With all the hallmarks of a classic point and click crime adventure, The Raven – Legacy of a Master Thief is also one of the most cinematic games we’ve seen in this year’s summer release line up.

Set across 1960s Europe, this ‘whodunnit’ has an oil-painted aesthetic and warm colour palette that’s shown off with a great use of lighting and dynamic camera shots. During the quickest of sneaky peaks at a small section whilst out at E3 last month, we joined the game on the Orient Express with its plush red booths lining a carriage and pretty pastel pink lampshades casting long shadows as they carved up the rays of sunshine flowing in through the train windows. A portly, moustachioed, uniformed Swiss police constable, Anton Jakob Zellner was sat reading, seemingly un-aware of the trouble brewing.

“We’ve tried to create a really thrilling story that mixes Agatha Christie with gangsters!” Nordic Games producer Martin Kreuch ventured as we chatted about classic crime capers. Europe is in the grip of the gentleman master art thief known as The Raven. His burglaries are spectacular and he always emerges unscathed, making him the hot topic of conversation with the public and press as he persistently makes the authorities look like bumbling fools. Sweeping our mouse over the scene, we began our quest to find The Raven by revealing hidden clues and secret items to plonk into our inventory. “Everything you pick up on your investigation will be realistically related to the world. You can’t go pocketing chairs and buckets as they’re way too big” laughed Kreuch as we raked our way through the train. “We want to appeal not just to point and click fans but to non-gamers who like crime novels and of course film fans, so making it tense and accurate for players, to fully immerse them is important.” The sleuthing is a detailed and pertinent aspect of the game. You won’t find randomly alien items conveniently placed just for the sake of moving the game forward or dragging out 20 hours of gameplay.

Travelling from Switzerland to Egypt, constable Zellner searches the Orient Express for answers whilst The Raven continues to leave a trail of his trademark black feather clues; starting in London at the British Museum where an ancient ruby – one of the legendary “Eyes of the Sphinx” has been stolen. This is big news to detective Nicolas Legrand who stunned the public after supposedly fatally wounding his old black bird adversary. Who IS The Raven? Developers King Art Games have tried to balance a gripping story with old school Hollywood dramatics. By playing first as the investigator, then as the thief, players can begin putting the pieces together when the first episode comes out at the end of this month.

For those players who can’t wait, Nordic Games instead of releasing yet another game trailer have created a free to play Interactive Graphic Novel. A prequel to the main game, it allows people to discover the back story to the bitter rivalry between The Raven and his pursuer investigator Legrand. With its cool jazz opening title sequence that echoes Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (that was also superbly paid homage to in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can credits), the novel is very different in style and tone to the game but is a refreshing change to a trailer. "An Interactive Graphic Novel is the ideal way to introduce players to the main game in a way that is leisurely yet exciting so players can get a taste of what is to come from The Raven – Legacy of a Master Thief," said Peter Hercher, Product Marketing Manager at Nordic Games. "It’s a free gift from us at Nordic Games, that not only keeps players in suspense of what is to come in The Raven but also provides a deeper understanding of who the Raven is, what motivates him and will help players piece together parts of the story that they’ll hear about when playing through the main game out this summer."

The novel is available now as a browser based game and is also on iOS and Android devices.

The first chapter of The Raven – Legacy of a Master Thief will be available via digital download on PC, Linux, Mac, Xbox LIVE and PS Network on July 23rd, with the second and third chapters to be released on August 27th and September 24th respectively. A boxed version including all three chapters is due out on October 24th 2013.