Basing a choice-based narrative game on a classic mystery movie is a solid choice, especially when it is different enough to be its own story. That’s what we got when Microids launched Pendulo Studios’ title Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo, which was recently brought over to console. As a port, this game feels and looks very similar to how the original release did when it came in in December 2021, so let’s focus on whether it is a mystery narrative worth experiencing.

Story

After coming out unscathed from a car crash into Brody Canyon, California, protagonist Ed Miller, a writer facing writer’s block and memory issues, is left with concern for his lost love and a crippling case of vertigo. Problem is, no one was found inside the car wreckage, yet Ed insists that he was traveling with his wife and daughter. Soon after the incident, Ed begins therapy - enthusiastically - to dive into his memories and try to uncover what really happened on that tragic day.

Gameplay

As a choice-based narrative, this game is pretty straightforward. Most of the time, you will be listening through scenes of dialogue between characters and making choices for one character’s part of the conversation that moves the dialogue in a specific manner. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be anything more than deciding the energy and responses of the conversation as there only seems to be one ending to the game.

When you aren’t just picking dialogue pieces, you will be in segments where you can travel around an area. Whether this is a memory segment from the therapy or a different character’s actions while everything is going on, the controls and interactions are the same. You will be able to walk around and interact with various things - some being useful and others not so much. This continues until you find key items or events that proceed the story forward.

If it was a memory segment, they are usually followed up by a focused dive where you go back into specific moments in the memory to find clues and details that could have been overlooked. This could be a number of different things, such as a specific date for when it took place.

As for interactions with different things in the environments, this could simply be pressing a button on the controller or moving an analog stick in a specific direction. There are indicators that pop up on the screen, so you can just follow the prompts.

Audio and Visual

Unless there was a moment going on in the dialogue or story itself, the music was typically soft background music. The voice work is pretty well done though, so a lot of times you don’t notice the music, but it does well to fill the silence between dialogue-filled scenes.

As for the game’s aesthetic aspect, I didn’t care for it much. Everything in the game is graphically only a grade or few above claymation. I don’t see why they went with this art style when they had a world of options to choose from and some scenes that would have been great if developed with proper graphical quality.

Replayability

As it is a mystery narrative, once you know the truth behind the events there isn’t much reason to pull you in for another playthrough of the game.

What It Could Have Done Better

Since they developed a game with only some general gameplay controls, I don’t see why they didn’t put more effort into the graphical quality of the game. It would have been nice to see the game at a well enough graphical level that the scenes on the beach provided a few waves at the least.

What’s the point of making a choice-based game if there is only going to be one ending? The choices should lead to failures and different endings, but after I beat the game I went searching for different endings and there weren’t any to be found. So, were all the choices I made just to give the character’s dialogue and actions a little more of a personal touch?

Verdict

Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo is a narrative game with an excellent mystery story behind it! I really enjoyed getting to the bottom of what really happened and going through the various twists the game sends you down. However, there is quite a bit of the games bulk that left more to be desired. Namely the two aspects I mentioned above; meaningful choices and better graphical quality. With that being such a major part of the game, I can only put my positive points behind the story itself.

Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo is now available on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.