Story

Paris, Summer of 1914. World War I has just broken out. The player impersonates Mandrake, a young and talented magician and long time rival of The Amazing Ludwig, another illusionist. Ludwing announces a new performance where he'll use a dimensional portal which allows to see distant places without being spotted. However, the day of the show Ludwig disappears without a trace. The espionage applications of that device are obvious, and the French Secret Service forces Mandrake to find Ludwing and get that portal before the Germans can do the same.

While searching for Ludwing, the player will be helped by some celebrities of that time such as Mata-Hari or Houdini, and he'll be able to control them occasionally as well.

Gameplay

The gameplay will be mainly based on the magic skills of the character the player is controlling at any given time. Mandrake's ability is to hypnotize people and make them do whatever he wants for a limited time.

It will work as follows: Whenever Mandrake is at close range from an NPC, several dialogue options will be shown on-screen. These are the orders that Mandrake can issue to that NPC. When one is selected, the NPC will obbey blindly, but after a limited time he'll return to his sense and original location.

The game challenges will be of two types:

Puzzles: The player needs to hypnotize sucessive NPCs while issuing the proper orders within a limited time to achieve his goals (See Example).

Quick Time Events: QTEs just like we've seen in Heavy Rain. I. e. While controlling Houdini, the player needs to ensure he escapes from a sabotaged Chinese Water Torture Cell.

Example

Mandrake attends to a party in the German embassy. He needs to steal some documents from the vault located in a room nearby. The main room is full of people, but only 3 of them play a role in the challenge: The General, the Soprano and the Guardian.

Mandrake talks with them and collects information: The Soprano is about to start singing but she's nervous. The Guardian is protecting the door that leads to the vault. He's attracted to the Soprano, but he won't leave his position more than a few meters. The General is overseing the whole scene. If the player orders the Guardian to leave the door, the General will notice and make the Guardian go back to his position. If the player hypnotizes the General instead, the Guardian will notice something's wrong with him and will wake up the General.

Solution: In order to get the documents, Mandrake needs to convince the Soprano that a little drink will help her to relax. The bottles are right beside the Guardian. Then Mandrake will suggest the Guardian to talk to the singer and move from his position. This is the opportunity window for the player to hynotize the General and make him obtain the documents for you.