Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine

Overview

Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine is an adventure game developed by Himalaya Studios and published by Meridian 4 (self published by Himalaya for the Steam release) for the PC platform.

Story

Al Emmo is sort of like an old western version of Leisure Suit Larry. He's a forty year old virgin who is off to prove his manhood by marrying a mail order bride waiting for him in a saloon. Ivanna Lottakas, his hopeful bride to be, is none to happy with her proposed suitor. Upon finding out he's penniless because his dad didn't give him his allowance, she leaves him high and dry with the next train outta town not coming for quite some time.

Determined to not let fate get him down, Al come across another beautiful lady, Rita Peralto, and decides to make her the object of his affection. However he has a bit of competition in Antonion, the dashing Spaniard who also has his eyes on Rita. Being his better in every way, Al spends the rest of the game trying to outwit Antonio and win Rita's heart.

Gameplay

Al Emmo is a classic adventure game utilizing the classic Sierra type controls. Right clicking cycles through standard cursor options such as Walk, Look At, Pick Up, etc., while left clicking enables the action. Unfortunately, Al Emmo keeps the old school thing going with the lack of any feedback to the player in the form of hotspots. Instead you're forced to figure out what you can and can't interact with throughout the game. Also, like the classic Sierra games, it is possible to die in Al Emmo.

Ganmeplay otherwise consists of meeting eccentric characters, having funny conversations, and solving odd puzzles with ludicrous inventory items. All standard fare.

Reception

Al Emmo has garnered reviews that are highly favorable and highly unfavorable. Not too uncommon in this day for adventure games, it received comments like, "The game looks gorgeous, tells an engaging story, has fantastic voiceovers and will have you in stitches at some of its many outrageously funny moments. It’s hard to avoid clichés sometimes: Al Emmo is solid gold." from Just Adventure to "Frech, wie man Bedienungsstandards in Adventures derart ignorieren kann. Al Emmo steuert sich umständlich und besitzt ein fummeliges Inventar. Hat man sich daran gewöhnt, löst man mäßige Rätsel und führt laut Packungstext "preisverdächtige Dialoge", die in Wahrheit aber unglaublich unwitzig sind." from GameStar (a german site).