In the First Degree (1995) PC Complete Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A beginning to end playthrough of Broderbund's 1995 PC game, In the First Degree.

Click on the following time codes to jump to the indicated phase:
Recordings of the witnesses' initial police statements 4:26
Review of evidence - documents and photos 31:14
Pretrial questioning of the witnesses 36:56
Beginning of the trial 1:06:55
The prosecution calls... 1:14:58
The defense calls... 1:56:26
The verdict 2:04:50

Though it never met with near the popularity nor sales of Myst, Broderbund's 1994 multimedia PC CD-Rom tour-de-force, as a followup to the then best-selling game of all time, In the First Degree still provides a solid, thoughtful, well-produced bit of entertainment.

In the First Degree is a "lawyer sim," not entirely unlike the Phoenix Wright series that would be established several years later. The game begins with murder and scandal, and you are the prosecuting attorney on the case. The first half of the game (taking the entire first CD) involves watching the initial police interviews, reviewing evidence, and questioning all of those involved. The tactics used here are important, because an uncooperative key witness can easily sabotage the case in court.

The second disc is comprised entirely of the courtroom trial, where you have to ask the right questions at the right times to impress your line of thinking on the jurors. There are several different paths that may be taken, but the only definitive "win" scenario is achieved through slamming the defendant with a 1st degree murder charge. The replayability is pretty surprising given how constricting the use of FMV tends to be in a game.

It's a lot of fun to prod at the witnesses, to tune into their temperaments and guide them into saying what you need to, and to piece together the mystery as the clues start coming together.

This is probably one of the more worthwhile uses of FMV seen in a 90s PC game, and one of the extreme few that would not really work with any other format. The acting is pretty good throughout, the graphics (especially for the faked TV show ads and news reports) is convincingly done, and the video looks great by Windows 3.1 standards when running in 16-bit color mode.

If you can get it to run on a modern PC and enjoy courtroom dramas, give it a try. It's slow pacing and attention to detail certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea, but those that like a bit of thought with their gaming will find a lot to appreciate here!

This recording was played through Windows 3.11 installed through DosBox.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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