Brad is searching for his wife Janet who has recently gone missing in Bavaria. The end of his journey takes him to a dusty old mansionBrad is searching for his wife Janet who has recently gone missing in Bavaria. The end of his journey takes him to a dusty old mansion belonging to infamous scientist Baron Albrecht von Frankenstein. With Brad realising Janet has become Frankenstein’s last experiment to create his bride he races to rescue here unaware of what dangers await him. What dangers do await him and what does Brad’s wife have to do with Frankenstein’s experiment to create a bride?
Right from the beginning it’s blatantly obvious Frankenstein: The Dismembered Bride (2009) is very, very loosely based off Mary Shelley’s original story. Developed by Mzone Studio and Solilab it takes the name but nothing else. The game presents itself as a horror with screaming sounds then falls almost immediately into complete parody as we learn Janet has been dismembered but her brain is still active; able to communicate with Brad. The player has to hunt for her body parts so they can be reassembled through hidden object scenes. The gameplay is pretty simple and you’re given a magnifying lens to zoom into the screen. It won’t last long either; probably an hour? The flippant nature of the game is ultimately what makes it stand out somewhat. The biggest takeaway I got from this game is how it subverted expectations. Almost immediately it becomes apparent Frankenstein is dead meaning the actual villain of the piece is already gone before you’ve even started. Brad keeps communicating with his disembodied wife who’s a brain and they keep arguing with each other. The whole thing makes numerous references to anything from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) to Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980). It’s completely preposterous and lazy in equal measure with an ending that shows the developers didn’t care about providing one. A couple of years after its release the game was retooled slightly into an Extended Edition for Big Fish Games and Steam. Actual puzzles were added to extend the game length as was character portraits for Brad as well as Janet when they communicate. The puzzles being added some years after the original mean they don’t fit into this extended version naturally. The new puzzles feel very tacked on. The game still looks cheap and strangely the ending is still non-existent.
Frankenstein: The Dismembered Bride is a silly, lazy attempt to do something with Mary Shelley’s story. The comedy is amusing and doesn’t seem to be above making fun of its genre. It shows quite clearly the developers didn’t care yet the lack of ambition seems calculated as if it wants to be bad on purpose. The whole game clearly feels like the developers sticking the middle finger up to the player. That only gets the game so far so I can’t recommend it. If you do decide to buy it don’t pay full price.… Expand
