Hello everyone!
Quests are such a thing that requires patience and brain activity. At the same time, the gameplay part should not overlap the plot part, otherwise everything turns into torture, and not pleasure from the process.

Therefore, I wanted to share my impressions of the Still Life series of games, developed by Microids and published by Meridian4. They are also known for the famous Syberia series.
These games came out a long time ago and were distinguished by their “special” length and plot, which were considered very good.
That’s why we begin.

Preface
Before I begin, I would like to share how I found out about this series in the first place and why I recently got acquainted.
At a time when MTV was starting or was already slipping into crap, the channel showed programs from the editors of Games-TV.ru(old composition). The games in question, I learned from the top “Terribly Interesting”.
Upon further study, I found out that many people liked the series and decided to try it out. Subsequently, an attempt was made to steal, but failed miserably due to inexperience in using the Internet, t.To. I didn’t know how to climb somewhere at that moment. Afterwards I gave up on it. Then Still Life 2 came out, but I didn’t attach much importance to it, so it passed by. Leaving the path of piracy and active use of Steam, I came across this series again, and remembering my interest, I bought a bundle at a discount and was surprised. Well, I’ll write it down now..

If you see the title and have a question, I hasten to answer. Despite the name, this is the first game in the series and they are united by the protagonist Goose… ahem… Gustav Macpherson – private detective and artist.

Paris in the twenties of the last century. Gustav Macpherson is trying to paint another picture, but without much success. Knock on the door. When opened, the hero has a vision: two headless corpses sitting on a luxurious bed, whose heads lie on their own laps.
Having come to his senses, Gus sees in front of him a dark-haired beauty whose name is Sophia Blake.

The girl asks to take up the investigation into the tragic death of her sister and her husband, who were found beheaded in a prestigious hotel. She doesn’t trust the police and turns to the hero due to his past work as a private detective in New York. Due to a good monetary reward and lack of inspiration in art, Gus decides to start an investigation.

Along the way, having asked people and learned the opinion of Dr. Kaufner, a comrade who examined the bodies of the dead, the hero learns that a certain mustachioed man was waiting for the couple, and the hotel footman knows where to find him. The footman hung out at the bar where Gus was a regular customer and the owner of the establishment helped with the paintings. Showing the footman a sketch of the suspect, compiled from the testimony of witnesses. He sees a mustachioed guy and runs away, and the protagonist rushes in pursuit of the suspect, but to no avail.

The next day, using his connections in New York, Gus learns that Sophia is not the victim’s sister. Demanding an explanation, the girl says that she hired the dead to help return an artifact called the Skull of Baphomet. This skull belonged to Sophia’s deceased husband, and the local Parisian banker Gregor de Alpine stole it. And she lied to convince Gus to start the business. Having agreed to continue further, Gus learns that the footman has died (explanations below).

Deciding to exchange information with the police, Gus learns that the mustachioed guy’s name is Jaskis Haloin and he is a private detective. Gus breaks into Mustache’s house, finds his mother, and she says that Mustache is in the attic. Having discovered the mustachioed man, Gus questions him and learns that he did not kill anyone and was hired by Alpin to find those killed and return the same Skull of Baphomet. And after a conversation with the lackey who gave up the dead, he decided to wait for them. When they arrived, he went to their room and saw a man in a silver mask chopping off their heads, after which he ran away. After the mustachioed man’s story, the police who were watching Gus come and take him away.

The next step for Gus was a visit to Alpin’s house. Having successfully made his way, the hero rushed into the basement, in which a whole crypt with two pedestals is discovered, on one of which lies the corpse of Alpin, who has been dead for several days. Half-stuck in the crypt, Gus finds Alpin’s diary. From it he learns that the Skull has always been with him and that he has finally met the reincarnation of his beloved dark-haired beauty, who is Sophia Blake. And the artifact itself translocates the soul into another body, thereby Alpin was able to live for several hundred years, and all his incarnations are buried in the crypt.

