Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer

Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer is a third-person graphic adventure game and the sequel to Art of Murder: FBI Confidential. Players once again step into the role of FBI investigator Nicole Bonnet, who is tasked with solving a series of brutal murders across the United States, each crime scene marked by a mysterious doll dressed in 18th-century clothing. When a similar murder is discovered in Paris, the investigation leads Bonnet on an international chase from France to Spain and Cuba, unearthing a mystery that spans centuries. Gameplay involves collecting evidence, analyzing clues like fingerprints, and solving various puzzles, all while navigating a linear, story-driven path.

Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer: A Historian’s In-Depth Review

In the annals of early 21st-century adventure gaming, certain titles stand not as masterpieces, but as fascinating artifacts of a specific time and place in the industry’s evolution. Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer, the 2009 sequel from Polish developer City Interactive, is one such artifact—a game that embodies both the ambitious globalization of game development and the stubborn persistence of B-tier design sensibilities. It is a title caught between aspiration and execution, a globe-trotting detective story that often feels like it’s running on rails.

Introduction

A serial killer stalks two continents, leaving behind a chilling signature: victims drained of blood and accompanied by an 18th-century dressed doll. For FBI Agent Nicole Bonnet, this investigation will span from the crime scenes of New Orleans to the back alleys of Paris, from the sun-drenched streets of Cuba to the shadowy cemeteries of Montmartre. Released in an era when the classic point-and-click adventure was experiencing a quiet renaissance, Hunt for the Puppeteer represents City Interactive’s attempt to carve out a niche in the detective mystery genre. This review argues that while the game demonstrates measurable improvement over its predecessor and possesses moments of genuine atmosphere, it remains fundamentally hampered by linear design, narrative disjointedness, and technical limitations that prevent it from ascending beyond mediocrity.

Development History & Context

Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer emerged from the ambitious, if somewhat scattered, production lines of City Interactive S.A., a Polish developer and publisher that would later rebrand as CI Games. By the late 2000s, City Interactive had established a business model centered on producing budget-to-mid-tier games rapidly across various genres, from military shooters to adventure titles. The first Art of Murder game, FBI Confidential, was released in 2008 to lukewarm reception, criticized for its shoddy voice acting and clunky design. The sequel, developed and released within a single year (2008 in Europe, February 2009 in North America), was a clear attempt to iterate and improve upon this foundation.

The technological landscape of 2009 placed the game in an awkward position. Built using the Virtools 3D engine, the game features pre-rendered 3D environments that, while competent, already felt dated compared to contemporary titles like Heavy Rain (2010) or even the stylized 3D of Telltale’s emerging catalog. The system requirements—a 2.0 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, and a DirectX 9-compatible graphics card—positioned it as accessible for the era’s average PC, but this accessibility came at the cost of visual ambition.

This was also a period of transition for the adventure genre. The classic LucasArts/Sierra model was no longer commercially dominant, but a dedicated fanbase and digital distribution platforms like Steam were creating new opportunities for niche titles. City Interactive aimed to serve this market with a traditional 3rd-person point-and-click experience, but one that incorporated modern convenience features like a permanent hotspot highlighter. The result was a game that felt caught between old-school adventure design principles and a more streamlined, contemporary approach, ultimately satisfying neither camp completely.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

The plot of Hunt for the Puppeteer follows FBI Agent Nicole Bonnet as she investigates a series of murders linked by the killer’s macabre calling card: a doll dressed in 18th-century attire. The investigation begins in Paris, where a ballet dancer has been found murdered in a manner eerily similar to the “Puppeteer” killings in the United States. The narrative quickly expands into a conspiracy involving centuries-old revenge, hidden treasure, and familial betrayal, pulling Bonnet from France to Spain and finally to Cuba before culminating in a Parisian cemetery.

Characterization and Dialogue:
Nicole Bonnet returns as the protagonist, a capable but inconsistently written FBI agent. The game makes little effort to establish her character for new players, often referencing events from the first game without context. As one reviewer from GameBoomers noted, characters are “determinedly clichéd and two dimensional.” We encounter the grumpy French detective, the mysterious trench-coated ally (who appears and vanishes with little explanation), and a Cuban voodoo shaman, all of whom speak in dialogue that multiple critics described as “pedestrian,” “belanglos” (insignificant), and sometimes “tumb” (dull).

