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Experimental creation of the Dutch gaming industry - an "interactive film" in the very literal sense of the word. A film with this name can really be found in various catalogs and databases in the manner of IMDb, - in June 1997, Melher Hillmann, a student at the Netherlands Academy of Cinema and Television, defended it as a thesis, and a few months later VNU Interactive Media released this creation in the form of a kind of computer game. And not even the first director on the track who tried at that time to create his own genre at the junction of various arts - “spe (e) lfilms”, feature films, the main role of which would be assigned to the viewer, and the plot would be non-linear. "De Zaak van Sam", in which it was possible to control the actions of private detective Sam Phillips in a setting similar to the noir style; in his second work, Melher Hillmann went a little further along the same path, trying to give the player a little more freedom and not to force him to watch the same scenes over and over again. Alas, it is immediately worth noting that the revolution in art did not happen: enthusiastically welcomed by the few progressive critics and researchers of new forms of mass communication at the end of the 20th century, it very soon sunk into oblivion and remained almost unknown in the history of the gaming industry; In fairness, it should be noted that the same fate befell other experiments of this kind like the American "I'm Your Man", released on the screens of special interactive cinemas in 1992 and published on DVD-i six years later, a year after this creation by Hillmann. The protagonist's name is Harry Havink: a middle-aged police investigator, he reminds a little of the unforgettable Lieutenant Colombo, including his invariable cloak and some deliberate clumsiness; but the actor Theo Hogsteder, who plays this role, seems to haven’t acted in any other film (although among other artists there are names that are familiar to fans of Dutch television series). A certain pop star was killed - her name was Desiree - and, starting from examining the crime scene in the introductory fragment (not to say “clip”), we must solve this crime by talking with witnesses and suspects and analyzing evidence and evidence, - and then arrest the culprit and present all the evidence to the court. The manager of the late Charles, a colorful black musician Jimmy (it seems Desiree’s jealous rival on stage), Chantal, a disabled fan, and Margarita, a Cuban housekeeper (apparently not alien to voodoo magic), are four of our main suspects; fifth on the list of key witnesses is the photographer-paparazzi Geraldo. Performers play not only epochically, but quite well, and even with humor - just to be able to fully appreciate their work, good listening comprehension is required of the not-so-common Dutch language in the world. In the game there are not only other options for voice acting, but even subtitles (and this, alas, is a step backward compared to “De Zaak van Sam”, equipped with an optional text translation of all dialogues into English). A small menu of available actions is displayed by pressing the right mouse button: here you can skip the current video fragment (“video overslaan”), pause the movie (“video pauzeren”) and then continue (“video doorgaan”), and also arrest someone of the four suspects (of course, “arresteren”), start the investigation again (“herstarten film”) or log in (everything is clear, “stop”). At the same time, the first of the mentioned ways to influence the player on the behavior of Harry Hevink is duplicated with the left mouse button, but in order to be able to arrest someone, you will still have to try. From time to time various useful objects appear on the screen, and clicking on them (or, more precisely, anywhere on the screen at the moment when they are displayed there) means the protagonist is prompted to lines of behavior. For example, business cards, photographs, or files can be objects of interest - in particular, the same four suspects that Harry slowly and in turn takes a look at shortly after the start, sitting at his desk and waiting for us to order a visit to any of these noteworthy individuals. You can also give an order for arrest right in the game - in the corridor of the police station, where two of our combat officers are on duty, and who are burning with a desire to put handcuffs on someone. However, it is not at all recommended to rush into this business: if charged without sufficient evidence, the subsequent trial (of which we will naturally also be present) will easily justify the victim we have chosen - and we will witness in our own way a funny scene of how the young commissioner of police loudly yells at the guilty Harry Havink. Then the whole story automatically starts over again. We add that in various sources the total duration of video clips is indicated differently, from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, - in any case, the promised elements of non-linearity are really present here, so you can clear the game both in less time and for much more, given the high probability of investigation error. |
