Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, clue-gathering Where is Carmen Sandiego? games were a childhood staple.
Not only were there accompanying Carmen Sandiego ancillary products such as a cartoon show, comic books and board games in this notorious lady thief’s franchise, but the video games themselves were classified as “edutainment.” So, while kids had fun digitally traversing the world, they could also learn a bit of geography, history and mathematics amid their clue-finding.
Gameloft’s new Carmen Sandiego game harkens back to those colorful edutainment offerings of old. Only this time, Carmen is more of a goody than a slippery baddy.
Things kick off with Carmen relaxing on a leisurely vacation—looking none the worse for wear after a 30-year absence. She gets a call from her techy sidekick that her former VILE (Villains’ International League of Evil) cohorts are once again on the move. They’ve stolen a Phantom fighter jet from an air and space museum. And only someone like Carmen has the clue-gathering skills and inside knowledge to save the day.
Carmen figures she might as well give ACME (Agency to Classify & Monitor Evildoers) heroing a try. While she won’t actually join that policing organization, she can use her long-developed skills to help. After all, she remains the world’s greatest thief.
So, Carmen grabs her distinctive wide-brimmed crimson fedora and jets off to New Orleans for a little crime busting. There she discovers the first layer of a wide-ranging super-criminal plot that will have her traveling the world in an effort to save it.
Gameplay-wise, players guide Carmen as she works her way through a two-pronged approach to the criminal activity on hand.
Carmen is always chasing one mysterious bad guy or another, for one thing. And that involves going to the scene of a crime and gathering clues and intel from shopping districts, airports, government buildings and the like. She interviews potential witnesses; spots small left-behind details; figures out the baddy’s preferences or habits; uses techy devices (a glider, grappling hook, night vision, and thermal-imaging goggles); and solves environmental puzzles in an effort to figure out where each might be headed to next.
And while working against a ticking clock, she must use her gathered clues to eliminate certain VILE agents from suspicion while building a solid case against the real guilty party in each crime. That way, when she catches up to a culprit in Hong Kong or Cairo, she can have the evidence and a warrant in hand that she’ll need.
If Carmen runs out of time or misses a critical bit of evidence, it’s back to the beginning to start the case again.
This time around, Carmen travels to locales such as Cairo, Egypt; Jaipur, India; Tokyo, Japan; and Brisbane, Australia. And sometimes there are small twists to the cases, such as knowing who the crook is in advance but having a super-short deadline or running into an environmental obstacle that must be quickly overcome.
Carmen Sandiego is a single-player only game. And you do not need an online connection to play.
Carmen is the red-clad, stylish hero this time. The gameplay is fun and fairly straightforward. Players encounter some twists to overcome, but the cases all tend to center around exploring and clicking the right places and things. So, these investigations stay kid friendly.
There’s quite a bit of kid-friendly humor in the mix as well. Young players will learn a bit about geography and different cultures. And they have to rely on math and problem-solving skills to best the game’s puzzles.
While older games used a physical almanac of information to solve mysteries and puzzles, this new one relies on ACME’s “Crime Net Database” to help Carmen and young crime solvers keep track of information and collected clues.
(Carmen Sandiego is also free to play for Netflix subscribers on Netflix Games.)
Carmen does use her past criminal skills, i.e. pickpocketing and safecracking, to gather some of her intel and foil baddies. But the game doesn’t reward or celebrate her use of those thieving skills.
While not really a concern, per se, players and parents should note that this game is only partially voiced. That means most of the dialogue is typed out and must be read.
This throwback to crime-chasing-and-solving games of the ‘80s and ‘90s is fun and kid-friendly. It won’t stump any older detectives, but young rookies will enjoy solving crime in a red fedora and trench coat. And they might even learn something along the way.
(I mean, just where are Reykjavik and Accra anyway?)
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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