Berlin Connection

Berlin Connection is a 1998 German educational adventure game by eku interactive that was released for Mac and Windows.

Berlin Connection
Developer(s)Eku Ward
Release1998
Genre(s)Adventure
Thriller

Plot and game-play

The game sees the player take control of Roger Penros, a journalist who researches the fall of the Berlin Wall. Throughout the game, he time travels to visit the wall at three points in its history. During this time, he falls in love with the East Berlin resident Katja. After they spend the night together, she is kidnapped and the kidnappers demand that he hand over incriminating photos that he took. Their demands lead to Roger beginning his own investigation.[1]

The game is played in a first-person perspective. The player can navigate through photographs and click on hot-spots, as well as use their camera to take photos of key objects and use historical information provided in the game to locate items of interest.

Production

The game's designer, Eku Ward, had previously made a name for himself in the interactive space with the 1991 game Pixelpark.[2] The original concept for the game was similar to a straightforward chess game of good and evil, but it was redesigned after inspiration was taken from the 1993 film The Innocent, which viewed secret agents as mysterious and enigmatic.[3]

The developers described the game as an "interactive documentary thriller".[4] The official game website contains further information to help players solve the case, such as biographies of characters and transcripts of intercepted phone calls.[5] The game is highly detailed, with features such as recreations of street art that was present in 1989. Berlin Connection was designed so that players could complete puzzles while absorbing historical background information.[6] The game includes 3000 photographs and numerous genuine documents from recent German history.[1]

The game was showcased at the ISEA2000 Village convention.[7] (ISEA – International Symposium on International Art)

Critical reception

MittenDuRch felt the game served as both a multimedia Berlin travel guide and a Thriller.[4] LiteraturCafe noted the game didn't push technological boundaries, but that this was expected given its financial constraints.[8] Geshicthe felt the price-performance ratio was good compared to other titles.[9] Learn Line wrote that the game demonstrated how interactive media could be used to make contemporary history come alive in the classroom.[10] Reviewer Thomas Kozianka felt it was an interesting way to build historical events into an adventure game narrative.[11] Fribel felt it would be an effective piece of media for both gamers and teachers.[12] Adventure Archiv thought the puzzles were varied and well-integrated into the story.[13]

Berlin Connection was the 6th best-selling game in Germany in October 2000.[14] It was awarded the Multimedia Award of the City of Stuttgart.[2][15]

References
  1. "Interaktiv © Verlag Der Tagesspiegel 1998". 5 June 2003. doi:10.1998/in-pr-7262.html. Archived from the original on 5 June 2003. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  2. "Dokumentation Berlin auf CD-Rom". horizont.net (in German). Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  3. "Interaktiv © Verlag Der Tagesspiegel 1998". 6 May 2003. doi:10.1998/in-pr-10133.html. Archived from the original on 6 May 2003. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  4. "MittenDuRch – Softwaretest: Berlin Connection". 2 June 2000. Archived from the original on 20 June 2000. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  5. "Berlin Connection". 2 April 2007. Archived from the original on 25 April 2007. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  6. "Flyer Up-Dates". 2 November 1999. Archived from the original on 22 November 1999. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  7. "ISEA2000". isea2000.com. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  8. "Softmoderne '99 – Wolfgang Tischer berichtet – literaturcafe.de – Der literarische Treffpunkt im Internet". 2 January 2013. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  9. "Berlin Connection". 2 January 2008. Archived from the original on 2 January 2008. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  10. "InfoSite: Fall der Mauer (Offline-Medien) – abr". 1 November 2004. Archived from the original on 11 November 2004. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  11. "Rezension "Berlin Connection" by Thomas Kozianka". 7 June 2000. Archived from the original on 7 June 2000. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  12. "Datenbank – Berlin Connection – Ein interaktiver Dokumentar-Thriller". 2 October 2007. Archived from the original on 24 October 2007. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  13. "Berlin Connection – Review deutsch". 2 February 2004. Archived from the original on 21 February 2004. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  14. "Baedeker – Ihre Online Buchhandlung". 3 October 2000. Archived from the original on 30 October 2000. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  15. "DESIGNSZENE BERLIN". DESIGNSZENE BERLIN (in German). Retrieved 9 February 2019.
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