A Mystery Like No Other
mattchu
Full review with pictures here: http://rgz.ca/gaming/cartagra-review-a-mystery-like-no-other/tl;dr for char limit:There really is a very engaging murder mystery taking place. In fact, for quite some time, the murder mystery takes precedence over the case of the missing girl, during which things really start to take a turn for the worse. It is a tragic novel that isn’t afraid to rip hope away from you, even as the reader. It’s a novel with a constant air of danger and doubt.In going with that theme, I was a bit stunned that I didn’t have more direct control over the story. Many of my choices seemed trivial, although on the route in which I ended up dying, it was painfully clear to me what had happened, shocking in its gravity, despite the fact that I would never have been able to predict it. And that’s the primary complaint I have with Cartagra. For all its mystery, for all its tragedy, it just doesn’t provide you enough direct control over what is occurring. Any kind of thoughts you’re putting together are going to be solely in your head. The single time in which your knowledge is tested doesn’t even rely on correct answers, giving them to you if you get them wrong and occurring nowhere near the end of the story. The novel’s story will continue and connections will be made if you make time for them to occur in the few times you have a choice in the matter. Your own attention to detail won’t be tested.Except once. At the very end of the novel, the story pulls the rug out from under you, just as it is about to end in a completely unsatisfying manner. So unsatisfying, in fact, that every one of the characters makes a remark saying just how poorly it ended. It’s on purpose, and it will stun you when it happens, but it does. It ends on a sour note, leaving you without the satisfaction that usually comes from mystery novels. I honestly don’t know whether to applaud it or be furious.I very much enjoyed my time with Cartagra. It provided me with a unique experience in a setting that’s often forgotten in favor of the modern age or a fantasy setting. It was also a great murder mystery with a balanced cast of characters. There’s a bit of a caveat in that the novel does not give you much direct control and, if you don’t like egregious amounts of sex, murder, and/or gruesome, naked corpses, the novel will be a bit off-putting, but the air of mystery and the final moments where the game finally reveals its biggest secret are worth those small grievances.
MG point:122
