Black Dahlia

1998

point-and-click
adventure
horror
thriller
single player

The story

Black Dahlia is a suspense thriller based loosely on the unsolved California murder of Elizabeth Short, nicknamed "Black Dahlia" for her favoritism towards black clothing. The game is a point-and-click puzzle-solving adventure with live action cutscenes. Full 360 degree horizontal and limited vertical panning allow the player to scan each scene with the mouse. Jim's in-game notebook acts as a journal as it records everything of importance that he has examined. Black Dahlia has over sixty puzzles dispersed over nearly as many locations. They range in difficulty, style and type including jigsaw, manipulation, code breaking, mazes and object based. Well publicized bypass codes can be used to "auto-solve" them without compromising the game, since no score is kept.

What it’s like

Dim, smoky 1940s Los Angeles rendered through grainy, slightly washed-out live-action footage, with a player who scans each room by dragging the mouse across full horizontal panoramas of dark interiors, cluttered desks and rain-slick streets. The mood is sepia-tinged noir unease, with a low hum of dread, long pauses and the creak of old rooms. Its pace is unhurried and methodical, built around careful looking, notebook-keeping and turning over small clues. Over sixty puzzles are scattered across many locations, from jigsaws and code-breaking to mazes and object-based challenges, so sessions tend to drift between patient concentration and sudden bursts of problem-solving. The emotional register is bleak and watchful, with a detective's quiet obsession pulling against the grim reality of an unsolved murder. Murder sits at the centre, and the menace comes more from atmosphere and implication than from explicit gore. Well-known bypass codes let anyone skip stubborn puzzles without penalty, making it easy to move at a comfortable pace. It suits a rainy evening alone, or anyone who enjoys slow, moody mysteries and the tactile pleasure of exploring a crime scene at their own speed.

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