Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law was a long-running series on Adult Swim/Cartoon Network that featured characters from classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The main character, Harvey, was a defense attorney who had to defend the classic Hanna-Barbera characters from hilarious situations that you couldn’t imagine if you watched their shows as a child. Now that the final episode has aired all of the crazy characters and humor from the show have made their way into the video game. The game does a commendable job of preserving the same wackiness of the show but falls a little short in the gameplay department.

The basic premise of the game centers upon Harvey having to defend several different cases laid out in similar fashion to the television episodes. You can consider each case as a different “episode” that you actually control during the game. Each case starts off with the basic plot developments to give you an idea on what the case will be about. Once the initial story segment has played out then you get to investigate items and locations in search of clues for the case.

The investigation section is composed of four different sections; Move, Examine, Talk and Present. Moving is simple enough since it allows you to move from area to area. Examine is where you get to view up close certain items in search of clues to use during your case. The game will simply add an item that you can use to your Evidence File once you found something that you need to keep. The Talk segments let you talk to different characters you meet during your investigation in hopes of getting additional clues. The Present option lets you interact with other items or characters in the game with items in your evidence file. 

After the investigation period is completed, the game moves forward to the court case segments. I should point out that the game automatically moves to the case segments once you’ve reached a certain point in the investigation section. Sometimes you might have all of the items you need but there might be times where you could have missed an item or two. The court cases really boil down to two options; Press and Present. Pressing is where you can pressure a witness on their testimony to hopefully find holes or flaws in the testimony. Presenting is where you can present evidence you’ve collected to the help your case.

Even though the above description might seem very easy and straightforward the game still presents a decent challenge. The game doesn’t let you keep pressing or presenting evidence during the court cases. You have a certain number of chances/opportunities you can mess up, called the Gravitas Meter, before the game will end. If you try to present the wrong item during questioning you will lose one of your Gravitas counters. If you keep pressing a witness without any advancement to the case you can lose a counter. Once you’ve run out of counters then the game is over and you have to continue from an earlier save point or you can start the case over again.

The investigation segments are rather straightforward and shouldn’t leave any too stumped looking for answers. However the Court/Press segments can be rather challenging because you need to pay attention to everything a witness says. Sure you might notice something out of place in their testimony, but you have to press the correct words in their testimony in order to keep the game moving. All of the testimony is broken up into different segments that you can scroll through to find the piece you want to press. This could result in you having to play the same case several times before you find just the right combination of evidence and testimony to pressure before you can finish the case. Honestly I didn’t expect this much challenge from a Harvey Birdman game but it helps keep the game from a quick finish.

The one part of the game that I felt should have elevated the game unfortunately fell flat, for most of the game, was the humor. The television series was always one of those goofy, wacky shows that you either got or it went over your head. This isn’t to say that every episode was an instant classic but for the most part the show was hilarious. This game feels more like episodes that didn’t make it into the show simply because they weren’t that funny. There are some very funny one liners and bits during parts of the game but nothing that was consistently 'laugh out loud' funny.

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law is a game that does an admirable job of re-creating the television show it’s based upon. The same wit, characters and premise have made it intact to the game. Visually the game looks identical to the show without any differences from what I could tell. Unfortunately the best part of the show, the humor, is the one part of the game that seems to fall flat. Parts of the game are funny but unfortunately those parts don’t make up the whole game.

Gameplay: 6.8
The game follows a very straightforward approach of collecting evidence and then using the evidence against a witness on trial. The biggest catch of the gameplay is paying attention to everything a witness mentions in their testimony. You have to be prepared to apply pressure to a witness for the right line of testimony.

Graphics: 8.0
For me the game is identical to the television show with all of the characters being replicated exactly. The catch is the show was never a visual treat to begin with.

Sound: 7.5
Almost all of the characters in the game are played by the same actors from the television show. But sadly no Stephen Colbert, sorry.

Concept: 6.0
The game doesn’t break the walls down when it comes to innovation. Instead we get a rather typical playing “point-and-click” style adventure game for a console.

Multiplayer: N/A
This is a single-player only game.

Difficulty: Medium
Paying very close to all of the little details in the testimony can be challenging at times in the game.

Overall: 7.1
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law isn’t the game that will create a resurgence in PS2 gaming. Instead we get a typical point-and-click type of game with a zany cast of characters that will please die-hard fans of the television show.