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A beautiful, believable game world

Peril in Pemberley is a lovely game. Are the graphics on the cutting edge of modern technology? No, but they are more than comparable to some of my favorite ND games. The characters are certainly robotic at times, but the environments are where the game really shines. Whether you’re exploring the decadent mansion or riding through the nearby forest, the game looks and feels cohesive.

Though ND games have had varying degrees of success with outdoor environments, the forest and estate of Pemberley actually feel convincing, as if there is no discernible “wall” around the game world. This, coupled with the reveal of more locations as the game progresses, really helps to make the experience immersive, as does the massive attention to detail within the mansion itself.

A lot of research definitely went into creating Pemberley, and it shows. There are tons of intricate embellishments, plenty of period paintings to gawk at, and lots of ground to cover. It really does feel like a large country house, sequestered away from the world in its own little piece of paradise.

The soundtrack features an array of classical music, which helps set the mood, though it could have benefited from some moments of silence rather than endlessly looping each area’s track.

In a lot of ways, this game succeeds at making the player feel like a young aristocratic lady, just going about her usual day while also solving a mystery. Ringing for your maid, having breakfast in bed, doing lessons from your governess, composing letters--these activities are the set dressing for the romantic mystery that unfolds and are precisely why those who do not appreciate period pieces will likely find PIP tremendously dull.

However, for people like me (you don’t want to know how many times I’ve watched Downton Abbey), I thoroughly enjoyed this bit of role-play. Had this game come out when I was 12 or 13, I’m certain it would have been an instant favorite. Riding around on your very own horse & solving a mystery about dashing highwaymen? Yeah, that was basically my childhood fantasy, and it was a joy to step into that little dream world.

Charmingly Terrible Voice Acting

Let’s just go ahead and say it: the voice acting in this game is not the best. Line delivery is sometimes robotic or just straight up odd, and the accents are...questionable. But strangely enough, I actually found this charming. It felt as if a bunch of friends and I were all pretending to be lords and ladies, which--in a very real sense--is what the game actually is: a way for modern fans to visit Jane Austen’s world.

Of course, your mileage may vary significantly on this point. However, I really wouldn’t discount the game on the merits of its voice acting alone, as other aspects of the experience are immersive enough to distract from this issue.

Realistic to a fault

As I inspected objects, explored new locations, and accepted tasks from various characters, I kept expecting to be hit with a slider puzzle or egregious mini-game, yet they never appeared. After the barrage of mini-games in the latest ND games (minus MID), I found this tremendously refreshing.

While some tasks may have been clunky in their implementation, I found many to be rather creative. The player is asked to pay close attention to detail, recall previous knowledge, use logic, and sometimes act fast. The choice to keep Jane’s tasks largely realistic helps to maintain the sense of immersion they were clearly trying to cultivate.

The story itself, of course, is a romanticized mystery surrounding gentlemen bandits, star-crossed lovers, and huge inheritances, but even here only minimal suspension of disbelief is required. The clues are well thought out, and there’s definitely a sense of having pieced together the truth at the end.

However, the game developers decided to omit something that actually ended up destroying my sense of immersion: an in-game hint system. I’ll admit that I’ve often laughed at the hints given by Bess or George in many of the ND games--since they magically seem to know exactly what you need to do next--but having them to call when you get hopelessly stuck is a great way to keep the player engaged (and also a great way to avoid the type of hint system used in the newer ND games). Anytime the player has to exit the game to visit a message board or consult a walkthrough, immersion is hopelessly broken--and I lost count of the times I had to exit PIP.

Sometimes, Jane would let you know what needed to be done next, but often times I found myself missing vital clues or aimlessly going through the motions of Jane’s day, hoping the next part of the story would somehow be triggered. Some players may enjoy this lack of hand-holding, but I found it to be frustrating more often than not.

Perhaps they weren’t sure how to implement a Bess & George type of hint system given the time period, but even something as simple as Jane keeping a diary would have helped tremendously. Unfortunately, these omissions only amplified some relatively minor gripes I had about the game engine/interface itself. 

Familiar interface, frustrating flaws

Any ND game fan will be right at hope with the Miss Clue game engine. It’s essentially an exact copy of the old HER engine, yet somehow a bit clunkier. For example, there is a fade effect each time you click, which I could have done without. I prefer the quick, snappy transitions of HER’s engine, but I could have easily overlooked this if the hint system issue had been addressed.

Instead, I was doomed to copious amounts of dreaded backtracking, made even slower by those fading transitions. And in a game world as large as the one in PIP, that’s A LOT of clicking around, even with their “Warp mode” enabled (which lets you travel somewhat faster).

Probably the most agonizing bit of backtracking was having to go allllll the way back to Jane’s room in order to summon your horse. In order to leave the estate, you have to go upstairs to Jane’s room, ring for the maid, request your horse, then go alllll the way back downstairs, outside through the courtyard, and then mount your horse. Is it more realistic to do it this way? Sure. But when you’re doing quite a bit of aimless wandering, this routine gets old pretty quick.

I definitely understand their choice not to implement a jump map for this game, but if there’s not going to be a hint system or some mechanism to keep you on track, I think being able to “teleport” to key locations--even just to Jane’s room--would have eased my frustration considerably.

The other interface issue was the hot-spot indicator. Just like ND, It’s a magnifying glass that turns red when you can click on something, but sometimes I couldn’t even tell it was red! This led to me missing several areas of interest and could have been easily remedied by making the red outline thicker.

All in all--give it a go