Law and Order - Dead on the Money
Ages: Teen - Mild animated violence

This one is for those who follow Law and Order. Mirroring the two part format of the TV show, you start out in the role of a detective and in the second part, you become the assistant district attorney. The supporting crew, comes from the first season with the familiar voice of Jerry Orbach as Lennie Briscoe

The opening scene - a female strangled in Central Park. Your final goal, as the detective, is to arrest the murder suspect. You begin by collecting clues and your first instinct is to collect everything - wrong. You use up too much time and this is a timed game. You have the whole police department to help you solve your case; the medical examiner, department of records and surveillance and crime lab and a psychologist. You will follow up clues, interview suspects, obtain and use a search warrant and provide justification to place the suspect under surveillance. Sounds like pretty heady stuff until you realize that much of the work involves routine follow-up and waiting. Must be like real police work.

In the second part, you help the Prosecution's Assistant District Attorney obtain a trial verdict of "Guilty". There are numerous and somewhat confusing steps to be successfully accomplished before you can get a conviction; questioning witnesses, present evidence, cross examination, rebutting the defense attorney, and summing up the case. The part that takes the most learning is to know when to make objections so that the judge will sustain and not overrule them. I guess that's why lawyers get paid so well

The tension in the game is supplied by the time limit, since in the game, you do not die - you don't even get shot at. The worst that can happen to you is that the judge will overrule you. Not completing the tasks in time will result in the suspect getting away or not getting a conviction. The manual wisely suggests to save often because you can return and redo a previous scene without a time hit. You are allowed to chose two out of three skills. I recommend the "Evidence Collection" because some things are really hard to find and "Efficiency" which makes the count-down run ten times slower. I found "Teamwork" didn't give me enough help. I had not seen Law & Order before I played the game and actually took the time to view one of the episodes. I think that having seen the TV version helps a lot and wonder how people who had never seen the show would take to the game.

Reviewed by: Editor - 05/03