The German review from Adventure-Treff perfectly captured the issue: “What would Columbo, Scully, Mulder and colleagues be without intelligent, witty conclusions and dialogues? Right, only half as exciting.” The dialogue serves primarily as exposition, moving the plot from one puzzle sequence to the next rather than developing meaningful character relationships or thematic depth.

Structural and Pacing Issues:
The most significant narrative flaw is the game’s disjointed structure. As the GameBoomers review astutely observed, “it was not always clear to me why Nicole chooses to rush off suddenly to other countries.” The transitions between locations—from Paris to Spain to Cuba—often feel unmotivated by the internal logic of the investigation, instead seeming like arbitrary decisions to introduce new backdrops. This creates a narrative that, as the same reviewer put it, has a “slightly disconcerting trip around a standard point and click serial murder mystery” quality.

The plot attempts complexity with its centuries-spanning conspiracy involving the Montoute family and hidden treasure, but this ambition outstrips its execution. By the finale, as the Just Adventure review bluntly stated, “it almost seems as though the developers have gotten sick of the entire game and just want to get it over with.” The revelation of the true killer and their motive—a revenge plot 200 years in the making—feels both convoluted and underwhelming, failing to deliver on the atmospheric promise of the early chapters.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Hunt for the Puppeteer operates as a traditional third-person point-and-click adventure with a fixed cursor-based interface. The gameplay follows the classic adventure loop: explore environments, collect inventory items, solve puzzles, and advance the narrative through dialogue and scripted sequences.

Core Interaction and Interface:
The game features a permanently visible inventory bar at the bottom of the screen, alongside icons for a journal (containing case files and dialogue history), a largely useless cell phone, and the game menu. A golden question mark in the corner reveals all interactive hotspots in the current scene—a quality-of-life feature that eliminates pixel hunting but also reduces environmental engagement. The cursor changes contextually to indicate examination (an eye) or interaction (a hand).

Puzzle Design and Logic:
The puzzles represent one of the game’s most divisive elements. They range from evidence collection and analysis (taking fingerprints, photographing clues) to traditional inventory-based challenges and mechanical puzzles, including a slider puzzle and at least one timed sequence.

The fundamental issue, as identified by multiple critics, is the game’s extreme linearity and “script-dependent” object interaction. As the player review from mailmanppa explained: “Art of Murder will let you collect the object only if the script really needs it. It makes you running back and forth several times to the very same location just because the game told you to pick up things it was forbidden before.” This creates what GameStar Germany described as a feeling of “sweaty construction rather than fun,” where players aren’t solving organic puzzles but rather deducing the developer’s predetermined sequence.

The 4Players.de review criticized the puzzles as “simply not creative and motivating enough,” noting that “much is illogical and there are simply too few usable hints.” This linearity extends to puzzle solutions as well—attempting to use a key before finding its corresponding door results in failure, enforcing a rigid sequence that contradicts the supposed freedom of investigation.

Technical Performance and Bugs:
The GameBoomers review reported a significant technical issue where “almost all dialogue lines are cut-off halfway through” on 64-bit Vista systems, forcing reliance on subtitles. While other reviews didn’t mention game-breaking bugs, the consensus suggests a technically functional but unpolished experience, with the PC Action review noting “average graphics and some unbelievable dialogues” despite praising the automatic save feature before timed sequences.

World-Building, Art & Sound

The game’s strongest elements lie in its atmospheric presentation, though even here execution is mixed.

Visual Design and Environments:
Built with the Virtools engine, Hunt for the Puppeteer features pre-rendered 3D environments that the German publication Gameswelt described as “sauberen Optik” (clean optics). The locations—from moody Parisian streets and apartments to the brighter color palettes of Marseilles, Spain, and Cuba—provide visual variety. The player review acknowledged that “graphics are good enough to say that this is the part of the game many will like the most,” specifically praising the lack of “pixel-sized object to look for.”

