Bela Kovacs and the Trail of Blood
Bela Kovacs may wear his sunglasses at night and waterfall exhale like a total bad ass (not that you should imitate him, smoking is bad, kids, don't do it), but for some reason the Budapest police department doesn't want him as a detective anymore. When his niece is viciously murdered, however, he's not going to let any power on earth stop him from catching her killer. Not even preternatural powers. In this film noir, photorealistic point-and-clicker from Hungarian studio Extropia Games, you'll need to collect evidence, and manipulate not only your environment but also the people you meet to get the clues you need. Bela Kovacs and the Trail of Blood sets up an intriguing story that will have mystery fans hoping for a sequel.
For the most part, you'll just need your mouse, but don't chuck your keyboard out the window because you will need it for a password at one point. Mostly what you'll be doing is clicking, aided by the fact that your cursor changes when you hover over something clickable. Click through cutscenes. Click on suspicious areas to investigate them and mark them as evidence. Click on objects in your inventory and use them in the scene, or combine them. Click to travel between scenes through marked exits. Click on people to talk with them. Click on dialogue choices to attempt to turn the conversation your way. Click on the blood stains. Click on the many, many blood stains.
Analysis: "You people know them well. The eyes gazing from the shadows. The claws scratching in the attic. The freaks under your bed, the spooks in your closet. Let me tell you a secret. They're all real." So begins the game. Aesthetics-wise, Bela Kovacs is pitch perfect. The English translation is fluid and natural, with only a few minor typos. I've played many games by native speakers that didn't have a tenth of the storytelling talent that the Bela Kovacs team displays. The plot could quite easily have become hokey, and lesser developers might have taken the easy way out and pushed everything over the top into parody. Instead, they went for a subdued but sustained creepiness. There are no jump scares, and the game isn't really horror per se, despite some scenes displaying more blood than I think the human body actually contains. Rather than going for scares, the game elicits the kind of base of spine revulsion we feel when we read about terrible murders in the newspapers.
The visuals back this up. The art of Bela Kovacs is a beautiful blend of photographs and sketchwork with a brooding industrial atmosphere, reminiscent of some of Mateusz Skutnik's works. Maybe there's something in the Eastern European air that turns out excellent point-and-click artistry. This oppressively dark atmosphere does make some objects hard to find, especially if you don't pan the camera sufficiently with your mouse. The developers made the right call in having the cursor change when you hover over a hotspot; otherwise the game would have been unfair. The lack of a hint button, especially in the nightclub scene, is a little frustrating.
As for the game play, it switches easily back and forth between discovery of evidence (similar to hidden object), code and puzzle solving (such as figuring out a password), and trial and error conversations where you attempt to wheedle people into giving you what you want. In a few places, the suspension of disbelief became a little difficult, like picking up all those bottles of UV paint that just happen to be lying around a nightclub while the suspect stares at you, apparently suspecting nothing. But for the most part it's easy to get engrossed in this fascinating tale of darkness, serial killing, revenge, curses, and the Old World.
Walkthrough Guide
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Bela Kovacs and the Trail of Blood Walkthrough
Chapter 1
Find 13 clues:
Fingerprints on mouse attached to laptop.
Wrist-watch on coffee table.
Empty glasses.
Bloody footprint on windowsill.
Blood stains on sofa.
Blood spatters on coffee-table next to ashtray.
Smashed bottle to the far left of the room.
The key in the door. Click above the smashed bottle.
The framed photograph of Anna and Kata on the floor.
The laptop.
The small basin in the bathroom.
Blood spatters on the wall, right side of the bathroom.
Body-shaped pool of blood in the shower recess.
Chapter 2
Conversation with Dia
In the conversation with Dia, select options 1, 2 and 2 again.
Office Investigation
Once inside the office, click on the fingerprint in the inventory and take it to the scanning machine on the left.
Click on the trashcan to retrieve a discarded note with a case-file number on it.
Click on the pile of documents above-right of the trashcan to retrieve some photographs with a date.
Click the general desk area to access the computer.
The first password is based on the first word that the inspector would see.
Check the noticeboard for words. The password changes every game, but is always one of the words on the noticeboard.
