Dr. Doyle and the Mystery of the Cloche Hat

a First Look by flotsam




According to Wikipedia, a cloche hat is "a fitted, bell-shaped hat for women that was invented in 1908 by milliner Caroline Reboux. They were especially popular from about 1922 to 1933. Its name is derived from cloche, the French word for 'bell'". I tell you that because I had no idea until I looked it up.

Dr Doyle is an inquisitive man, poking his nose into a number of break-ins in the hamlet of Prescott Lane in Dover in the year 1923. Nothing is missing, at least that is how it appears at first. Curious indeed.

Forty minutes in and it's point and click simplicity. It's a flat, still, styised 2D world, one in which the characters speak in warbling gibberish and you read what it is they say. Within that environment, Dr Doyle shambles about, asking questions and gathering clues, and deciding how it is he will approach certain conversations. The space bar highlights the hotspots and scene exits, and while Dr Doyle isn't the fastest shambler, double clicking an exit will jump him there.

So far so good (although don't read some descriptions if you don't want to know what comes next).