Deciding to look for the Skull, Gus went to the bar to talk with the owner. He once mentioned that Berenice, a girl sculptor also a regular at the bar, made a copy of the artifact. But unfortunately,
the hero finds out that the owner was killed, and to find out where the Skull and its copy are located, you need to decipher the fresco in the bar.

Having found the Skull and a copy, Gus calls Sophia, but finds out that she was kidnapped by Dr. Kaufner, into whom Alpin moved, and he is a killer. Finding Sophia hanging upside down in Alpin’s house and Kufner walking around with a revolver, words are exchanged between them and Gus. As a result, the hero breaks his skull on the floor, the killer falls into grief and gets a good bream. The chick continues to hang and asks to take it off, but is refused for starting this matter. Gus went for the police – case closed.

The game is a first-person quest, in which there is no dynamics and you simply go through the main locations through the map, and during conversations they move the camera from character to character and give answer options.

Well, let’s begin.
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I described the whole plot, omitting, of course, some details, since I understood it. It seems clear, but when you play, it doesn’t matter. Let’s start in order.

On my first playthrough, I did not use the guide, as a result of which I was unable to enter the crime scene, which is a scripted place. To open it you needed a set of master keys, but I used it on the door of the mustachioed man’s house. The question is what to do? In addition, there is a grandmother living opposite the crime scene, with whom you need to talk, but, for some unknown reason, the answer options were as if Goose and the grandmother had already talked and it was still not clear where to go and what to do.

The second playthrough was completely with a guide, and then the problem came. Dialogues cannot be skipped, and the number of butthurt has increased slightly. From the guide I learned that you need to first get into the crime scene before you run after the mustachioed guy. Use master keys on the hotel room, and on the house of the mustachioed man – a hammer, which I have never even seen, no matter how you look at it. In this approach, even a conversation with grandma was normal. Who the hell programs?. Due to the fact that the player can go anywhere on the map, there is a rather strong gap in the narrative, which makes the plot unclear.

By the way, the question is: “When was the footman killed??"Answer:"I don’t know". No seriously… I don’t know. At some point, I approached the bartender at the hotel and GG said that the footman died and the police too. No scene, nothing, although when the rest of the murders took place, they showed how visions came to Goose.
And one more problem – the detective intrigue, who the killer is, is completely lost. When they show a video of a Goose chasing a mustachioed man, they show a doctor chasing a footman. Taken together with the above, who the killer becomes clear.

The puzzles on the other hand are quite interesting. Here you can hack door locks, find differences in paintings and decipher the fresco with the help of a candle.

The bottom line is this. Played for only 10 hours (as Steam says), passed in the second round due to game design and excessive freedom, no intrigue. The whole action turned into tediousness and not pleasure. I didn’t like it.

Addition.
At the very beginning, I wrote about attempts to pirate. So with this part we got an interesting phenomenon. After the introductory video was shown, the game began in wild slowmo. And these are no FPS drops, the game ran smoothly, but very slowly, and the speed of the lines (which I managed to see) was normal.

Before us is the second part, a new hero – Victoria McPhersen, Gus’s granddaughter, working in the FBI.
Now, I would like to change a little the format of the description of the plot, because the characters change in the game. Therefore, I want to describe the plot of one character first, and then another.

