So you say you're in the mood for a good old-fashioned church conspiracy? Turned off by The Da Vinci Code's action elements? Already played Gabriel Knight 3 so many times you could recite "Le Serpent Rouge" in your sleep? You're in luck.

Belief & Betrayal, an upcoming game developed by Italian company Artematica, follows the adventures of American journalist Jonathan Danter as he investigates a centuries-old church conspiracy and the more recent death of his uncle, and finds that the two may be related. Belief & Betrayal shares many similarities with Artematica's previous game, Martin Mystère (also known as Crime Stories), but it sports some key improvements as well. Artematica CEO Riccardo Cangini and ANACONDA PR representative Claas Wolter demonstrated an early version of the game for us at E3.

As Belief & Betrayal opens, Jonathan Danter is preparing for an interview with an important member of the American church. His plans change, however, when he answers a phone call from a Scotland Yard detective. The detective tells Jonathan that his uncle Frank has been found dead in London, stabbed in the back. Jonathan is stunned by the information, since he has believed his uncle to be dead for the past ten years.

Upon receiving this strange news, Jonathan foregoes his interview and travels to London to investigate. There, he begins to unravel his uncle's involvement with a mysterious undercover group representing the Vatican. Jonathan subsequently uncovers details of a series of gruesome ritual murders that appear to be tied to a conspiracy rooted deep within Church history, tracing all the way back to Judas betraying Jesus. His search for the truth will take Jonathan and the player on a trip across Europe, through London, Oxford, Venice, and Rome.

Belief & Betrayal has a second protagonist, Kathrin McKendal, who helps get Jonathan out of a sticky situation when he first arrives at his uncle's house to look around. Cangini didn't want to give away too much about Kathrin or her role in the game, but he did tell us that she's some kind of undercover agent. We also learned that the player will be able to switch at will between Jonathan and Kathrin for much of the game, and that they can call each other during the investigation to share their progress. In addition to Jonathan and Kathrin, the player will control one additional character, but this is not a main character.



If you've played Martin Mystère or even just seen screenshots, you'll probably recognize similarities in Belief & Betrayal's look and feel. Belief & Betrayal is built using the same technology, but boasts more polygons and improved resolution, as evidenced by the impressive new backgrounds shown here. Like many third-person games, Belief & Betrayal features 3D character models on prerendered backgrounds, but Artematica's process of creating the backgrounds results in a distinct style. The backgrounds are made in 3D then touched up, resulting in a stylized polish that makes environments look almost surreal. Reflecting the content of the game, Belief & Betrayal's graphics are more realistic than Martin Mystère's, with less of a cartoony effect and a darker color palate.

The graphics we saw were temporary but the background detail was still apparent, with several items to interact with per screen. We were told that the number of non-critical hotspots in the backgrounds have been scaled back from Martin Mystère. This is promising, because some players complained that there was just too much to look at in that game. In another feedback-driven change, all observations will be voiced by the characters this time around, rather than some appearing in subtitles only.



As far as the interface goes, what we saw appears to be fairly intuitive. The game has context-sensitive icons (look, talk, etc.) that you can scroll through with your right mouse button. The inventory appears when you move your cursor to the bottom of the screen. In addition to standard inventory, the game also features what was described to us as an "idea inventory," which lives on the right-hand side of the screen. As Jonathan comes across information, he collects ideas, represented in the game interface by icons. These ideas will need to be used on objects or people to solve certain puzzles. Ideas can also be combined with other ideas to gain a greater understanding of an issue or situation.

Belief & Betrayal is being developed in Italian, but is expected to come out in various languages, including English, near the end of 2006. ANACONDA holds the worldwide publishing rights, and plans to publish the game in various territories with help from local distribution partners. There's no word yet on who will be distributing English-language versions, but Adventure Gamers will let you know when further information becomes available.