Crime Time is a more or less classical 3rd person point-and-click adventure, with the major difference that you don't click on the graphics, but on controls below the graphics. Actions are done by clicking on words, as is movement.
The story is a classical mystery setting: two friends go hitchhiking, and since it's raining so bad, they rest in a small hotel. One of the two starts to drink till he's totally out of control. He stumbles into the wrong room, gets knocked out and wakes up next to a corpse. Now, you have to prove you didn't do anything.
I was really angry at my brother for selling his old Commodore 64 (I wanted it). I decided to buy one myself (And I bought it second hand - I still have it :) Along with the computer I got the disk drive and a bunch of games. A very intriguing one was Crime Time, although back then I always ended up in jail or worse.
Much later I got the PC version of the game (it fitted a single floppy and there was room to spare on it), yet I was still unable to finish the game.
Now as an experienced gamer I gave it another go and after saving a lot and reloading the game at various points (not to mention the use of a walkthrough - which I had to alter for it was not completely correct) I finally finished the game (see the last screenshot proves it).
Well the game isn't half bad. The sound is atmospheric, and it does enhance the feel of the game. The graphics are quite nice actually (but there's no animation). The interface is a very simple one so you'll get the hang of it quickly. There's a number of verbs you can select from in the middle, there's your inventory at the bottom right, the objects you can interact with are above the inventory and there's a compass on the left showing you only the directions you can go to.
If you wish to bring up the menu just right click. Now you can save and load the game (or exit if you had enough).
The thing that's really good about this game is its plot. You start in a stinking room of a sleazy hotel, with your friend on the bed (he's no friend at all - he won't help you one bit). There are some other guests at the hotel and they all look suspicious (except for the corpse - it's dead and once you see its room you'll definitely rule out suicide).
Other guests are the honey-mooners (who'd want to spend their honey moon in such a hotel), the high tech wiz from Japan (what's he doing here) and a world class chess player (yeah, like they'd be caught dead in a place like that). There are some other guests and off course the staff (but this isn't your regular the butler did it mystery, so the staff isn't suspicious - they are annoying however).
It seems that almost everybody you meet will be standing in your way and you'll need to be very careful. Remember that they are all just too eager to pin some crime on you, so you'll really need to watch your step.
Luckily your character has a really cynical view of life and has probably spent most of the life drunk (like any real P.I. would - well at least that's what I saw in movies), so there will be some comments that might make you giggle, laugh or throw up (depending on your own level of sensitivity).
All in all I give this game a 3. It's a game I always wanted to finish, but once I did it left me with an empty feeling. I liked solving it (although it was really hard without a walkthrough), but once I had the solutions the game didn't leave an impression on me (it actually seems really easy). I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to solve some quite difficult (and some fairly original) puzzles.
Yet another casualty of the "good idea, bad execution" syndrome, Crime Time has an interesting (if overused) plot: framed for a murder and trapped in a hotel with a friend, you must find the real killer and clear your name. The annoying interface (in which you cannot click on anything on the graphics screen and must select words from the menus), sub-par writing, and average puzzles make this a game that's not underrated by a wide margin .
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
People who downloaded Crime Time have also downloaded:
Countdown, Corruption, Crime City, Clue!, The (a.k.a. Der Clou!), Cruise for a Corpse, Commander Blood, Darkseed, Conquests of Camelot
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