Enter the password into the computer, and find that a second password is required.
To find the password, play the hangman-style game by guessing letters.
This changes each game, but is always a female's name of five letters.
Once you've successfully hacked into the database, click on the fingerprint icon to get the case-file number.
PM750816
Click on the Case File database icon, in the middle, and enter the case-file number to get a name.
Bogdan
Click on the Press Files database icon, on the right and enter the name.
Select the date that is closest to the date in the brown enevelope of photographs in your inventory.
This may change each time you play, but for me it didn't. The date in the photographs is 16th August 1975. In the database, I had to select 1975.08.17.
Click through the dialogue, and Molnar will enter the office.
Conversation with Molnar
Select options 1,1,1,2 and then 2.
Chapter 3
Conversation with the tenant
Each time I've played this it's just been a matter of clicking through the dialogue. There doesn't seem to be a right or wrong way.
Inside the factory
Find 10 clues:
Diary on the bed-clothes.
Alarm clock on the chair.
The handbag and orange scarf.
The remains of the fire on the ground. There's also a photo to be pieced back together here.
The window with peeling black paint at the back of the factory.
The blood-stained hacksaw, lower left of the screen.
Anti-coagulant medication on the metal barrel, center screen.
Garbage bag on top of crate, on the left.
Blood-filled plastic bottle, very far left of the screen.
Blood-splatter on the ground near the fireplace.
Chapter 4
Talk to the female behind the bar, then examine the bar to locate:
5 bottles of UV paint:
Near the head of the guy who's passed out on the table.
One just right of Lili's boot.
One to the very far right of the screen, past Bogdan.
Near the stage on a large box, a little to the left of Bogdan.
In the second toilet stall of the bathroom.
10 cocktails:
To the very far right of the screen, past Bogdan.
Just behind Bogdan's elbow.
Just left of Bogdan on the empty table closest to you.
On the empty table in front of the stage.
Highball glass on the stage.
Just left of Lili.
Under the drunk guy's arm.
Behind the chair at the drunk guy's table.
On the bar near the cocktail shaker.
On the empty table, very far left.
Vodka:
In the lap of the drunk guy passed out in the bathroom.
Tomato Juice:
In the conversation with the DJ, select options 1,2 and then 2.
Shaker and Worcesteshire Sauce:
Take the toilet roll from the cistern above the drunk guy's head and put it in the toilet in the second stall.
Head back out and talk to the female bartender, and she'll leave to fix the clogged toilet.
Click on the shaker to take it, then click on the bar to read the recipe. The Worcesteshire sauce is the big bottle in the receipe close-sup, so click on it to take it.
Combine the ingredients according to the recipe, by clicking on each one and moving it to the shaker in the inventory.
Add the UV paint last.
Use the shaker on Lili, and she'll take it to Bogdan and spill it on him.
Chapter 5
First find some items:
Cable, in the middle of the screen.
Can of adhesive, to the left.
Ragged scarf, above the homeless man's head.
Blanket, above the can of adhesive. You'll have to persuade the homeless man to give it to you.
Conversation with the Homeless Man
Select options 1, 1 and 2.
Use the blanket on the barbed-wire fence, to climb over it.
Scan right and click on the cigarette packet on the ground to get a lighter.
Take the newspaper and the metal pipe next to the door.
Use the newspaper on the adhesive in your inventory and then use on the glass pane of the door.
Use the metal pipe on the newspaper.
Insidet the factory, click on the sheets of cardboard on the ground.
Just to the left is a bottle of fuel. Add it to your inventory and then use it on the ragged scarf.
Use the fuel-soaked scarf on the metal pipe, and then use the lighter on them.
Click on the torch and throw it into the pit.
Use the cable on the pit.
The Combination Keypad
The solution will only ever have the numbers 1,5 & 7 in it.
The combination changes each time you play.
There are only 3 chances before you get booted out of the puzzle.
To start with try punching in 7777 and see where the gaps are.
Fill the gaps by punching in 1 or 5.
Click through the final showdown with Bogdan
Posted by: Chiktionary
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April 14, 2011 12:14 AM