This year, Carmen Sandiego turns 40. Her first game, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? was released in April 1985 by Broderbund, which also created Prince of Persia and Karateka. The first game was both a puzzle and an educational adventure, tasking players with capturing the elusive master thief, dressed in her iconic red trench coat and fedora hat, alongside her cadre of V.I.L.E. (Villains’ International League of Evil) hench people. While Carmen has usually been the villain in most games and TV shows, although one who only steals for the challenge, in more recent iterations she has evolved to be a more Robin Hood-esque character, particularly her characterization on the latest Netflix series which ran for four seasons between 2019 and 2021 (which was actually rather good).
This game, simply named Carmen Sandiego, takes the outline of her character from the Netflix show, alongside other key characters including The Chief, the head of A.C.M.E ( Agency to Classify & Monitor Evildoers) and Player, Carmen’s friend, hacker and a reference to the game players, who was originally introduced in the TV series Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? The game has been developed by Gameloft, who also created the enjoyable remake of The Oregon Trail in 2022. The gameplay structure mimics that of the original Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?: Each caper, a V.I.L.E. agent has stolen some priceless object, and it’s Carmen and A.C.M.E.’s task to track the culprit down across the world, flying to different cities and hunting for clues to determine their identity and location.
Thus, this is a logical deduction game, as most of the games in the franchise have been. At each city, you, as Carmen, visit famous locations and search for intel, talking to witnesses and investigating leads. For example, in Rio de Janeiro you might visit the Royal Portuguese Reading Room, and then learn a clue about the next city the bad guy is heading towards, along with a hint about their identity. The criminal might have brown hair, or blue eyes, or they might not have blonde hair, or they might not like seafood. The city they might be heading towards could be a presidential republic, or have a coat of arms on the flag, and so on. You then use the A.C.M.E. CrimeNet database to filter through the culprits, eventually whittling down the list to a single suspect, as well as determining which city you need to fly to next. Finally, you must issue an international arrest warrant and catch-up with them, finally capturing them and locking them behind bars.
There are two game modes; the modern adventure with a 7 day timeline, and a variety of throwback capers with a 5 day timeline which more closely emulate the style and look of the original game. In the modern adventure, each city will usually have a fully rendered 3D environment which Carmen visits and investigates. These will involve some different variety of minigame; some might have you slowly tailing a suspect and trying to remain hidden, while others might have you freely walking around a location to find individual clues. There are also other minigames which involve hacking a computer or tuning into a radio station; most of these are very simple and usually unfailable. The throwback style dispenses with the 3D environments to give a gameplay loop much closer to the 1985 game, complete with cute pixel graphics.
Carmen Sandiego’s problems come from its relative simplicity and somewhat budget appearance. Most of the minigames you have to complete are straightforward and unchallenging, with relatively little in the way of interactivity, sometimes guiding you around locations on rails. For young teens this will probably be decently enjoyable but for older teenagers or adults, it’s a bit of a cakewalk. The logic puzzle deduction is decently enjoyable, but is essentially a straight copy of earlier games with a little more stylish flair. Indeed, compared to 2011’s Facebook Carmen Sandiego game, which had 86 world cities to visit, this game has less than 20, meaning you’ll regularly be revisiting cities.
The graphics also aren’t the best; Gameloft have clearly re-used the same engine as The Oregon Trail, and while it doesn’t look terrible, it does look pretty cheap as there are no graphics settings whatsoever, and the interface is clearly designed with mobile phones in mind. The Netflix series had a really amazing 2D comic style which the game sadly doesn’t even try to replicate. The pixel art of the throwback capers looks a lot better, with nice little animations for each city. Unfortunately there is very limited voice acting; none of the actors from the Netflix series reprise their roles and most story scenes just have a single word or phrase voiced for each paragraph, JRPG style, so get ready to hearing Player say “Ready Red?” ad infinitum.
Carmen Sandiego is broadly decent, but it feels like it should have gone a step further, both in its throwback homage to the original game, and in its modernization efforts. The gameplay is aimed squarely at the 10-12 age bracket with little in the way of challenge for older players, with most enjoyment being a mixture of nostalgia and whimsical charm. Still, this is the first Carmen Sandiego game since the Google Earth version in 2019, and simply having an updated way to play this classic title should hopefully help to introduce a new generation to the world of the global-trotting redcoat lady thief.