Prague 20s of the 20th century.
Gus, after the events in Paris, decided to leave there so that nothing would remind him of those terrible days. But to earn a living, you have to become a private detective again, because paintings in Prague are not as highly valued as in Paris. Over the course of his work, Gus managed to earn some reputation and acquired a beloved Ida Skalikova, who quits prostitution for his sake.
But the peaceful days ended, and Perlovsky the Ripper, a killer of prostitutes, appeared in Prague.
Due to a series of murders and the helplessness of the police, prostitutes turned to Gus.
After another murder, the local police chief asks Gus about his opinion, and after answering he warns him not to get involved in this matter. This does not stop Gus and begins to question the local district, and also asks his policeman friend to throw in some material on the case.
It turned out that one of the killer’s victims managed to escape. To find her, I had to sort things out with a local pimp, because of Ida. But the pimp also wants the killings to stop and tells where he hid the girl. Having found and questioned the girl, the appearance of the killer is revealed – a long black cloak, a cape, a silver mask. It is also learned that before the murder, all the girls came to pose for local artist Mark Ackerman, who came from America like Gus. After questioning him, Gus doesn’t learn anything new, so he decides to break into the police chief’s office in search of evidence.
Having successfully penetrated, it turns out that the boss was paid so that the evidence was hidden, and the matter arose. When the boss comes to the office, he gets wild bream from Gus and it turns out that Mark Ackerman is the killer. After leaving the police building, Gus is met by his policeman friend, who tells him that another murder has occurred, at the water mill. Gus, for the last time, asks his friend to stop the police so that he comes first. Arriving at the crime scene, Gus learns that it looks like a painting painted by Mark Ackerman. The police arrive and Gus has to escape through the sewer. In the sewer, on his way out, he finds the disemboweled remains of the missing prostitutes. Having reached and opened the iron door in the same sewer, Gus sees some kind of caricature and Mark knocks him out. Gustav wakes up tied up on a chair, and opposite him, on the sofa, lies tied up Ida. Mark appears, tells how death is beautiful, like art, and right in front of Gus’s eyes, he brutally kills Ida.

Afterwards, fearing for his life, Gus decides to go to America, taking with him friends and some prostitutes, one of whom is called Milena, whom he marries, some time later.
In America, in Los Angeles, murders will occur, the same as in Prague, and policeman Michael Harrison will come to Gustav for help. Gus will tell him everything he knows about the murders and Mark Ackerman, but he won’t get involved again.
This is the end of the story of Gustav Macpherson.

Chicago 2004.
A brutal serial killer has turned up in Chicago and butchers his victims.
Victoria is in the gallery with her boyfriend Richard Valdez, who is about to present a new exhibition. But Vika gets a call from the FBI and she leaves for the crime scene.
Already the fifth brutally murdered victim. There was no special evidence at the crime scene, just like with the others. The only evidence is the one the killer prepared in advance.
After examining the crime scene, Vika returns to the FBI office for documents on the case and a gift for her father. Goes home to his father, they exchange gifts. The father says that in the attic there is a chest that was very dear to grandfather Gustav. Opening the chest, Vika discovers in it the things of her grandmother Milena and Gustav’s diary.
The next day, pathologist Claire Ashby tells Vika that she has completed the autopsy report and should come. Entering the autopsy room, the girl sees that someone put a photograph in the corpse. Claire comes and asks what the hell, but Vika doesn’t know it herself and runs to the security room. On the surveillance video screen, in the parking lot, a man in a black raincoat, top hat and silver mask is leaving. Vika rushes after him, as a result of which she overtakes him, but gets hit in the gut and misses him.

Returning to the autopsy room, and having discussed the chase with the photograph in the corpse, Vika goes to the office. In the office, the boss gives her a beating for chasing her and puts her on probation, supposedly due to stress. To which the girl says that “first they kiss her, and then fuck her”. But that doesn’t stop her.