However, the world often feels unnaturally empty. The Polish review from Przygodoskop noted this explicitly: “Crowded cities in the real world such as Paris, or Havana, are practically depopulated in the game.” This emptiness, combined with the limited interaction with NPCs beyond those directly relevant to the plot, creates environments that are visually appealing backdrops rather than living, breathing spaces.

Sound Design and Music:
The audio landscape receives mixed marks. The musical score was generally described as appropriately atmospheric—Adventure-Treff called it “melancholische Soundkulisse” (melancholy soundscape)—but unmemorable. The voice acting represents a significant point of criticism across multiple reviews. While the Adrenaline Vault found it “passable,” 4Players.de was harsher: “They sound dull and the dialogues are insignificant.” The GameBoomers review summed it up as “adequate, but lacking some dynamics,” limited further by the “clichéd two-dimensional characters” they had to portray.

The technical audio issues reported by some players further undermined the atmospheric potential, forcing reliance on subtitles and disrupting narrative immersion.

Reception & Legacy

Upon its release in February 2009, Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer received a lukewarm critical reception that has remained consistent over time. The game holds a Metascore of 56/100 and a MobyScore of 6.1/10, based on 17 critic ratings that averaged 58%. The critical response fell into a clear pattern: acknowledging improvement over its predecessor while noting significant remaining flaws.

German publications were among the most positive, with Adventurearchiv (77%) praising it as “a whole step better than its predecessor” and noting improvements in “every aspect considered.” Adventure-Treff (74%) acknowledged the “thrilling story supported by the dark mood and clean optics” while criticizing the “frequently dumb conversations.” More critical voices like Just Adventure (42%) found the experience frustrating, concluding that the developers seemed to have “gotten sick of the entire game” by the end.

The player reception mirrored this mixed response, with an average rating of 3.2/5. The comprehensive player review on MobyGames captured the consensus: an “average point’n’click adventure game” with good graphics but fatally flawed by “shallow story,” “very linear gameplay,” and “bad linear scripting.”

The legacy of Hunt for the Puppeteer is primarily as a stepping stone in City Interactive’s evolution. The studio would continue the Art of Murder series with Cards of Destiny (2010) and Deadly Secrets (2011), while simultaneously developing other adventure series like Chronicles of Mystery. More significantly, City Interactive would eventually pivot toward greater commercial success with the Sniper: Ghost Warrior series, suggesting that their adventure games served as valuable training grounds for larger projects.

Within the adventure genre specifically, the game represents a particular strand of European B-tier development—games that served the dedicated adventure market with competent, if unspectacular, offerings during a period when the genre was no longer commercially dominant. It stands as an example of both the opportunities presented by digital distribution (allowing niche titles to find audiences) and the limitations of rapid, budget-conscious development cycles.

Conclusion

Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer is a game of conflicting identities. It aspires to be a gripping, globe-trotting detective thriller but is constrained by linear design and narrative disjointedness. It demonstrates clear improvement over its predecessor in production values and puzzle design, yet remains hampered by shallow characterization and technical imperfections.

The game’s ultimate failure is not one of ambition but of execution. The premise—a serial killer leaving antique dolls at crime scenes—is genuinely intriguing, and the international scope suggests narrative ambition. However, these elements are undermined by a plot that feels contrived, characters that never evolve beyond clichés, and gameplay that prioritizes scripted sequence over player agency.

For dedicated adventure game completists, particularly those with affection for mid-2000s European development, Hunt for the Puppeteer offers a competent, 8-12 hour experience with moments of atmospheric appeal. As the Gameswelt review prophetically stated, “If the developers maintain the pace of their improvements, they could possibly deliver a really great adventure with Art of Murder: Part 5 in 2012.” This never came to pass, and the series remains a footnote—a fascinating example of a studio learning its craft in public, producing games that were always almost better than they actually were.

In the final analysis, Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer is neither a hidden gem nor an unplayable disaster, but rather a perfectly mediocre adventure that encapsulates both the possibilities and limitations of its developmental context. It serves as a historical marker of a specific moment in time for both its developer and its genre, worthy of examination as an artifact if not celebration as a masterpiece.