On the surface, Lamplight City is a great place – the Gateway to Vespuccia, the City of Air and Light, and so on. On the surface. Do a bit of digging, however, and you’ll discover a town riddled with crime, poverty and quite likely… any manner of political troubles. Basically, a town plunged deep into chaos; much like the life of one PI, Miles Fordham, the murder of his former partner still unsolved, still haunting him. Time to fix that.
While the prior project from one-man studio Grundislav Games, A Golden Wake (remember?), is not exactly a detective tale – unlike Lamplight City – Francisco González is certainly no stranger to such point-and-click adventures. He did, after all, release no less than eight Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator titles, and while this is likely not going to feature supernatural elements, it is set in a steampunk-ish world. One which resembles ours in many ways, back in the early 19th century, gritty, dark streets and all. A bit Victorian, as it were.
As for how you go about navigating said streets, who you choose to trust, how you go about gathering information – that is largely up to you, the player, in the shoes of Miles Fordham. Just remember that actions have consequences, and in this case, pissing off the wrong person can have a dire impact on the entire case; perhaps even the entire world? Well, probably not, but there is a lot to see and do here, what with five cases to solve… or try, at least. See, much like in the real world, there are no guarantees for this particular detective’s work. No promise of success.
But with his former partner constantly speaking to him from beyond the grave, his grip on sanity is slowly loosening. Can Miles find justice for his clients and track down his partner’s killer before his entire world comes apart?
Because of this, and the fact that you’ll never be truly stumped in a dead-end, I suspect the game will spin quite the web of intricacy, lies, false leads, and eventually, different outcomes. Perhaps this even adds a fair amount of replay value? Hard to say, but one thing is certain: there’s a killer out there attempting to flee the long arm of justice, and you’re the only one who can stop him. Or her.
Either way, someone committed a crime and that someone has to be caught. By any means necessary. Law not working out for you? Break it. Suspect not talking? Break their arm. Building with potentially vital information all locked up? Break in. Just remember that your actions will all have consequences, in some form or other. Next stop, Lamplight City.
Lamplight City is available from Steam, GOG.com, Humble Store and WinGameStore, carrying a $14.99 price tag.
(Update: 10/9-23 Fixed broken links.)