Partner David Miller, found out that the 4th and 5th victims studied at the University of Chicago and were related to Vaclav Kolar by their tutor, who was in the photograph from the corpse. In this regard, Vika goes to the hostel to ask Vaclav. He says that the photograph shows his neighbor Mia Holmes and her friend the 5th victim. Vaclav is also writing a dissertation on Perlovsky the Ripper. Vika asks him to make a copy and quietly takes the bottle for fingerprints. Vika decides to go to the office to develop the prints, give them to Claire, and then go back to reading Gustav’s grandfather’s diary.
Reading the diary, Vika learns that her case and Gustav’s case are very similar. Then Miller says that the fingerprints match the prints on the body of victims 4 and 5, so he goes to the dorm. Having met him, his comrades break into Vaclav’s room, but do not find him. On the way out they meet Mia, who says that Vaclav is at the club where she works. The comrades go to the club, leaving the patrolman along the way, because the door was broken down. Miller arrives at the club before Vika arrives, and he was sent to three Soviet letters. Vika leaves Miller, take him when Vaclav comes out. The girl decides to pretend to be in front of the bouncer, saying she works here, but needs a pass. The girl goes to Mia for a pass and finds a photo of Mia with her friend. The friend was in the photo from the corpse. Vika finds out that Mia was supposed to meet her in one of the gallery studios. Vika gets to the studio, but is horrified to learn that her friend is dead.
Mia, coming out of the garage door, also sees this scene and runs away. Victoria asks Richard to look for Mia and call the police while she investigates the crime scene.
When the police arrive, the FBI chief also comes and says that Miller is interrogating him and let Vika go and sort it out. It turns out that Vaclav hired victims for services in the club. And Mia and the 5th victim worked in a special place where there were big shots. At this point, the chief enters the interrogation room and releases Vaclav, under the pretext of circumstantial evidence. Vika leaves, makes herself a pass to the club. After several passages with puzzles, Vika finds this special room and there is everything for doing BDSM actions. There the girl finds an account book with all the big shots.

Afterwards, Vika decides to find out more about Mark Ackerman, so she listens to a presentation from Richard. After comparing Gustav’s paintings and notes, Victoria does not understand the praise for Ackerman’s paintings. Next, Vika asks Richard to find everyone who helped with obtaining the paintings. To find anything on Ackerman, Victoria needs to get into the Archive, but she doesn’t have the necessary clearance, so she breaks into the boss’s safe for access codes. After going through all the technical crap and the spider robot, Vika uses the terminal and finds out that all the data on Mark Ackerman was taken by her grandfather. Then the FBI chief shows up and starts scolding her. In response, Vika declares that she is leaving and giving up her ID, and if he tries to do anything to her, she will release to the public the account book from the bdsm room, which contains his name.
Vika finds the remaining notes in one of Gustav’s paintings, after which Claire calls her. She says that Vaclav called and talked about the screams in the hostel. Upon arrival, the killer injects Vika with a syringe with an anesthetic, and a fight ensues. As a result, Vika is knocked out, the killer leaves with the living Mia, simultaneously killing Vaclav.
Having woken up, Victoria realizes that Mia may still be alive and runs to the gallery to find out from the paintings where the murder will take place. Having found out where the Killer is, Vika manages to get to the killer and shoots him before he begins his business. The killer fell into the river, but his body was not found.
In the future, Vika will head to Los Angeles to dig on Mark Ackerman, but that’s for another time.

Gameplay
Unlike the 1st part, everything here is classic. The camera is distant and fixed, we run and collect objects across the screen.

Well, let’s continue.
I was impressed by the plot, it turned out the same way as with the characters, t.e. double. Because Gustav, not Victoria, retained the interest of his history. Although I did not mention who the Chicago Killer is, who can be guessed based on the logic of the disappearance of this character.
And the question is, how did the killer enter the autopsy room if it is under a combination lock and an access card??
And the second one is where all the FBI guys are? Why are there only 6 people in the FBI building and no security?? It’s clear that such an imposing killer can get anywhere with such garbage.
The puzzles turned out to be very challenging, but still interesting. Except for the spider robot, because this is not a puzzle, but a game of mouse dexterity, because you have to manage to click on the desired square in time, otherwise the laser will burn out.

The question of what to do arises often. For example, towards the end, they don’t tell you where to look, but you need to find Grandfather Goose’s notes, which are located behind the picture that you looked at 10 times.
It’s very long, you run and run and run, which is very annoying.

