Mata Hari

[h1]Overall = 4/10[/h1] An underwhelming espionage adventure across Europe which is based on a true story, but just isn’t that interesting or entertaining to play. The story is ok and uses a few famous names but isn’t that engaging, partially due to the constant back and forth nature and the long time span it covers. There’s very little actual game play, focusing on conversations and light puzzles and with very few hot spots in each scene, they become hard to detect. The backgrounds are beautifully drawn, which is a good thing as you’ll be seeing the same ones a lot, but the 3D polygonal characters are dated, move awkwardly and don’t fit with the scenery at all. You can also see where they’ve cut corners with basic animations missing, repeating characters and visiting the same scenes again and again. The mini-games add some variety but are poorly implemented, becoming boring quickly and the scoring system, which offers some replay value, has no bearing on the game. The voice acting is mostly good but the music tracks often play over themselves. Overall, it’s a short and functional adventure game with some charm, but little to really recommend.