Rating: 
Summary: Great Gaming!!
Review: Jack the Ripper lives up to the hype. It has excellent graphics, speech, and a storyline that drags you in. I hope they make a part 2!
Rating: 
Summary: Dull, But Playable
Review: New York, 1901: the seedy "Lowside" disctrict is rocked by a series of killings that resemble the London "Jack the Ripper" murders twelve yearas before. You play James Palmer, a young reporter for the New York Today. Your boss assigns you to cover the crimes and produce a series of articles that will regain sales lost to your paper's competitor. When your articles start receiving attention, you begin to hear from the killer, himself. Can you trace the hints he drops and prevent another murder?_Jack the Ripper_ (JTR) is the kind of game that will be familiar to Adventure Purists: one with many fine points, one that has incredible potential to be remarkable, but one that had obviously no been given the time or attention to rise above the mediocre. It's perfectly playable--mildly entertaining, even. But when game developers complain that Adventure doesn't sell, they need look no farther than games like this to find the cause. JTR is boring. I personally don't think that games need lots of action, threats, and timed sequences to be exciting-and, except for one, you won't find them here. But neither do you find very many interesting puzzles, engaging characters, inspiring conversations, great locations, or much of a plot. The game has its good points. The graphics are nice. The music is actually superb. The navigation and gameplay are smooth and easy. The voice acting isn't bad. The structure is well thought-out. But there just isn't enough going on. Each "day" of the game presents you with certain tasks, and I always was surprised when the day came to an end; I never felt like I had actually done anything. Part of this was because the puzzles were so very easy. Ninety percent were conversation; the rest were a smattering of incredibly simplistic mechanical and inventory, with one timed activity. I had downloaded the U-Hints file for this game, but the only time I ever looked at it was at the end, when I thought, "Is that IT???" In general, I found the puzzles so unchallenging that at one point I resorted to translating a book in French that my character found, just for something to do. There are numerous red herrings in this game--threads that turn into nothing, places you can go where nothing happens. I suppose this is a realistic representation of investigative journalism, but I found it tiresome. There was also a strange plot element involving a raven and what seemed to be psychic phenomena that was never explained at all. I disliked the save-game feature. This gave you a limited number (16, I think) of spaces to save thumbnails of your game in progress. 16 slots were about half the number I wanted, and the thumbnails were so small you couldn't tell what they represented. As your game was saved by time and date only, with no opportunity to label them for yourself, this was an irritation. JTR was also pretty glitchy, particularly in the early portion of the game. Several cutscenes did not run properly and had to be skipped out of. Conversations overlapped and the navigational cursor sometimes didn't appear. Once the game crashed entirely--good thing I had just saved! The ending of JTR is a disappointment. I realise that the real Jack the Ripper was never verufiably identified, so it would have been going out on a limb to identify him here. But I would have preferred that to what I got. The way the game ended was like the rest of it: wimpy and without challenge. This game took me about 15 hours to complete, playing a couple hours a night. It was mildly entertaining, as I said. But probably better to wait for the jewel case release.
Rating:
Summary: Dull, But Playable
Review: New York, 1901: the seedy "Lowside" disctrict is rocked by a series of killings that resemble the London "Jack the Ripper" murders twelve yearas before. You play James Palmer, a young reporter for the New York Today. Your boss assigns you to cover the crimes and produce a series of articles that will regain sales lost to your paper's competitor. When your articles start receiving attention, you begin to hear from the killer, himself. Can you trace the hints he drops and prevent another murder? _Jack the Ripper_ (JTR) is the kind of game that will be familiar to Adventure Purists: one with many fine points, one that has incredible potential to be remarkable, but one that had obviously no been given the time or attention to rise above the mediocre. It's perfectly playable--mildly entertaining, even. But when game developers complain that Adventure doesn't sell, they need look no farther than games like this to find the cause. JTR is boring. I personally don't think that games need lots of action, threats, and timed sequences to be exciting-and, except for one, you won't find them here. But neither do you find very many interesting puzzles, engaging characters, inspiring conversations, great locations, or much of a plot. The game has its good points. The graphics are nice. The music is actually superb. The navigation and gameplay are smooth and easy. The voice acting isn't bad. The structure is well thought-out. But there just isn't enough going on. Each "day" of the game presents you with certain tasks, and I always was surprised when the day came to an end; I never felt like I had actually done anything. Part of this was because the puzzles were so very easy. Ninety percent were conversation; the rest were a smattering of incredibly simplistic mechanical and inventory, with one timed activity. I had downloaded the U-Hints file for this game, but the only time I ever looked at it was at the end, when I thought, "Is that IT???" In general, I found the puzzles so unchallenging that at one point I resorted to translating a book in French that my character found, just for something to do. There are numerous red herrings in this game--threads that turn into nothing, places you can go where nothing happens. I suppose this is a realistic representation of investigative journalism, but I found it tiresome. There was also a strange plot element involving a raven and what seemed to be psychic phenomena that was never explained at all. I disliked the save-game feature. This gave you a limited number (16, I think) of spaces to save thumbnails of your game in progress. 