Result, 10 hours. Oddly enough, this turned out to be the most successful part of all, but still the plot did not seem very inspiring.

This time, I also decided to divide the story into two parts, only this time not by characters, but by time. One part tells what Vika did after Still Life, and the other tells about the case she is currently facing. And this despite the fact that there are two characters in the game. These characters will be the same Victoria McPherson and Paloma Hernandez, who works as a journalist, but at the same time, a victim of a maniac. Let’s get started!

2005
After the events of the 1st part, Vika left for Los Angeles to further investigate the connection between the masked killer and Mark Ackerman. As a result, she finds out that her boyfriend, Richard Valdez, is Ackerman’s grandson.
Returning to Chicago, Vika asks to meet with Richard. He asks to come to one of the basement rooms in the Chicago gallery. While waiting, Vika decides to inspect the room and in one of the lockers she discovers a bloody cloak, the same as that of the masked killer.
As soon as Richard arrives, Vika asks to take off his shirt in case of a bullet wound, but he begins to deny it. In the end, Richard confesses that he is the masked killer. He met with Victoria to ultimately avenge his grandfather, but killed t.To. believed that true art is realized in death. After Richard shows a painting of Victoria and her death, a violent conflict begins between the two. As a result, a fire starts in the room, Richard burns alive, and Vika manages to escape.

2008
Victoria has returned to the FBI and is investigating the murders committed by a maniac called the East Coast Killer. The peculiarity is that the killer leaves the bodies of the victims in a visible place, without any evidence. In addition, he sends videos of the victims to the media and the FBI.

Vika, returning from the crime scene, sees on TV a report by Paloma Hernandez, in which she condemns the actions of the FBI and Vika in particular, as well as a fragment of an interview with former agent Hawker, who worked on the case. After watching, Paloma calls Vika and asks for an interview, to which she receives a daring refusal. After the conversation, the Killer comes to Paloma, knocks her out and takes her away in an unknown direction.
Having come to, Paloma discovers that she is in a living room with cameras, detectors and mannequins, she has an electronic collar around her neck, and the Killer is standing in front of her and filming her. The girl begs to let her go, but the Killer sarcastically replies that he will let her go, but not now. Afterwards he leaves the girl alone, since the detectors did not allow the girl to leave, and the collar receiving the signal from them gave an electric charge.
Using available means, Paloma breaks the detectors, finds out that she is on the second floor, and jumps out into the street. It turns out that she was in a big old house in the middle of the forest. Seeing the car, he rushes towards it, does not find the keys, but sees his discharged mobile phone. Having found the charger, he returns to the room and calls Victoria, who is investigating the motel room from which Paloma was kidnapped, along with the newcomer Garrus (no, not the same one). The girl manages to give a description of the place where she is, after which the Killer knocks her out.
Some time later, Paloma wakes up in a basement with thick walls covered in dirt and blood, and broken glass on the floor. The girl finds her phone in her pocket and tries to call, but the Killer answers her. She asks to let her go, but he replies that she must save herself and she is poisoned, and the antidote is in the first aid kit in the room (a catch with the puzzle). Having recovered, Paloma removes the electronic collar she was wearing and goes into the next room. There is an electric chair in the room and Paloma must set the required voltage so as not to kill her.

Having solved this riddle, the girl goes through the open door leading to the stairs with another room. This room had a laundry room with refrigerators from the morgue and solve the puzzle before the gas turns on. Having solved this riddle, the Killer says that the girl is great and she just needs to go through the next door. He opens the door and there… The wall, and the killer says: I’m sorry, but I have something prepared for you, so wait. Not wanting to come to terms with this set of circumstances, Paloma decides to escape through the laundry elevator. Having risen, he finds himself in the kitchen of that same house and leaves through the back door. Coming down from the veranda, the girl, without noticing, tears the tripwire with a flash-noise grenade and knocks her out.
A week later, Victoria and Co. find this house, but the police find no one. As a result of the research, Vika and Garrus learn that there is a bunker next to the house, but to open it you need a password to one of the computers in the basement. By that time, Hawker arrives at the scene, and after sorting things out with Vika, he helps with the computer. Hawker was kicked out of the FBI because he shot a suspect during his interrogation (the interrogation did not take place in the bureau), and Vika told everything as it happened at the disciplinary council.

