Remember Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film Vertigo? Unfortunately I haven’t been able to see it yet, but what I do know is that it is considered a classic of cinema and also one of the best films of this genre which are “Hitchcock’s Movies”. In the film, James Stewart had to keep an eye on a beautiful Kim Novak while overcoming his vertigo (get it?). Of course it’s Hitchcock, and it shouldn’t be that simple: the suspenseful scenes, the music, the love tension… pure intrigue.
In the video game developed by Pendulo Studios, on the other hand, is the protagonist EdMiller, an American novelist living in the middle of the country where he seeks inspiration every day. The game begins with a scene where a car accident causes the protagonist to develop certain psychological issues that prevent him from leading his life normally. From here, and through therapy, we need to find out if everything that happened to Ed happened is it real or part of your imagination. As in the films of the genius of suspense cinema, not everything is as it seems in this retrospective. It will be necessary to spin very finely so as not to lose details and solve the puzzle.
Go beyond black and white
Pendulo Studios is conducting a complete overhaul of the cinema classic, which of course means that both in the plot and in the chronology we will live the puzzles in the age of touch phones and social networks. Although you can enjoy numerous references to the classic that he adapts, like scenes that go in black and white or the appearance of the legendary director. In addition, he emulated the conventions of his most recent films, in which he was fed up with viewers finding him on stage rather than the action, and always appearing in the first frames.
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I must confess that I’m not a big fan of the artistic style that Pendulo Studios has shown in their latest work. His performances are abrupt, with facial modeling that pursues an extreme humanization in order to best appreciate the altered states of his protagonists, but they are not perfectly executed and sometimes lack soul or personality. This can be seen very clearly in the animations, which are not natural and lead me to believe that sometimes they didn’t choose the perspectives of the scenes well, based on the resources at their disposal.
true swindle
Both the music and the The script and plot are the best that Vertigo has, without doubt. Adapting a classic from a titan like Alfred Hitchcock isn’t easy, but it’s done here. The soundtrack will be another protagonist of the game, fully transferring the tension and excitement to your little hearts.
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Vertigo moves between different stories and protagonists. Always try to approach the different perspectives of the investigation from different angles so you can draw your own conclusions. Choices are a constant throughout the adventure, having to decide for themselves aspects that seem insignificant a priori, as well as others of fundamental importance. The issue is whether certain decisions really matter in the end result, or are they simply introducing game dynamics to keep us engaged and enhance the experience.
The same goes for cinematic action scenes, like opening a door by turning a knob or pushing a button. At first you rush into it because you don’t expect it, but soon you realize that it doesn’t matter much whether you perform the action or not. If you don’t, the character will just remain static, waiting for you to do it. In this case, I wonder, is it really necessary to introduce mechanisms that don’t affect the outcome of the narrative at all?
It’s probably the most negative point of the title to analyze. The edition I tried is the one released on September 27th on Nintendo Switch (its first edition was for PC in late 2021). While I had high hopes for it, it should be noted that it didn’t get a good implementation for the Nintendo handheld. The game suffers from texture issues throughout the adventure, from jagged shadows to jittering from misaligned diagonals. This happens mainly in open-field scenarios, which are estimated on areas lying in the background. It also suffers from dips in frame refresh rates, especially when loading screens.
Graphic adventure or highly interactive visual novel?
That’s a very good question to which I can answer that Vertigo is not a graphic adventure at all, but rather a highly interactive visual novel. Once your mind understands this, you will enjoy the game a lot more. There are no old-school puzzles, just a series of choices and actions that lead us down one path or another. Which is great, but we’re taking the “challenge” component out of the equation. That makes it much more accessible, but to whom can it also be synonymous with boring. The developer’s mysteries are overlooked, like those of the jewel Hollywood Monsters.
The final touch is undoubtedly the work of the dubbing crew, who deliver a masterful performance in all the characters. In conclusion, for a game called Alfred Hitchcock Vertigo, the script and the narrative are undoubtedly up to the task, but not the artistic part, which is fairly linear except for the most emblematic scenes.
