Delaware St. John: Volume 3: The Seacliff Tragedy

The Seacliff Tragedy is the third game in the Delaware St. John series. It covers a separate case for paranormal investigator Delaware St. John, but also continues the general storyline of the previous games. John has a vision of an amusement park accident where more than a hundred guests were killed. The park, Seacliff Amusement, has been locked down since. John decides to investigate, but contrary to the previous games, his friend Kelly Bradford can be controlled as well. They both take turns to explore a certain area of the park. The story has been split up into two main parts: Everyone Loves a Clown and The Protector.

Set entirely in the abandoned park, John and Kelly meet different characters, of which quite a few are ghosts, and they try to find out the cause of the tragic accident. Meanwhile, they continue the search for proof that John is The Protector, who, according to the legend, has to take on The Destroyer and his hunters. The game is shown from a first-person perspective, with pre-rendered 3D cut-scenes in a third-person view. There are no dialogue trees during conversations and although there are a few items and inventory-based puzzles, most of the game is spent exploring the park. During their search, John and Kelly are in contact with Simon through VIC, the Voice/Imagery Communicator. Shown in the bottom right part of the interface, it can be used to ask for clues, or to send photos or recordings of paranormal activity for analysis. A few of the puzzles are based on mazes, and number combinations with cryptic hints.

There are a few sequences where the characters can die, but those parts are then restarted right away. The game consists of pre-rendered still images and is entirely mouse-controlled. In most locations, the player can click forward, back, left, or right to turn or move to a new part, and the cursor automatically changes to the appropriate icon to examine, pick up or use an item. The player's performance is graded based on the amount of times a character lost consciousness. This happens when, at certain locations, Shadow People appear. These need to be clicked quickly with the flashlight to scare them away, but being too late does not effect the story or gameplay.