Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law was
a long-running series on Adult Swim/Cartoon Network that featured characters
from classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The main character, Harvey, was a defense
attorney who had to defend the classic Hanna-Barbera characters from hilarious
situations that you couldn’t imagine if you watched their shows as a child. Now
that the final episode has aired all of the crazy characters and humor from the
show have made their way into the video game. The game does a commendable job of
preserving the same wackiness of the show but falls a little short in the
gameplay department.
The basic premise of the game
centers upon Harvey having to defend several different cases laid out in similar
fashion to the television episodes. You can consider each case as a different
“episode” that you actually control during the game. Each case starts off with
the basic plot developments to give you an idea on what the case will be about.
Once the initial story segment has played out then you get to investigate items
and locations in search of clues for the case.
The investigation section is
composed of four different sections; Move, Examine, Talk and Present. Moving is
simple enough since it allows you to move from area to area. Examine is where
you get to view up close certain items in search of clues to use during your
case. The game will simply add an item that you can use to your Evidence File
once you found something that you need to keep. The Talk segments let you talk
to different characters you meet during your investigation in hopes of getting
additional clues. The Present option lets you interact with other items or
characters in the game with items in your evidence file.
After the investigation period is
completed, the game moves forward to the court case segments. I should point out
that the game automatically moves to the case segments once you’ve reached a
certain point in the investigation section. Sometimes you might have all of the
items you need but there might be times where you could have missed an item or
two. The court cases really boil down to two options; Press and Present.
Pressing is where you can pressure a witness on their testimony to hopefully
find holes or flaws in the testimony. Presenting is where you can present
evidence you’ve collected to the help your case.
Even though the above description
might seem very easy and straightforward the game still presents a decent
challenge. The game doesn’t let you keep pressing or presenting evidence during
the court cases. You have a certain number of chances/opportunities you can mess
up, called the Gravitas Meter, before the game will end. If you try to present
the wrong item during questioning you will lose one of your Gravitas counters.
If you keep pressing a witness without any advancement to the case you can lose
a counter. Once you’ve run out of counters then the game is over and you have to
continue from an earlier save point or you can start the case over again.
The investigation segments are
rather straightforward and shouldn’t leave any too stumped looking for answers.
However the Court/Press segments can be rather challenging because you need to
pay attention to everything a witness says. Sure you might notice something out
of place in their testimony, but you have to press the correct words in their
testimony in order to keep the game moving. All of the testimony is broken up
into different segments that you can scroll through to find the piece you want
to press. This could result in you having to play the same case several times
before you find just the right combination of evidence and testimony to pressure
before you can finish the case. Honestly I didn’t expect this much challenge
from a Harvey Birdman game but it helps keep the game from a quick finish.
The one part of the game that I felt
should have elevated the game unfortunately fell flat, for most of the game, was
the humor. The television series was always one of those goofy, wacky shows that
you either got or it went over your head. This isn’t to say that every episode
was an instant classic but for the most part the show was hilarious. This game
feels more like episodes that didn’t make it into the show simply because they
weren’t that funny. There are some very funny one liners and bits during parts
of the game but nothing that was consistently ‘laugh out loud’ funny.
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law is a
game that does an admirable job of re-creating the television show it’s based
upon. The same wit, characters and premise have made it intact to the game.
Visually the game looks identical to the show without any differences from what
I could tell. Unfortunately the best part of the show, the humor, is the one
part of the game that seems to fall flat. Parts of the game are funny but
unfortunately those parts don’t make up the whole game.
Review Scoring Details for Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law |
Gameplay: 6.8
The game follows a very straightforward approach of collecting evidence and then
using the evidence against a witness on trial. The biggest catch of the gameplay
is paying attention to everything a witness mentions in their testimony. You
have to be prepared to apply pressure to a witness for the right line of
testimony.
Graphics: 8.0
For me the game is identical to the television show with all of the characters
being replicated exactly. The catch is the show was never a visual treat to
begin with.
Sound: 7.5
Almost all of the characters in the game are played by the same actors from the
television show. But sadly no Stephen Colbert, sorry.
Concept: 6.0
The game doesn’t break the walls down when it comes to innovation. Instead we
get a rather typical playing “point-and-click” style adventure game for a
console.
Multiplayer: N/A
This is a single-player only game.
Difficulty: Medium
Paying very close to all of the little details in the testimony can be
challenging at times in the game.
Overall: 7.1
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law isn’t the game that will create a resurgence in
PS2 gaming. Instead we get a typical point-and-click type of game with a zany
cast of characters that will please die-hard fans of the television show.