16 slots were about half the number I wanted, and the thumbnails were so small you couldn't tell what they represented. As your game was saved by time and date only, with no opportunity to label them for yourself, this was an irritation. JTR was also pretty glitchy, particularly in the early portion of the game. Several cutscenes did not run properly and had to be skipped out of. Conversations overlapped and the navigational cursor sometimes didn't appear. Once the game crashed entirely--good thing I had just saved! The ending of JTR is a disappointment. I realise that the real Jack the Ripper was never verufiably identified, so it would have been going out on a limb to identify him here. But I would have preferred that to what I got. The way the game ended was like the rest of it: wimpy and without challenge. This game took me about 15 hours to complete, playing a couple hours a night. It was mildly entertaining, as I said. But probably better to wait for the jewel case release.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreamcatcher's usual standard
Review: Not a bad little game overall, though I emphasize the little (a day or two should see you through, and that's without a walkthrough). Graphics, acting, and interface are all unimpeachable. Game play is ... well, linear, to the extent that you sometimes can't end a day without revisiting every scene and clicking on every dead end to see which one you missed. They've mixed in a fair amount of historical detail from the actual Jack the Ripper case, such as letters and so on, with fantasy and speculation. The most impressive part of the game is the authentic feel of fin de siecle New York City -- and that should tell you something. Still, it's an enjoyable enough way to spend a weekend. Parents, don't worry; there's no on-screen violence and very little gore (except by description in autopsy reports). The creepiness is all in the ambience.
Rating: 
Summary: Hope you like to repeat yourself..
Review: Since other reviews touched on gameplay and it's graphics, I just want to say this...
1. Sure, your surroundings are a pretty picture.. but I like games that are interactive. I want to go through drawers, look closer at pictures.. do something besides run around busy rooms that you can do nothing but run through.
2. The plot is weak. I won't spoil the story-line, but each in game day you pretty much go to the same places, talking to the same people. You have to meet certain requirements to make the game progress, and non of it is interesting.
The one thing I did like about the game, there are a couple real nice songs you can listen to while you play, or just wait in one of the bars and listen.
Unfortunately, I got this as a present for my mom, thinking it would be a puzzle game and be creepy. Buzz, wrong!
Rating:
Summary: What the...?
Review: The game has an interesting story, and the setup as a writer who is on the ripper's trail is pretty good. However, the game's technology is outdated, and its implementation overly buggy. Also, the gameplay itself is extremely dull. But I played through it all because the whole "Jack the Ripper" story kinda intrigues me anyway. Now I do not want to spoil the game for you by telling you the ending, but really, there simply isn't much to spoil. It was not worth it at all. This is one of those games with a real story. It makes you wish that there were more games with a story like this. But then you realize how bad this is actually implemented and you kinda lose hope for the whole genre... If I were you, I'd steer clear.
Rating:
Summary: What a let down
Review: The music was good. That is all I can find good to say about this game. The ending was very disappointing to me. What a let down. The game play itself was boring and dragged on .
Rating:
Summary: This game was pretty good
Review: This game was pretty good, there was one gorey part, not that scary. I did like the music for it though. I liked the ending song that Abigail sings. It is a little bit of a dark game and sometimes it is hard to see what you are doing. Very exciting though. I liked the game overall.
Rating:
Summary: Don't even bother....
Review: This is one of the worst games I have ever played. First of all, I like games that make you think. This game is completely predictable. If you don't figure out something right away--you won't have to worry. Your cursor will figure it out for you. There are only a few logic puzzles, and even those are too easy. And if you like visiting the same locations over and over in a game, then this one's for you. I give it a 1 out of 10.
Rating:
Summary: This one was lots of fun.
Review: Very similar to Black Mirror, so if you liked that you will like this one. A good combination of puzzles, character interaction, and clue hunting. My kinda game. I only gave it a 4 star, becase the story is one most people know, so their are few surprises. Overall a great game and easy to play.
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