The opening cinematic of City Interactive’s new adventure, Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer, is impressive: in New Orleans, a SWAT squad marches toward what appears to be an unused warehouse, and a search of the dusty, shadowy building reveals a tormented corpse, suspended in the air by hooks and wires piercing his dead skin. The vision is sudden, macabre and shocking. As soon as I saw it, I thought: “This game is going be better than the first one”, and I meant it.

It seemed to me, judging from that opening cutscene, more daring and brave, more grim and catchy than the competent but lackluster first chapter, FBI Confidential. Unfortunately, it took only five minutes of actual play to dispel this hopeful illusion, and while the rest of the game displays some improvements over the first title, particularly in regard to graphics and sound, the underwhelming core of the series remains unchanged.