Carmen Sandiego – Review

She’s back! The globe-trotting, red trench coat-wearing Queen of Thieves returns in action, not to steal artifacts, but to help ACME catch her former VILE associates in Carmen Sandiego, a puzzle-adventure game from Gameloft Brisbane. As a fan of the franchise, I was really surprised to learn there’s a new Carmen Sandiego game and was looking forward to the innovations it will feature this time around.

For the first time in its entire franchise, you play as the eponymous Carmen Sandiego, a world-renowned thief, teaming up with ACME (Agency to Classify and Monitor Evildoers) on a mission to pursue and apprehend her former VILE (Villains’ International League of Evil) associates. You travel across continents and visit famous cities and tourist attractions in search of clues, intel, and evidence that will help you track and chase down these villains, while occasionally learning uncommon facts about different countries’ geography and history.

In this game, Carmen is joined by a hacker named Player, who helps her with gathering information. Together they are known as Team Red. On ACME’s side is The Chief, her former nemesis, and the fangirling Agent Hyde who’s in charge of the ACME CrimeNet Database which they use to pinpoint every known VILE operative across the globe.

The game starts with a prototype stealth plane, The Phantom, being stolen by VILE. Team Red is contacted by the Chief to identify and, eventually, catch the thief who stole the plane, all within 7 days. You are given a choice to visit nearby establishments within a country to gather clues and follow a lead to the perpetrator. Traveling to various countries and locations will cost a few hours off the deadline. In this case, I’ve tried to gather as many clues and evidence about the suspect in one location before going to the next one so I can use them as references in the CrimeNet database.

Finding clues is much more entertaining unlike in the previous games as you can now get behind the action. Instead of dialogues, you can play minigames to get clues such as tinkering with control panels, hacking a computer terminal, cracking a safety vault, or using a multipurpose scanner to find prints or suspicious objects. I admit sometimes, these minigames can be a bit simple to solve and may even be repetitive. My favorite minigame is when I’m catching VILE henchmen by using a hang-glider, a grappling gun, or stalking behind them while blending in with the crowd.

It may not be as complex as the AAA games of today, but fun enough to read lines of dialogue in the classic Carmen Sandiego games. Once you have enough clues and evidence, you must make sure to search for the suspect in the CrimeNet database so you can print a warrant and apprehend them. I caught the true suspect in the tutorial, but it can be quite tricky in the succeeding levels. The Chief is kind enough to let you know whether you caught the right suspect or not.

The game uses 3D animated models and environments, updating the pixel art style of the late 80s-mid 90s games in the franchise. Personally, it is visually pleasing to the eyes though it may not be the same for modern-day video gamers. As I fan, I also noticed a few easter eggs or iconologies from previous Carmen Sandiego games. The character dialogues are simple enough to understand, which is important, especially for young audiences.

As part of the ‘edutainment’ segments in the game, you will need to answer general knowledge questions such as geography, history, sports, etc. to find clues or leads. I’m not really complaining but most of the questions are panned towards the Western culture. In this case, I had to rely on either my random knowledge or just do a Google search. The game also uses a ranking system to progress through the main story. The ACME Files allow you to visit ‘side quests’ should you need to rank up. These missions are standalone and non-essential to the main story. It also includes missions from the original game, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?, and you may even catch Carmen herself!

The game is published by Gameloft, well-known for its mobile games in the mid-2000s, and developed by its Brisbane studio. Although they have then expanded across various platforms and consoles, I have played several games from them and I believe they have done this Carmen Sandiego game quite well.

This review is based on a PC review copy provided to us by the developers/publishers.