Okay, so how does the game actually play? Those of you familiar with the genre won't find anything new here, but that's beside the point. There's a story to be had here, and it plays out in true Noir fashion, via internal monologue, the questioning of suspects, and quite a bit of footwork. Progress is driven by the completion of Quests, which are passively accepted by Petra, the protagonist you control (who seems to have no formal connection to any of the Oz series, though I might just be misremembering). Each time you complete a Quest, one of the tiny jewels in the interface lights up to let you know how far along in the overarching game you are.

This moves the game along with a brisk pace, and almost feels too easy, especially combined with the fact that there are very few interactive items on-screen. While any given screen seems full of objects to grab or look at, in reality you'll only be able to manipulate one or two -- and these are clearly marked by text as you hover the cursor over them. However, as stated previously, item collection or mechanics complexity isn't the point of this game -- it's all about the story.

As a detective, your goal is to find a missing person named Anzel. Doing this will take you all over Oz, and introduce you to the unusual suspects of Oz, each one of which has something interesting to say about any number of seemingly-unrelated things which might, in the end, prove to be connected somehow.

Conversation follows the standard choose-your-response dialogue tree common to this genre of game. Frequently, it's worth going through the entire tree with a character, exhaustive though it might be, because merely mentioning a new location is enough to open it to travel. Travel in the game is handled by Gump Taxi, and is a simple matter of clicking on the appropriate section of the map to effect a visit.

Your Journal, the first thing you pick up, keeps track of all your Quests, and even offers hints for what to do in each location, though this is generally unnecessary. The Journal also keeps track of clues, sketches, and Knowledge Pills and their effects (it's an Oz thing). There is even a sort of Side Quest thing in effect, requesting that you search for buttons to give to Scraps. Doing this yields concept art, found in the Sketches section of the Journal.

The voice acting is also pretty decent, offering quite an expansive cast of characters -- pretty much every person you encounter can be spoken with, and they're all worth the effort, though of course you can fast forward with a mouseclick.

There is a lot to like in Emerald City Confidential, and of course if you're a fan of mysteries you'll likely find something here to chew on. I'll be staging my own Return to Oz just as soon as I'm done writing this article. Oh, hey, look at that: I'm done. Time to hail the next passing tornado. You can grab the demo right here on Big Download, in both Mac and PC flavors.