Déjà Vu: A Nightmare Comes True!!

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File:Deja Vu - NES - USA.jpg
North American NES box art.

Déjà Vu: A Nightmare Comes True!! is a puzzle adventure game created by ICOM Simulations and first released on Macintosh in 1985, and then ported to a bunch of different platforms. This was the first game to use the MacVenture Engine.

In the game, you awake from unconsciousness in a bathroom stall. You don't remember who you are and you have needle puncture wounds in your arm. Looking around for clues you discover a man shot to death and a whole lot of people looking for you, but you don't know why. You have to use the few objects you find to uncover your hidden past and find out what happened before the police catch you and ask you questions you can't answer.

After becoming a fan of Shadowgate which I bought from a Kroger movie rental when they were liquidating their NES games, I also picked up Uninvited and Déjà Vu. This was my least favorite of the games because I found fantasy and horror to be more interesting than hard-boiled detective stories, but I still enjoyed the game. I ended up getting stuck a fair way in on my first play, and it wasn't until many years later that I beat it fairly.

Status

I own this game on the NES and have beaten it.

Review

  • Overall: 5/10
  • Best Version: NES

Good

  • The game has great artwork and the NES port has wonderful music composed by Hiroyuki Masuno.
  • The interface is nicely intuitive.
  • The script has some pretty interesting sections, and the game does a good job at keeping you in the dark for awhile as you piece together the story.
  • I like how you can destroy evidence that would be incriminating to yourself so that you can alter the narrative to the police.

Bad

  • Death is far too common. Thankfully, the game is pretty forgiving with the reloading.
  • Due to the style of the game, there isn't much replay value.
  • There are a lot of useless items that clutter up the inventory, which adds a little complexity to the puzzle solving, but is really annoying.
  • The muggers impose an artificial time limit to the game which isn't necessary.

Ugly

  • There are several ways to lose all your money and find yourself in an unwinnable state.

Media

Documentation

Maps

Videos

Titles

Language Native Transliteration Translation
English Déjà Vu
Japanese ディジャブ - A Nightmare Comes True!! Dijabu Déjà Vu

Links

Link-MobyGames.png  Link-Wikipedia.png  Link-VGMPF.png  64x64px  Link-GameFAQs.png