The story is based on actual events, but the plot line is primarily fictional. Half of the story revolves around the "Torso Killings," an actual string of murders which took place in Cleveland just before World War II. The player takes on the role of Jim Pearson, a C.O.I. agent given the task of investigating Nazi supporters & spies. From the Cleveland section of the game, the story then begins to grow broader and more difficult. Puzzles slowly take on a large part of the gameplay. Continuing into the war, and sometime after it, there is a bit of an epic feel to the game's story. As the story progresses, it also becomes more macabre and psychological.

The game's general control is good. Exploring locations is done seamlessly from a 180 degree letterboxed view. When you want to move to another area, you move without any break to a high quality movement animation from one section of the location to the next 180 degree pan. The only problem I believe that gamers would have with Black Dahlia is that the puzzles are quite difficult. Although well integrated into the locations and plot, they become a task that detracts from the game's enjoyment. The acting, overall, is decent for computer gaming standards, but some individual performances range from above par to fairly bad. The music is pretty close to movie quality and only adds to the excellent mood set by the game's 3D rendered locations.

I was quite surprised by the performances given by Dennis Hopper and Teri Garr. Listed as starring roles, not only are their parts small, but they are terribly acted and written. Hopper seems almost asleep during his section of the game and Garr overacts a great deal in her scenes. Both seem badly placed in this game. Eliker does an fairly good job of holding up the lead, but comes off cardboard in many places when some emotion and depth are needed.

Black Dahlia really shines when it comes to video compositing. The actors are perfectly blended into their locations. The actors open and close doors when entering rooms without being off-mark of the computer generated door handle. The camera position moves a great deal in the game as well. Synchronizing the camera with the 3D environment has always been a problem with games and movies alike. No matter what the shot is in Black Dahlia, you can believe that the actors are really there.

Overall, I think that Black Dahlia is a pretty good game. The graphics and sound never take over, but can come very close. The video is always done in short bursts (approx. 5 minutes being the longest segment), rather than drawn out movie segments and little gameplay. It all comes down to substance and this game has a lot. Black Dahlia will keep even the most experienced player busy for a long time, but it never brings up clichéd or over-used game elements to waste the player's time. It's one of the best adventure/puzzle games I have ever played.

Black Dahlia requires a Pentium 90, 16 MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM, Sound Card, Mouse, and Windows 95.

It was reviewed on a Intel Pentium 166, 32 MB RAM, 20X CD-ROM, Sound Blaster AWE64, a Microsoft mouse, and Windows 95 OSR2.