Santa Fe Mysteries

Santa Fe Mysteries is a series of two adventure video games entitled The Elk Moon Murder (1996) and Sacred Ground (1997).

Gameplay

The series consists of full motion video adventure games, which use a point-and-click interface. The player has 5 days to solve the mystery, and 8 hours in each day; certain actions use up a portion of their time. The player must "listen to the usual suspects, order forensics and shoot photos", and create an arrest warrant by the end of the game.^[1][2]

Plot

In The Elk Moon Murder, a famous Native American artist named Anna Elk Moon is murdered in the American South West. In Sacred Ground, the wife of a local business man named Randa Tasker is kidnapped.

Development

The original concept was co-created by Shannon Gilligan, developer of the Virtual Murder series, and Sam Egan, one of the writers of Northern Exposure.^[3]

Programmer In Black wrote "I find it a pity that the game series didn't continue."^[4]

Critical reception

The Elk Moon Murder

The game received mixed to positive reviews. Allgame found the game thrilling and enjoyed its strategic elements.^[5] MacGamer thought the game was too short in length and too sparse of interactive options.^[6] Though Just Adventure concluded that the game was crafted well, they also thought its lack of puzzles made it less of an adventure game.^[7] Adventure Classic Gaming negatively compared the game to the "equally uninspiring Virtual Murder series" as a whodunit adventure, and the Police Quest series as a police procedural adventure simulation.^[8] Programmer in Black recommended Under a Killing Moon, The Pandora Directive, The Dame Was Loaded, The Broken Sword, and Gabriel Knight as games with similar detective story elements.^[9] PC World said the game is a "classic whodunnit with clever scripting and fine acting".^[10] Just Adventure noted that the game was interesting, albeit a bit too complicated, especially at the beginning.^[11] Coming Soon Magazine complimented the graphics, sounds, storyline, and reasonable price, while responding negatively to the rambling dialogue from suspects.^[12]

Sacred Ground

The game received reviews ranging from negative to positive. JustAdventure thought the game was a "slight improvement" over The Elk Moon Murders, while noting "[it] is not entirely easy to classify - somewhere between an interactive movie and an adventure game".^[13] In a 2001 retrospective, Programmer In Black wrote "For an older game, the game play here holds up well."^[4] Just Adventure said "There is one thing that [the game] absolutely, positively isn't: unique".^[14]

References