MazM: Jekyll and Hyde Review

And now we visit the interesting world of videogame book adaptations. MazM: Jekyll and Hyde takes the classic gothic novella – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – by Robert Louis Stevenson and translates it into an interactive experience, complete with a brooding Victorian art style and light puzzle elements. As an experiment in adaptation, this is an impressively faithful retelling that captures the atmosphere and tone of the original source material, but never really justifies its existence as a videogame.

Beat for beat, the game takes the iconic 1886 story and moulds it to fit within a point-and-click style of narrative. Most of my time playing was spent as Gabriel John Utterson, a lawyer whose friendship with the morally righteous Dr. Jekyll takes an unexpected turn once the malicious Mr. Hyde begins causing havoc around London. From there, well, it’s Jekyll and Hyde. Mysteries and secrets begin piling on top of one another as the supernatural corrupts science and the concept of egos gets taken to the extreme.

I’m assuming almost everyone is aware of the plot twist at this point – although, I won’t spoil it for the oblivious few. Even so, I still found myself getting swept up in this story as the writers of MazM: Jekyll and Hyde have done more than a commendable job injecting the charm of the original into this game. The cat and mouse dynamic keeps the pacing exciting as each discovery is countered by more questions being raised. And the dialogue organically conveys each character’s traits and motivations, even if I noticed the occasional grammatical error or two.

The atmosphere of the game is also heavily aided by the visuals and sound design. The sketchy, impressionistic art style looks like it could have originated from a gothic picture book and fits the portrayal of Victorian-era London like a glove. The character portraits and full screen stills look especially stylish with the expressive designs ranging from stoic to unnerving.

Likewise, the unsettling audio – whether its dissonant notes or unhinged laughter – drives home just how disturbing this story about murder, insanity, and scientific abominations truly is. Of course, none of this is striving for realism, but the gloomy, overdramatic presentation feels intentionally catered to mimic the aesthetics of gothic literature – and succeeds in doing so.

However, actually playing through MazM: Jekyll and Hyde reveals the game’s limited ambitions. The majority of gameplay can be boiled down to walking over to an NPC or object and clicking on them to instigate a dialogue or monologue sequence. While this moves the story along and preserves the text-based nature of the original, it doesn’t inspire any excitement, challenge, or fun.

Some exploration is encouraged, as visiting the different sections of London is not only visually immersive but unlocks trivia pieces about the time period. These are interesting to read through as the writers clearly did their research, but they are not enough to counteract the walking and talking monotony.

Instead, sprinkled throughout the game are a handful of puzzles and quick time events. These are at their best whenever I had to search a room for clues regarding the code for a lock. It felt like actual detective work piecing together the right numbers from the scraps of information I had gathered.

Everything else is insultingly basic. Letters are deciphered by pressing the button at the right moment as a line slowly scans across the content. The QTEs are little more than mashing “A” or pointing the analog stick in a certain direction. I played on Switch and was surprised to find no touch screen support, despite the game also being available on mobile. Each of these sequences barely qualify as minigames and do little to spice up the minute to minute gameplay.

However, the lingering question I had while playing MazM: Jekyll and Hyde was who is this for? The disturbing aspects of the narrative would be too daunting for most children and most adults would likely prioritise the book or a film adaptation if they wanted to experience this story. Given my playtime was around three hours, it would be hard for me to recommend this game over a Jekyll and Hyde movie that would be absent of any of the game’s uninspired design. Even the book is a quick read, and I can guarantee there would be no mindless mashing of the “A” button if you choose to take that route.

A good videogame adaptation needs to be a good videogame first, and a good adaptation second. MazM: Jekyll and Hyde is in no way an invalid way to experience this story. However, the engaging narrative is more a testament to the timeless qualities of Stevenson’s original work than what the developer has added to this version. They made sure the game’s world looked and sounded like a 19th century gothic tragedy but failed to incentivise the player to interact with that world in any thought-provoking way.