Déjà Vu II: MacVenture Series

Like all Macventure games, this title can be incredibly frustrating! You WILL die......A lot! If you are familiar with Macventure games(and enjoyed ANY of them), then pick up this game! If you however have never played a Macventure game, or are easily angered/frustrated by games, then I would advise you to steer clear of this title(As well as all other Macventure games) until you have done some research.

Arguably the least-known entry out of the classic MacVenture games, Déjà Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas is the fourth and last of the series that barely missed out on being included amongst the famed NES trilogy and had to instead contend with having its own place over on the GameBoy Colour, though that does not diminish its potential as a sequel to the first of the point & click adventure trilogy. To briefly cover the general premise, Déjà Vu II puts you back into the shoes of the one-time boxer turned private detective Ace Harding who, as a result of the events of the first game, finds himself in trouble with none other than the mafia operating in Las Vegas with a particular mobster taking issue with a key operative in their racketeering operation over in Chicago (where the first game took place in) having a sizeable amount of $112,000 go missing. Due to Harding being the last man to have been in contact with the racketeer prior to his demise, this naturally makes him the prime suspect for where the missing cash went, hence the mob putting the pressure on you right from the get-go in this sequel. Given that this is a detective game at its core, much in the same vein as Déjà Vu I: A Nightmare Comes True, your main goal is to discover how to solve this looming threat of the Las Vegas mob whilst they are hanging over your every move. This is largely done by gathering various items and using them to progress with specific problems that need solving, though the usual issue with these old-school adventure games is not knowing what you need until it is at a point of no return, hence the classic Sierra advise of "Save early, save often!" coming into play here. A small, but significant, part of what already makes Déjà Vu II a step above the prequel is how the objective isn't exactly 'spelled out' for you but is made more clear to the player than the concrete jungle of Chicago in the first game. To give an early example of this, the mentioning of the deceased Joey Siegal from the first game and exploring around the surprisingly small 'city' of Las Vegas will inevitably have you discovering the train station and several locations the player can take a train towards, one of which being Chicago itself! Though how you get the money is something you'll need to explore a bit for, the likes of which a casino which also doubles as a hotel where the player starts in is a likely solution to this first problem. As far as the currency in Déjà Vu II goes, it is handled considerably better than the first game seeing as the means of getting money is done in a more engaging manner via a proper interactable minigame with the likes of Blackjack for dollar bills whilst the slot machines still retain their spot following the first game for those betting with quarters. Also the transportation cost for this game is only used for travelling between cities as opposed to the taxi in Chicago where they required you to pay up quarters to get anywhere around places. Not only this but they improved the taxi system for this game by no longer requiring the player to manually type in addresses they wish to go to... assuming that they have the right item as far as directions go, that is! It also helps that the detective story remains as exciting as ever as the first game had Ace Harding struggling to prove his innocence and taking the initiative to discover the true perpetrators behind a complex string of crimes that he was about to be framed for, all whilst drugged with 'Diethanol Trimene' that is gradually gnawing away at his memory and consciousness alongside having the police and other threats to keep him on his toes. Though seeing as he is much better for wear in the sequel, it helps that the focus has shifted over towards the search for the missing cash that the mafia in Las Vegas are all too interested in getting back as, although Ace Harding is no longer a wanted man that is being framed this time, the pressure of discovering a solution to this new problem and how to escape the wrath of the mob is quite the intriguing set-up for a sequel to one of retro gaming's most fascinating detective games! Though it goes without saying that some problems remain unfixed from the last entry, this being the inability to reliably click on tiny objects to interact with and move them around and a glitch where objects that can be dragged but not put into your inventory have a small chance of becoming glued to the screen wherever you go and requiring a reset to fix alongside the lack of music which is unfortunately the same for the other MacVenture titles that I have played thus far. One specific issue that is unique to Déjà Vu II though has to do with the very taxi system that I spoke of earlier, since you need to pick up one of two items that can be either found in the hotel suite you start the game in (which can no longer be accessed once you leave) or at the train station in Las Vegas as it is quite possible to softlock yourself if you haven't picked up either of these items to direct the taxi driver over in Chicago as there will not be any item in the city which can be used to show where the train station in Chicago is, not even the very station itself having any such items in a most ironic and bitter twist! No doubt Déjà Vu II is a product of its time, seeing how riveting this new episode of detective snooping will have been for fans of the original, although I will hold it in higher regards than the first given the small improvements made across the board alongside having a more streamlined experience without coming at the cost of having a world to explore and investigate in. It also helps that this is the only game exclusive to the MacVenture titles here on Steam as there does also exist a way of playing the NES trilogy via '8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume I' that can be bought for a fairly decent price, albeit this entry never did get a port on the system. Normally I would have recommended that you buy that game instead of these three individual titles for an overall better experience but, on account of this unique instance, I can say with some level of confidence that this is an acceptable experience on its own merit and is something I would argue is worth experiencing as a whole. In short, I would recommend buying Déjà Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas at a discount alongside the aforementioned anthology for anyone looking to revisit these classics from decades past as, although it was short and not exactly mindblowing either, there's always a small joy to be had in exploring these ancient worlds on your own terms and really getting a feel for what made these adventures so magical to many young fans of the medium now likely well into bringing up new gamers of their own. TLDR Version: • A rare sequel that few know of outside of the iconic NES trilogy which can now be experienced via this MacVenture entry (+) • Offers a more streamlined experience of detective gameplay compared to Déjà Vu without dumbing things down or risk overcomplicating parts of solving solutions (+) • Ups the ante as far as continuing the story of Ace Harding, who now has to contend with the mafia in Las Vegas, whilst also keeping a wide variety of deaths on offer (+) • The usage of currency is made more straightforward than the first game and also more engaging to earn via the inclusion of Blackjack (+) • Déjà Vu II unfortunately retains issues from the previous MacVenture entry including tiny objects being difficult to click on and draggable objects occasionally gluing themselves to the screen which requires a reset (-) • It is possible to softlock yourself quite easily by not picking up a specific item early on to guide a taxi driver with in Chicago as it is impossible to return back to where they started (-) • Although arguably a decent version to play on account of no NES port, Déjà Vu II is not to the same high bar of quality as seen with the NES trilogy sold on Steam as '8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume I' (-)

This is worse than the first Deja Vu game and, like the original entry, doesn’t hold up at all. While I think a remake might be able to do something with the first game, I don’t think this one is salvageable.

