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Law & Order 2: Double or Nothing Review - PC

These days we're being flooded by television shows about crime, just a small selection of them being CSI, the new NCIS and, possibly the most popular, Law & Order. Like all popular things - the Harry Potter franchise, for example - Law & Order was made into a PC game: Law & Order: Dead on the Money. A year later a second game based on the series was released: Law & Order 2: Double or Nothing, and two more are scheduled for imminent releases. They're going a bit overboard, aren't they? We can probably expect a Law & Order movie to be released in the next couple of years!

Gameplay

Law & Order II: Double or Nothing has you playing as a detective and, later in the game, an assistant district attorney. As a detective you're presented with a crime scene that's introduced by a short cut-scene that establishes the situation and crime - usually murder. You'll recognise immediately how limited the game is in terms of action and movement; the crime scenes are tiny areas, and you're only able to stand in certain points within them. Due to this the game grows tiring and bland quite quickly. Moving around the crime scene is done by clicking, at which point the screen will fade and load your next position. Standing in each position, you're able to superficially scour the crime scene by looking around with the mouse. As you can't move, crouch or perform any other actions, it's often hard to get a good look at a potential piece of evidence.

As you mundanely scan the scene with the mouse pointer, certain things will be highlighted when moused over, indicating that they can be examined. Click on them and you'll be presented with a close up view of them and a brief description. From here you can decide whether or not you'd like to add the item to your Case File as potential evidence; however, you might as well add everything just in case you miss something, as this doesn't seem to have any impact on the gameplay.

In order to get a more detailed evaluation of a crime scene, you'll want to interview the suspects. This is done by selecting their residence on the handy map provided in game, at which point you'll be teleported to the suspect's house and given the ability to ask questions by selecting from a short list of them. Asking the most relevant questions will result in you obtaining the best possible information, which is required in order to gain enough evidence to arrest a suspect. Occasionally you'll come across a stubborn suspect, so you'll need to threaten them with your pieces of evidence and make them feel intimidated if you have any hope of continuing the interview. You can gain extra information by bringing up a suspects background or by placing them under surveillance using the colleagues at your disposal within the office.

After you've collected ... (continued next page)