Game Review: Jack The Ripper – Letters From Hell (PC, Mastertronic)

The budget PC software market used to be flooded with hidden object games. No matter who the publisher was, everyone wanted to release their own vast library of them and there was no shortage of developers lining up to add to the genre. Compared to other games, they were relatively easy to develop so it’s no wonder so many were produced in such a relatively short period of time, and it was only natural that Mastertronic would join in. We already looked at one of their other releases, Frankenstein: The Dismembered Bride but how does Jack The Ripper: Letters From Hell compare?

The Story Of Jack The Ripper

On first impressions looking at the front cover, you’re lead to believe that it’s a detective-themed hidden object game with you as the main suspect. But it’s not quite as exciting as that, and to be honest it’s somewhat misleading as to the real story and the direction that the game takes you in.

You take on the role of journalist (and I use that term lightly) John Bert. Always on the lookout for the next big news story, he decides to start doing his own investigation into the unsolved case of Jack The Ripper who had been terrorising London. After visiting some of the locations of his prior attacks and with little real evidence to develop a story that would excite his readers, he decides to do what any reputable journalist would do – fabricate a story and start to create fake letters from the Ripper and send them to the police…

Playing The Game

If you’ve played Frankenstein: The Dismembered Bride you’ll feel right at home here as Jack The Ripper: Letters From Hell is by the same developers and uses the same game engine at the heart of it. At each of the game’s locations you’re provided with a list of items that you need to find that are hidden within the picture. Some are easier to find than others, and others might rely on pure luck to find them!

Find everything and it will allow the story to progress and from here you’ll be able to use the map in your office to move to different locations around London (although this appears to be linear and guide where you can go), interact with the police, and solve puzzles along the way.

In Search Of A Killer

As you explore each location, some will reveal clues about Jack The Ripper which you will add to your notebook that you will need to refer to later in the game to solve puzzles, or to provide information when you get questioned by the police. In fact, you’ll encounter them regularly throughout the game as you quickly become a suspect yourself when they find the letters you have produced and they soon believe that you are in fact the killer, recognising your handwriting and you have to prove otherwise.

Puzzles Galore

In addition to the hidden object aspect of the gameplay, you have to solve a various array of puzzles during the game. These help to break up the repetitive nature of the gameplay although some can be far more frustrating than they need to be. One a number of occasions when you encounter the police you are quizzed about locations you have visited and have to rely on your memory and powers of observation about what you have seen (and hoping that details have been made in your notes about them!).

One of the more frustrating puzzles that you will encounter is when you find yourself revisiting a location you have previously been to. Once again the police turn up and ask you why all of the evidence you discovered (writing on the buildings in the location) has been removed. Despite taking a photo, you’re asked to try to restore it so you have to put everything back to how it was. Essentially this is a reverse of when you first found all of it and truthfully apart from a few obvious locations where you knew where the words were placed it’s a case of random clicking all over the screen and hoping for the best!

One of the most frustrating ones that you have to solve is where you have to construct a camera from parts that you find in an earlier scene. A shadow is displayed on screen along with one piece of the camera. Click on it and then you need to click on where it should be relative to where the shadow is. If you’ve got it right, the next piece of the camera appears. Get it in the wrong place and all the pieces you’ve already successfully positioned are removed and it’s back to the start.

With no hints as to where anything might go, it’s a combination of trial and error, memory and perseverance. You’ll get there in the end, but the journey doing it isn’t particularly enjoyable.

Hunter Or Hunted

What really lets the game down is the story itself. It has the potential to be an entertaining cat-and-mouse tale between you and the police, or an investigative adventure of you trying to unwrap the mystery of Jack The Ripper himself. Instead you seem to keep going around in circles between accusations/denial and a token effort of looking for clues about the Ripper with no real progress to learning anything about any of his crimes.

Frankly it all feels rather shallow, and the abrupt ending to the game that leaves the storyline in limbo with no real conclusion to anything that has taken part in the game at all. Essentially the game leaves you feeling unsatisfied and feeling that you had never bothered playing in the first place.

Short Term Appeal

Putting aside all of the minor gripes I had while playing this, or the frustrations with the visibility of some of the objects (yes, I know they’re meant to be hidden!), the biggest problem that I really had was that there’s no real longevity with Jack The Ripper: Letters From Hell. Even taking things at a very relaxed pace, coping with a few of the few truly frustrating puzzles in the game, capturing screenshots and having to spend time away from the PC dealing with some of my pets while this was still running I still completed it in under an hour.

There’s no real replay value here either as the only other game mode available is the Timed Mode and all this does is allow you to play the game all over again from the beginning with all the same puzzles, same items to discover but set against a very strict time limit. So strict infact that you need to know exactly where everything is before you start playing as there’s almost no margin for error.

Graphics and Sound

Obviously with a game like this, the visuals play an essential part in how the game plays from start to finish and truthfully I was rather disappointed. Rather than being illustrated like the rest of the game, the characters seemed to be CGI rendered and didn’t fit the look of the rest of the game. It may seem like I’m nit-picking there, but they just didn’t feel “right” against the rest of the graphics.

My biggest issue with Jack The Ripper: Letters From Hell was the main game though. Many of the locations have a washed-out or blurred look to them (and I’m sure that it’s not down to my eyesight!) and a lot of the objects are extremely difficult to make out. Again, this isn’t down to where they’re hidden, but more down to their design or the lack of detail on them. One of the locations for example has bank notes that you need to find which are on the floor, but to look at them it appears to be a small pile of plain paper. Other items are just as difficult to identify making the game harder to play than it needs to be.

Onto the sound and this is just as disappointing. All we get here is an instantly forgettable piece of music that plays throughout in the background and it’s something that you’d expect to hear in an elevator. While it’s supposed to be atmospheric, it does little to enhance the game in any way and it’s just “there”.

Overall

While it’s not my favourite genre, I actually do enjoy playing hidden object games so I was looking forward to playing Jack The Ripper: Letters From Hell. Unfortunately, it is plagued with issues from start to finish. Whether it’s the poor visibility of objects, overly frustrating puzzles or it’s brevity, there are too many things working against it for me to be able to recommend it to anyone beyond those who feel the need to own every hidden object game released or Mastertronic completists. Even the inclusion of the Mac version on the same disc can’t make up for this being a disappointing release.

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