Still Life (video game)

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Still Life

Developer(s)	MC2-Microïds
Publisher(s)	^EU MC2-Microïds ^NA The Adventure Company
Release date(s)	^NA April 15, 2005 (WIN) ^EU June 3, 2005 (WIN), (Xbox) ^NA June 6, 2005 (Xbox)
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: M (Mature) USK: 16+ PEGI: 18+
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Xbox
Media	2 CD-ROMs (WIN) 1 DVD (Xbox)
System requirements	800 MHz Intel Pentium CPU, 128 MB RAM, 32 MB video card RAM, 16X CD-ROM drive, DirectX 8.1b, 600 MB available hard disk space, Windows 98 (WIN)
Input	Keyboard, mouse or Game controller

Still Life is a 2005 computer adventure game by MC2-Microïds.

While not sharing its name, Still Life is a sequel to Post Mortem. The story revolves around private investigator Gustav McPherson in the late 1920s Prague and FBI Special Agent Victoria McPherson (Gus' grandchild) in the near future Chicago, and their task to hunt down what seems to be the same ritualistic, and beastly, serial killer, more than seventy years apart.

The game focuses around Victoria's journey to link the murders and mutilations of prostitutes in 1920s Prague to the similar murders of mistresses working at an S&M club named "Red Lantern" during Victoria's time period.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The game's main nemesis is a man clad in a dark cloak, top-hat and a silver mask and is encountered by both Gus McPherson and Victoria. Victoria's serial killer identity is never shown, and later it is discovered that after the final stuggle between them the body is not found by the Chicago police.

In Gus' time period it is revealed that the murderer is an artist named Mark Ackermann and that he is the son of an American ambassador to (then) Czechoslovakia. Later in Victoria's investigation it is actually found that the killer made a painting depicting Gustave struggling underneath his fiancee Ida amongst others that document his abusive and often disturbing life.

The storytelling device of switching back and forth between two player characters is highly reminiscent of such games as Gabriel Knight and Day of the Tentacle.

A major theme throughout the game is art, especially the technique of still life that the game is named after.

A controversy surrounding the game is its lack of an ending. Originally planned as the second of a trilogy, with Post Mortem as the first, Still life ends without revealing the villain, setting up for a finalé which was never made as Microids (Canada), who developed the game was bought out by Ubisoft.