Emerald City Confidential is a 2009 computer adventure game conceived by Dave Gilbert, developed by Wadjet Eye Games and published through PlayFirst. It follows the protagonist Petra, Emerald City's only private eye, as she is approached by a strange woman named Dee Gale. Dee's fiancé is missing, and she is willing to pay Petra above the going rate in order to find him. Lacking any other prospects, Petra agrees. What starts off as a simple missing person case soon takes Petra deep into the seedy underbelly of the Emerald City's criminal underground and beyond. She encounters many characters from the Oz canon and some new characters, learns several magic spells, and uncovers the answer to a dark secret that has haunted Petra all her life.
Emerald City Confidential is a third-person, mouse-driven, adventure game in which the player must solve various puzzles and follow certain procedures in order for the linear storyline to proceed. As a pure graphical adventure game, Emerald City Confidential follows the guidelines first introduced by LucasArts: it is impossible to die or to get stuck at any moment in the game, which allows the user to fully immerse him/herself in Emerald City Confidential's universe without the fear of making a mistake or the constant need to save the game. With this in mind, there are no save game functions, but the player's position is automatically bookmarked and restored when the game is restarted.
The game is set in the magical land of Oz, created by L. Frank Baum, as put through the gritty filter of 1940s film noir, with harsh city streets, grey rainy skies, femmes fatales, tough guys, trenchcoats, fedoras and plot twists. It's Oz, seen through the eyes of Raymond Chandler.
Development
The game was developed using Playfirst's Playground SDK. Background art was done by John Green, the artist and co-creator (with Dave Roman) of the graphic novels Teen Boat! and Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden.
Response
Most reviews of the game have been positive, with particular praise for the story even where the rest of the review has been less glowing. It has also topped PlayFirst's own chart for weeks after its release. Game Tunnel reviewed the game as "Buy" and awarded it a Gold Award, rating it #2 of February 2009 indie game releases.
List of Oz characters in Chronological Order
Petra – The protagonist of the story. She quit her job as a Palace Guard during a time of war to look for her missing little brother, William, when no one else would help and became a detective in the hope of finding a lead to discover the child's fate.
Lion – The Lion is portrayed as a corrupt lawyer who frequently slips through Petra's grasp.
The Gump – Unlike the original stories, Gumps are shown in this game as a kind of taxi service throughout Oz. One of them talks, rescues Petra, and goes by the name of Fluffy.
Dee – Dorothy Gale in this game is now forty years older and prefers to be called Dee. She hires Petra to find her missing fiancé, Anzel, sending her on a case that quickly evolves into something much darker than Petra thought possible.
Tik-Tok – A member of the Royal Guard of Oz. He assists Petra only when it does not contradict the orders given to him.
Hank the Mule – Hank guards the entrance to Betsy Bobbins' mansion on Grinetta Lane in Emerald City. He is incredibly loyal to his mistress, but confides in Petra that although Betsy has many boyfriends, she really just wants the gifts they send her.
Scraps, the Patchwork Girl – Scraps runs a shop next door to Petra's office. She does dealings with both the Lion and the Frogman and it is later revealed that she is involved in the buying and selling of black market goods. She frequently thinks that she may be using the wrong words even when she isn't.
Betsy Bobbins – Anzel's former mistress and Hank's boss. She confides in Petra that she had a lot of respect for Anzel until he ran out of money. She tells her that he works for the Royal Oz University.
General Jinjur – Jinjur is the commanding officer of the Royal Guard of Oz. She despises Petra and the feeling is mutual. She appears to be stone-hearted and callous, often accusing people of using magic without a license. She dislikes Petra because Petra abandoned her post at Royal Guard when they needed all the help they could get during the war.
Captain Bill – A simple, honest captain whose ship blew up and sunk. Believing it was done by unstable magic, Jinjur threatens to lock him up. Bill later admits that he does work for Jack Pumpkinhead to work off a debt involving a magic amulet that helped improve Trot's health when she was sick.
Trot – A girl who works for Captain Bill. She asks Petra to find out who really blew up the ship to get Jinjur off their backs.
Jack Pumpkinhead – In this adaptation of the Oz stories, Jack Pumpkinhead is the leader of a smuggling ring. Petra has tried to have Jack put away for smuggling, but he knows how to pulls off a good lie. It is later revealed that Captain Bill smuggles pumpkins filled with magical artifacts all over Oz for Jack.
Professor Wogglebug – The Wogglebug is a professor at Oz University. There are a few aspects of the university he doesn't like, such as field trips, but he admits that they are valuable. He is the inventor of a "Knowledge Pharmacy" which is a machine that compacts knowledge into pill form.