With Hawker’s help, the company was able to open the hatch to the bunker and headed towards it. As they approach, a crossbow bolt hits the police sheriff, a sleeping dart hits Vika, and everyone else is shot by the Killer.
Some time later, Paloma wakes up in a bunker prison cell and sees the Killer taking away Vicki’s unconscious body, after which he leaves. Trying to find a way out, the girl sees opposite a cell in which one of the Killer’s victims, Harry Anderson, is sitting. He tells how he tried to loot something in the house, but the Killer came, hit him in the head and locked him in the bunker. With his help, Paloma finds Vika and brings her to her senses after the dart.
Next, Vika decides to go further into the bunker to find a connection, but other doors are blocked through the same computer in the basement of the house. Leaving Paloma in the bunker and getting out of it, Vika finds herself in the backyard of the house and sees behind the fence a Hawker hanging from a tree with a bag on his head, and next to him another hatch. Having passed through the mined area around and the house filled with traps, Victoria reaches the computer, but it is blocked. At that moment the Killer calls her and says that he is coming to kill her. Not finding the hidden girl, the Killer leaves. Vika decides to kill the Killer, to do this she uses shamanism with electricity and a fence between the front and back yards.
Having killed the villain, Vika takes off his gas mask and there it turns out – an incomprehensible black man. Having looted a black man, the girl acquires a pistol and access codes and goes to the computer. Having unlocked the computer, Vika finds out that Harry is not Harry at all, but the same killer. Returning to the bunker, he finds neither Paloma nor the Killer. In an attempt to find Paloma, Vika also finds a computer, from which she opens the hatch next to the hanged Hawker. Having reached Hawker and removed him from the tree, it turns out that it’s not Hawker, but Garrus in Hawker’s clothes. Polutav, finds access codes from the video surveillance system in the bunker. Using the system, Vika sees that the real Hawker shot the Killer in the basement corridor (yes, as much as possible. ) and runs away with Paloma.
Heading into the house and then into the basement where the door to the bunker is located, he finds Hawker dressed in the Killer’s clothes. It turns out that Hawker got involved in the Killer’s actions and began to help him in order to take revenge on Victoria for betraying her. Hawker goes into the bunker leaving the girl with traps and puzzles. Having decided this shit, Vika goes after Hawker. In the bunker, Vika finds a room in which Paloma is sitting in an electric chair behind soundproof glass, and next to her is a computer. Through the intercom, Paloma says that Hawker is sitting in the next room and waiting for her. Vika finds out from her computer that there is a bug on her phone that tracks all movements and reports to Hawker. Entering the room and using the bug, Victoria shoots Hawker.
While trying to pull Paloma out of the chair, the TV next to the girls turns on. It plays a recording of Hawker’s message in case he dies. If Vika does not have time to pull out Paloma within a certain amount of time, she will be fried.
Aaand… Victoria pulls out Paloma, they call for help, they are saved. Everything’s a happy ending!

The movement is the same as the previous part, only now the camera follows the heroines, and is not fixed.
Added inventory system like Resident Evil 4, t.e. Each item takes up so much space, so storage boxes are also provided.
A system of skills has appeared, t.e. when selecting a specific item, a skill appears. For example, if you took a pistol, you can shoot, you took a sledgehammer, you can break, you took a first aid kit, you can heal, you took a master key, you can hack. In truth, these are all skills.

A portable laboratory has also appeared in which you can collect and analyze the evidence found.