Instead, we have a decent adventure with top-notch production values and an entertaining B-Movie plot. The moniker of Forgotten Masterpiece may be out, but Hidden Gem is certainly applicable. Well worth your time.


To download the game, follow the link below. This exclusive installer uses PCem running Windows '95. Press Ctrl-Alt-PgDown to toggle fullscreen. Press Ctrl-End or middle mouse button to release the mouse. Tested on Windows 10.

  20.05.2018 - Version 2 -  Now uses PCEm to emulate Windows '95.

                                          Added autorun and custom background within Windows '95.

                                          Fixed an installer compile error which prevents multi CDs being recognised.

                                          Patched game to official version 1.10. This adds the following:

                                                A workaround for the gem/rune puzzle bug (type 'reset' within the puzzle's screen to reset it).

                                                Subtitle support. Within Windows '95 edit C:\BDAHLIA\BD.ini and set Subtitles to 1.

IMPORTANT - Remember to shut down the emulated version of Windows before exiting PCem. This could potentially result in errors, lost saves and corrupt data. Close the program only when it is safe to do so.

File Size: 4.77 Gb.  Install Size: 5.25 Gb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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Black Dahlia is © Take 2 Interactive
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

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