Hasnt aged very well, but this provided me with closure after playing this as a kid and never completing it.

Déjà Vu II: MacVenture Series is an ancient game from 1988. It's a whopping 36 years old at the time of this review. The game lacks support for any modern gaming display resolutions (or widescreen monitors), hasn't been modernised or updated to run smoothly on modern gaming PCs. Despite this lack of modernisation, it carries a pretty high price tag for such an ancient game. This seems to have been put on Steam as a nostalgia gouge, or just a cash grab to try profit from abandonware. It's a sequel to "Déjà Vu: MacVenture Series" and suffers from all the same defects, lack of modernisation and so on. Once more, gameplay is a matter of Zork style text adventuring, "enhanced" by the Apple Macintosh OS's ability to display multiple windows on the same desktop (wow, such technology, it really is the 1980's). It was never a great game even for the Apple Mac, which never had great games anyway. While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality. Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lacklustre 2D visuals. The game interface is mostly just text boxes/dialogs and features mostly static, barely animated 2D images, the kind of thing you expect to see in browser/HTML games from the 1990s. While that might be fine for the 1990s, gaming has evolved a lot since then, the ATI Rage became mainstream in 1996... it's 2024, and that kind of thing just won't fly anymore, it's just not visually up to scratch. The implementation here is of such poor quality, the developer couldn't work out how to make the game display in fullscreen, it only runs in a window. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The game never really caught on with the millions of gamers on Steam, with a very low peak player count close to launch, and then just a handful of players launching this game every couple of days. This is undoubtedly caused by factors such as those raised in this review. It's always helpful with buying decisions to consider how popular and successful the product is, and unfortunately while this did accumulate a few participation trophy reviews, overall, people just aren't using it. So, should you buy this game? Déjà Vu II: MacVenture Series is relatively expensive for an abandonware nostalgia gouge, at $3 USD, and it's not worth it. The game is just too old, hasn't been modernised. And as the old saying goes, you can't go home again. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

I remember playing this on NES. I wish it were that version, I felt it was much improved. I find it hard to play this when I could just play the NES remake on a emulator...

So, I hate this less than the other MacVenture games so far, but I still hate it. The interface is fiddly, and the puzzles are so obtuse (Open a PHONE?) that even when I follow a walkthrough TO THE LETTER, I still CANNOT CLEAR THE GAME. Also the game started glitching where sometimes the cursor will not be aligned correctly, so I have to select just underneath an object vs. the expected active area, and sometimes this means I cannot do the action I intended. About the best things are + you don't need to play Deja Vu I to "enjoy" Deja Vu II + some of the graphics are nice for the era it was created + the "timed death" is much more fair Some lesser nitpicks include - all the bills look identical, so you have to Examine each one individually, wasting a turn (sometimes the conductor will kick you off the train just for being ONE SECOND late paying him) - the woman who goes around randomly beating on you is purely a nuisance and feels like a waste of resources - confusing directions in the hotel, where going back and forth between the lobby and the casino are up-and-right to go one way and down to go back the same way - just not really enjoyable Instead, play something like Lamplight City, or any game by Wadjet Eye Games. Much more fun for your time spent.

super

You're back as Ace Harding in this sequel of Deja Vu, only this time you do know who you are. But you're a reckless gambler who racked up an insurmountable gambling debt and now you're caught up in a knot. You find yourself in a hotel room and a hulking brute gangster ominously greets you in the process. It appears that you've entangled yourself in mob affairs, because Anthony Malone wants over $200k to be paid back. Quite a pickled situation! This game places you, again, in the role of our bumbling detective Ace Harding as you have to solve this hairy mess he's gotten himself into. I would rank this title the third least forgiving, but that's a bit of a stretch considering there's a lot more ways you can fail in this game than the predecessor. A lot more places to go and the timer is obviously tied into the character of Stogie Martin, the first character you meet in the game. Do one too many wrong moves, he's gonna tap you on the shoulder a couple times but eventually he'll kill you anywhere he'll find you. He even teleports! Don't believe me? Try running from him in the desert or in another train. I didn't feel like this game was as captivating as the first game. This sequel does make some nods to the original as there'll be a point in the game where you have to re-visit Chicago to gather a couple critical pieces of blackmailing evidence. Which is really what you're to do in this game - is to figure out a way to blackmail two mob bosses into fighting eachother so you'd get off scot-free from paying anyone big debts. What sucks about this game though is that, there's just so much room to mess up that it becomes a chore to do right a dozen times. It's going to require cautious saves before fumbling about before you know what you're to do or look up a walkthrough. This game would be the last of the MacVenture series, though. I don't really recommend because, while I appreciate the tie-in with the first game, it just lost most of it's charm due to the difficulty.

This game is classic. Found myself laughing and laughing each time I did something stupid and random. I still remember playing the originals and brings back memories even in real life where I made similar choices. Be prepaid for MisAdventures!!