Deja Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas
Encyclopedia
Deja Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas is a point-and-click
adventure game
, the sequel to Deja Vu: a Nightmare Comes True
, set in the world of 1940s hard-boiled detective novels and movies.
It was the last game made in the MacVenture
series.
Deja Vu II takes place in a sparsely populated Las Vegas
reminiscent of the movie Bugsy
, with just a few locations to explore. However, the player has the option to take the train to other cities including Chicago (if the player attempts to go to Los Angeles or St. Louis, the main character is killed by one of the antagonists, Stogie), where locations from Deja Vu I are revisited. Connections to this background story are well explained, and the game is completely playable by itself. In fact, there are situations where experience with Deja Vu I can be a disadvantage by creating certain expectations, for instance: the phone in the office at Joe's Bar is not openable in Deja Vu I, in Deja Vu II it contains an important item. To get to the office the player has to climb the fire ladder from the street, which is "too high" to reach in Deja Vu I.
Like the other MacVenture games there is a time limit, in this case the hitman Stogie Martin, who periodically reminds Ace to "come up with the dough". Although no longer affected by drug-induced amnesia
(as in Deja Vu I), the player still experiences memory flashbacks
when encountering certain environments or photographs.
Together with its predecessor Deja Vu II is considered by some fans to be the most difficult of these games and requires a lot of lateral thinking
. As in Deja Vu I, the gameplay has a final part where evidence collected during the game has to be planted in the right places. This part is among the trickiest in the game, since the significance of each tidbit can be hard to assess.
, reviewing the Macintosh version, gave the game a negative review, saying, "Linear text games with "Guess The Commands" are right down on the bottom of my list of boring ways to waste time." An example pointed out in the review is that the command "operate - flashlight" wields the flashlight as a weapon, while "Flashlight - operate - flashlight" is needed to turn it on.
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
, the sequel to Deja Vu: a Nightmare Comes True
Deja Vu: a Nightmare Comes True
Déjà Vu is a "point-and-click" adventure game set in the world of 1940s hard-boiled detective novels and movies. It was released in 1985 for Macintosh – the first in the MacVenture series – and later ported to several other systems...
, set in the world of 1940s hard-boiled detective novels and movies.
It was the last game made in the MacVenture
MacVenture
The MacVenture games is a series of four adventure games introducing a characteristic menu-based point-and-click interface. They were originally developed for the Apple Macintosh by ICOM Simulations:*Deja Vu: a Nightmare Comes True...
series.
Gameplay
In this follow-up set in the late 1940s our hard-boiled hero Theodore 'Ace' Harding once again regains consciousness, this time in a room at the Las Vegas Lucky Dice Hotel and Casino. It soon becomes apparent that the Vegas mobster Tony Malone is missing a hundred grand ($112,000 in the Game Boy Color version) after the events that took place in Deja Vu (I): a Nightmare Comes True and that Ace has become the scapegoat.Deja Vu II takes place in a sparsely populated Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
reminiscent of the movie Bugsy
Bugsy
Bugsy is a 1991 American crime-drama film which tells the story of mobster Bugsy Siegel. It stars Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould, Joe Mantegna, Bebe Neuwirth, and Bill Graham....
, with just a few locations to explore. However, the player has the option to take the train to other cities including Chicago (if the player attempts to go to Los Angeles or St. Louis, the main character is killed by one of the antagonists, Stogie), where locations from Deja Vu I are revisited. Connections to this background story are well explained, and the game is completely playable by itself. In fact, there are situations where experience with Deja Vu I can be a disadvantage by creating certain expectations, for instance: the phone in the office at Joe's Bar is not openable in Deja Vu I, in Deja Vu II it contains an important item. To get to the office the player has to climb the fire ladder from the street, which is "too high" to reach in Deja Vu I.
Like the other MacVenture games there is a time limit, in this case the hitman Stogie Martin, who periodically reminds Ace to "come up with the dough". Although no longer affected by drug-induced amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
(as in Deja Vu I), the player still experiences memory flashbacks
Flashback (psychological phenomenon)
A flashback, or involuntary recurrent memory, is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual has a sudden, usually powerful, re-experiencing of a past experience or elements of a past experience. These experiences can be happy, sad, exciting, or any other emotion one can consider...
when encountering certain environments or photographs.
Together with its predecessor Deja Vu II is considered by some fans to be the most difficult of these games and requires a lot of lateral thinking
Lateral thinking
Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic...
. As in Deja Vu I, the gameplay has a final part where evidence collected during the game has to be planted in the right places. This part is among the trickiest in the game, since the significance of each tidbit can be hard to assess.
Reception
Computer Gaming WorldComputer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
, reviewing the Macintosh version, gave the game a negative review, saying, "Linear text games with "Guess The Commands" are right down on the bottom of my list of boring ways to waste time." An example pointed out in the review is that the command "operate - flashlight" wields the flashlight as a weapon, while "Flashlight - operate - flashlight" is needed to turn it on.
External links
- Information and download for Mac version
- Information and download for Apple IIGS version
- Deja Vu I & II: The Casebooks of Ace Harding at MobyGamesMobyGames-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...
- Deja Vu I & II: The Casebooks of Ace Harding Review at IGN.com