''Mata Hari'' is an

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

video game. It was released on November 21, 2008, in German-speaking territories. The game was worked on by ex-

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor, former video game developer and video game publisher, publisher, and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George ...

alumni

Hal Barwood Hal Barwood (born April 16, 1940) is an American screenwriter, film producer, film director, game designer, game producer, and novelist. Early life Barwood was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, where his father ran the local movie theater. Early ...

and

Noah Falstein Noah Falstein (born June 1957) is a game designer and producer who has been in the video game industry since 1980, winning "Game of the Year" titles for multiple games such as '' Battlehawks 1942'' and ''Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis''. ...

Plot

Real-life

Mata Hari Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (, ; 7 August 187615 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari ( , ; , ), was a Dutch Stripper, exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for German Empire, Germany during World War ...

embarks on a fictional adventure in which she becomes a spy and uncovers sensitive military secrets, all in the midst of the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Gameplay

Primarily a point and click adventure game, the title also includes various

minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements and is often smaller or more simplistic than th ...

s. For instance players have to perform

exotic dance A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper", "exotic dan ...

s in order to earn money. The game allowed players to skip these dance-oriented sections.

Development

The game was developed by

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

-based studio 4Head Studio/Cranberry Production. DTP Entertainment published the game worldwide on its Anaconda label. A press release on April 26, 2007, listed a release date of Q1 2008 for

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. The core idea, a spy game with Mata Hari at the turn of the last century, was created by Christopher Kellner and Marc Buro. Buro, a producer at DTP, approached both Barwood and Falstein separately and pitched them a game based on Mata Hari, which after discussing the opportunity, felt was "right up our alley". The duo agreed to collaborate on the project. Barwood and Falstein were the principal designers, and fleshed out the core idea into a full-fledged game. The 4Head Studio team was led by Tobias Severin, Matthias Meyer, and Oliver Specht. The duo, who both lived in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, were able to discuss the game at a local cafe. However, they also began to have long

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

conversations between California, Hannover and Hamburg. In August 2007, Barwood and Falstein attended a series of meetings in Hannover to review and fine-tune the design.

Critical reception

Adventure Archiv thought that the game was short at a play time of ten hours. Adventure Treff wrote that reading the Wikipedia article of the subject of the game was more exciting than playing the game, and notes the game developers should have read it too prior to making the game. Adventure Corner felt the game's story was littered with plot holes. Game Captain felt the game came across as simple and superficial. Adventures Unlimited thought the game fell below expectations. Jeux Video described the title as one that exudes freshness, maturity and remarkable intelligence.

References

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

*{{moby game, id=/mata-hari_, name=Mata Hari 2008 video games Adventure games Cultural depictions of Mata Hari DTP Entertainment games Single-player video games Spy video games Video games based on real people Video games developed in Germany Video games featuring female protagonists Video games set in Berlin Video games set in Monaco Video games set in Paris Video games set in Spain Viva Media games Windows games Windows-only games World War I video games