Déjà Vu: a nightmare comes true casts you back to war time America, Pearl Harbor is headline news, gangsters are five a penny and trench coats are a must for any self respecting private detective. Faced with a blood drenched body, a smoking gun and a severe case of amnesia, could you have committed the worst of crimes? You need to unravel the mystery, and fast, time is running out!
The point and click format can take some getting used to, but once you realize you can “open” your trench coat to access its pockets the windowed interface allows you to neatly organize your inventory which can help you to piece together clues from what you have collected.
Unlike most other games in its genre, Déjà Vu can’t be solved by systematically clicking on items until something happens, it requires logical thinking coupled with a detective’s instinct. Without giving too much away, you’ll need to follow the story and link the clues scattered throughout the game to piece together the solution. What really sets this game apart from the rest of the field is its intense atmospheric feel. Even though graphically this game could be stronger, the accompanying text and carefully constructed plot that could have been taken straight out of a classic gangster movie, more than make up for it.
At times the game can appear a little frustrating, you can be killed in a whole multitude of ways,
and you can run out of options when, for example, you run out of money, but there are ways of avoiding all these eventualities so long as you’re clever enough to deduce a solution, although you may need to have several attempts so, as always, save often!
There are many useless items that can be collected during your travels which need to be sifted through to seek out the true “evidence”, another clever quirk to prevent you stumbling through the game haphazardly. Fortunately the game makers had a sense of humor, and if you feel have time between muggings and various attempts on your life, playing around with the interface can result in a few gems, particularly when attempting to “consume” excess items from your inventory or smashing anything smash-able to help vent some frustration if ever your stuck!.
Watch out for Déjà Vu II: lost in Las Vegas, unlike many sequels, this one is possibly even better than the first, in looks if nothing else and you’ll appreciate it all the more for playing the first one. The story starts where you left off, you will revisit many of your old haunts and it wouldn’t be Déjà Vu if you weren’t mixed up with the mob again!
As with many of these games there are plenty of walkthrough’s online, but if you really want to get the most out of this game, don your thinking cap, look through your inventory, piece together the clues and deduce your way through, one tip though, contrary to popular belief in Déjà Vu violence often does pay, particularly since you seem to have one hell of a left hook!
