| In Post Mortem, you're Gus MacPherson, an American private eye turned painter in the Paris of the Roaring '20s. The opening movie sequence takes you to the crime scene, where a beautiful couple is surprised inflagrante delicto and decapitated. After that grisly scene at the upscale Hotel Orphée, the mysterious Sophia Blake enters your life. Looking like Lara Flynn Boyle with Rosie O'Donnell's new haircut, Sophia uses her charm and a tidy sum of cash to persuade you to take the case and find the killer of the well-to-do Whytes. Thus begins a gripping murder mystery that puts you right in the middle of the action. Post Mortem lets you click your way through the dark and stormy streets of Paris as you attempt to track the killer.
I've got a pretty basic PC, and I was pleased with the relatively quick install time and simple game instructions. As MacPherson, you travel to various locations throughout Paris and interview witnesses, all the while compiling evidence as to whodunit. When you start the game, only the Hotel Orphée and the police station are available for you to visit, but as you discover new information, more locations become available. The instruction booklet is very helpful in getting you started on your way, sending you right to the phone to get some help from back in New York. Then grab your sketchpad and camera and you are on your way.
Once you head out into the streets, you encounter all sorts of characters, from the talkative bartender at the Café to the drunken, red-nosed gendarme with a penchant for a bottle of red. With Sophia's cash in your pocket, you're left to your own devices as to how to get the most useful information out of these Parisians before they realize you're not who you say they are. Each time you meet a new person to interview (identified by a megaphone when you mouse over them), you're given several different choices as to what you want to say, each selectable with a simple mouse click. Depending on the initial question you ask, the witness reveals different information and their demeanor changes with the questions you ask. Beware, though. Once you choose an initial path of questioning, you can't go back and change your story, so choose your questions and cover story carefully.
The sound was very clear, and the conversations were both spoken and subtitled on the screen, all conversations are also saved in the In-Game menu for access later, so don't waste your time trying to transcribe them or take notes like I did for the first 20 minutes. It does you no good, and your hand can cramp up. While the conversations are chock full of information, there is a drawback. I started the game again once I asked all the wrong questions of the Orphée's night clerk, and the second time through I found myself wanting to skip through some of the tediously longer conversations, but I couldn't. There isn't a way to skip ahead in the conversation, at least no way that I discovered. Regardless, talking to the witnesses is the only way to make progress in the case and open new locations and witnesses.
The graphics in Post Mortem are terrific, especially in the movie sequences that accompany each new location. It's always dark here, and the permanent midnight really adds to the atmosphere of this dark game. The characters each come with their own set of quirky little movements, and while they're very well done, I did tire of seeing Gus fiddle with his glasses over and over and over. Perhaps they could have created a few more movements for him, seeing as he's in every scene?
Overall, Post Mortem is an interesting challenge for those of us raised on the multiple endings of "Choose Your Own Adventure" and "Clue." As Gus works his way through hotels and cafés, past the Eiffel Tower to hospitals and police stations, you're never quite sure where the case will take you, and what sort of shadiness awaits you. Pay attention, use the In-Game menu, and save often. Nothing is what it seems in Post Mortem. Or is it? | 
