Revisiting a recreation sequence out of your youth is like exploring the basement in your childhood dwelling. As you sift by way of the bins and cabinets, previous recollections come flooding again — which is precisely what occurred as I began enjoying Carmen Sandiego, the most recent recreation in a multimedia sequence that spans 4 a long time. When the grasp thief appeared onscreen in her iconic trenchcoat and fedora, I used to be eight years previous once more, my face inches from a pc display screen as I used my nascent information of math, geography, and historical past to resolve Carmen’s newest caper. 40 years later, Carmen Sandiego provides me that very same thrill of fixing puzzles by amassing clues, even when a few of the trendy additions to the visible novel-esque interface miss their mark.
As a former youngster gumshoe whose grasp of geography was gleaned from monitoring down the world’s worst criminals as they scurried across the globe, I used to be greater than able to revisit the Carmen Sandiego-verse with the discharge of this eponymous new journey from Gameloft. Though it takes some story cues from the animated Netflix sequence that wrapped up in 2021 — and emulates its cartoony visible type — it’s not essential to know something about Carmen’s backstory with the evil group VILE to get pleasure from her newest quest. Significantly, that is the primary time within the long-running sequence that gamers get to step into Carmen’s footwear and don her well-known fedora, but it surely doesn’t make an actual distinction to the crook-hunting method.
While the sequence obtained its begin as an edutainment recreation, trendy Carmen Sandiego is a mixture of puzzle-solving, quick-time occasions, a splash of third-person top-down exploration, and (in fact!) the occasional trivia query. In some methods, the newer parts make the world really feel larger and extra thrilling than its early DOS iterations; there’s extra to do than merely click on on icons representing key places, parse by way of dialogue, and reply questions that wouldn’t be misplaced on a fifth-grade closing examination. That stated, I wouldn’t have missed new actions like hang-gliding and grappling from rooftop to rooftop in the event that they weren’t included.
As you observe VILE thieves from one nation to the subsequent, you’ll want to gather two sorts of clues: those who assist them determine the place to go subsequent, and those who assist slim down the listing of suspects within the ACME detective company’s database. In the ’80s and ’90s, Carmen Sandiego video games relied on bodily almanacs stuffed with geographical and historic details to assist reply the in-game trivia questions and determine what their clues meant. This time round, all of that info is saved inside the recreation itself.
Throughout the marketing campaign, you’ll discover items of information like airport codes, exports, nationwide languages, authorities buildings, and extra. This self-built almanac turns out to be useful whenever you’re on a VILE villain’s tail and have to determine what to do subsequent. Typically, you’ll have a handful of clues to go by — a coloration or sample on the flag, the spoken language, or whether or not residents drive on the left or proper facet of the highway. You’ll use these clues to find out your subsequent metropolis from three offered selections.
Similarly, you’ll use private info to slim down the legal behind every caper. The reimagined ACME Database makes this course of easy and streamlined; you may simply filter out suspects based mostly on particulars about their hair and eye colours, hobbies, favourite meals, and fears. It’s fairly satisfying to whittle down an inventory of 30-something suspects till there’s just one remaining and problem a warrant for his or her arrest. Just be sure to have the precise particular person, in any other case it’s recreation over for Carmen (and time to begin over for you).
Clues are discovered by exploring key spots all through a wide range of unique places across the globe, from New Orleans to Barcelona to Singapore to Brisbane, with a couple of stops in between. This is much like how the early video games labored, however there’s a bit extra room for exploration and making selections this time round. In some locations, Carmen will get to wander round, query a number of witnesses, and hunt down native trivia that would come in useful later. You don’t get to decide on which actions occur during which location, however there’s extra motion concerned than there was.
Every case has a number of chapters with particular person heists related by an overarching villain. The instances begin out on the scene of the crime, whether or not that crime is the theft of a Japanese bullet prepare, or the alternative of a metropolis’s free Wi-Fi hotspots with paid “Vi-Fi” variations. In every metropolis, you may go to three places to gather clues that convey you one step nearer to fixing the case.
Here’s the way it works in observe: As you go to every of the in-city landmarks and districts, corresponding to Singapore’s Merlion statue, or a viking-themed museum in Reykjavik, you’ll want to finish pre-determined actions to uncover that location’s clues. Sometimes, meaning strolling round and questioning suspects and witnesses, usually selecting up some geographical enjoyable details alongside the best way. Other occasions, you’ll have to finish a hacking or lock-picking puzzle or use Carmen’s dangle glider or grappling hook.
