"THE MYSTERY OF THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE" IS BEST LEFT UNSOLVED

A Review of Louis CatOrze - The Mystery of the Queen's Necklace

Linda Bloom

With myriads of multimedia CDs being released on nearly a daily basis, and their proliferation likely to increase, perhaps it's time to coin a new proverb: "Technical excellence does not a good investment make." Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in "Louis CatOrze - The Mystery of the Queen's Necklace," a historical mystery set in the French Palace of Versailles in 1697 during the reign of Louis XIV. While the program's graphics, animations, sound, and visuals are superb (even down to adjustable lip-synch values), the subject matter and content leave a great deal to be desired.

This reviewer is not entirely certain just what market this program is intended to serve. As anyone who has the slightest familiarity with the French Empire period is well aware, the moral and social behavior of the royalty was, in a word, vile. It seems to me that general awareness is quite sufficient; any supportable reason for choosing to immerse oneself in a highly accurate simulation of it escapes me. It certainly is not subject matter suitable for children of any age.

The story line begins at the betrothal of the Duke of Burgundy to the Princess of Savoy. When the heirloom Queen's Necklace case is opened to present her with the gift, the necklace is discovered to be missing. The King's cat, Louis, proceeds to serve as the player's guide to life in the Palace of Versailles, and thus to discovery of the culprit.

Along the way it is necessary to collect extensive information regarding the persons and practices of the Palace, including biographies of the entire Royal Family and much of the court, replete with references to their extramarital affairs and offspring, cruelty, conceit, destructiveness, personal hygiene, and incestuous heredity. These facts are obtained through the "click on everything on the screen" method that is rapidly becoming a modern classic.

Most of the data is presented in one of three ways: animated vicious gossip sessions between onscreen characters, excerpts from personal letters that appear in characters' sleeves or pockets, or on the pages of an onscreen journal. As stated at the beginning, the quality of animation and sound is truly remarkable throughout - but how clearly does one need to hear a nasty plan to "make the new Princess' life miserable" plotted between two adult women at the gambling table? Or to read a thorough description of the King's chamber pot and the ceremonies accompanying its use?

To top all of this off, there are frequent instances of taking God's name in vain, beginning at the introduction where Louis the Cat, our guide, declares "Mon Dieu!" (My God!), tossing it off as though it were meaningless and moving right along with his monologue. Other instances appear in conversation and in the personal letter excerpts, including "Mein Gott!" in a letter from the Duchess of Orleans, who was born German. One can only guess at the ostensible reason for this - To establish ambiance? Because everybody does it? I found this most offensive and quite needless.

While I freely admit that I did not play through the entire game (an hour and a half was about all I could stomach), a sampling was quite enough. All in all, "Louis CatOrze" represents tremendous technical quality wasted on disgusting and deplorable subject matter. Don't bother.

Screen Shots

Windows version:
Minimum 386/25
Double speed CD drive
3.5 MB free RAM
Sound Blaster-compatible sound card
640x480x256 SVGA capability

Macintosh version:
Minimum 3.5 MB free RAM
Virtual Memory off
Disk cache set to 128k
Apple Talk disabled

Overall Score:

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