Some of those gameplay parts are extra enjoyable than others. Completing puzzles to hack safes or enhance wi-fi alerts was satisfying, however the extra bodily actions are totally on rails and never significantly thrilling. I’ve a selected beef with the grappling hook mini-game, which requires a easy button press as icons align in your display screen. The drawback is, these icons generally transfer erratically, so grappling is both means too easy or frustratingly obtuse. There’s additionally a hang-gliding exercise that’s completely… advantageous, however I’d moderately have fewer gameplay parts which might be extra fleshed out than some compelled motion that seems like filler. I’d have been completely proud of extra brain-teasers as a substitute.
Though not as unforgiving because the 1985 iteration, it’s potential to fail instances in Carmen Sandiego. The clock is at all times ticking. You sometimes have 5 or seven days to resolve every case, and your whole actions take time — as does flying from one metropolis to the subsequent. If you missed a vital clue and ended up flying to Singapore whenever you’re alleged to be in Buenos Aires, you simply wasted 11 hours. If you run out of time, the thief will get away and it’s a must to begin the case over. However, I by no means actually felt the time crunch in the principle marketing campaign; I sometimes had at the least a day left over, if not a number of.
There are different methods to fail instances in Carmen Sandiego, and these represented extra of a menace in my playthrough. If you’re pickpocketing a VILE lackey and get seen, you’ve simply missed out on a key piece of proof. Missing one clue gained’t blow your case, however try this a couple of occasions and also you gained’t have sufficient info to make an arrest. Most of the time, I might pinpoint the precise second once I blew it — I used to be too gradual when following a mark, I didn’t pay shut sufficient consideration to actions that required exact button presses. Other occasions, I discovered myself on the finish with a number of suspects nonetheless in my database and no concept the place I missed a clue.
Though I did make some errors, the principle marketing campaign isn’t precisely what I’d name difficult. But contemplating the sequence’ historical past as a kids’s instructional useful resource, I might not be the target market. I might see dad and mom and youngsters enjoying by way of Carmen Sandiego collectively and having a good time as kids construct vital considering expertise and oldsters brush up on elementary-school geography. And although it’s on the easier facet, Carmen Sandiego by no means feels dumbed down.
For my fellow olds on the lookout for extra of a problem, you’re in luck. Aside from the principle marketing campaign, you may discover the ACME Files for what we’re informed are chilly instances relationship again to the ’80s. These instances have adopted the fashionable programs for filtering out suspects and jetting all over the world, however they’re offered in a retro, pixel artwork type — and injected with questions that may make you are feeling such as you’re again in class and your trainer simply slapped a pop quiz in your desk. Quick, what’s the most important island within the Caribbean? Which nation was the most important producer of wheat and rice again in 1985? What’s 4x13x80? (Thankfully, regardless of what my lecturers informed me, I do have a calculator in my pocket in every single place I am going.)
The ACME Files use a simplified interface that made me really feel like I used to be again in entrance of my household laptop within the early ’90s frantically paging by way of a bodily guide to search out the solutions. This time round, Google was my almanac. That would possibly make the retro instances appear simpler than these of the marketing campaign, however they’re truly harder, significantly the time crunch. I truly did run out of time within the ACME Files, and watching these previous couple of hours tick away stuffed me with a willpower to do it higher subsequent time. Overall, these instances are a wise addition that add selection to the expertise and supply some comforting fan service.
The historic instances pull from the identical listing of cities as the principle marketing campaign, and it’s just a few hours earlier than you’ve seen in every single place on this planet that Carmen Sandiego can go to. I’m unsure why they couldn’t have expanded her international attain in the principle marketing campaign, but it surely ends in each surroundings feeling a bit repetitive after some time. Still, there are sometimes new details to search out upon revisiting, so each metropolis is at all times price one other look.
Maybe it’s the nostalgia goggles, however none of those shortcomings bothered me sufficient to make me wish to cease enjoying. Each chapter is paced rather well, so it at all times feels such as you’re making progress. I like video games that make you suppose your means out of issues, and for essentially the most half, that’s precisely what Carmen Sandiego calls for of the participant.
It’s a disgrace, nonetheless, that the marketing campaign ends moderately abruptly. There’s one other caper coming in a free DLC launch later this yr, but it surely was jarring to gear up for the ultimate thriller and see “Coming Soon” within the menu of a accomplished, publicly launched recreation. The story doesn’t really feel prefer it’s reached a pure conclusion but, however there’s nonetheless 15 hours of content material between the marketing campaign and the ACME Files — much more if you happen to full the entire chilly instances from means again when. After my preliminary confusion, I took this as a chance to discover extra previous instances and await the day once I can full Carmen’s journey.
