Voyeur Companion


Welcome, dear reader, to my Voyeur for CD-I Companion!
Voyeur is a 1993 FMV adventure game by Philips POV Entertainment Group. It was designed by Philips to help sell the console. Although it was not enough to pull CD-I from the large abyss that the popularity of CD-roms and Windows pulled behind them, Voyeur is still an interesting output. Being both a CD-I release AND a live action FMV (full motion video) game, it's not surprising that Voyeur has acquired a cult following.

Voyeur is a first-person real time adventure FMV game. It is set in 1994, and the wealthy industrial Reed Hawke is considering running for president. However, we have learnt that Hawke is not such a pleasant guy, and we need to prevent him from getting into the White House. For that, we only have one weekend, a camera, and an apartment near Hawke's manor at our disposal. By filming inside Hawke's house, we need to get enough dirt on him to stop his political ambitions!
Notes:
-Reading the manual is important in most adventure games, and this is not an exception. READ IT.
-There are three games you can play:

  1. Save the Family Member
  2. Record the Murder
  3. Play Voyeur
-Save the Family Member is the hardest to do. There is only 1 piece of evidence you can shoot to send to the family member in jeopardy. There are 4 people who could be in danger (Margaret, Jessica, Chloe and Zachary) and the game decides on start-up which one will get murdered. So unless you found any of the indicator videos, you'll have to be lucky to stumble into the video/audio where Reed makes up his mind. You also can't be sure of where and when this video/audio will take place, although Reed's Office is a safe bet.
-Record The Murder is not easy either, but as it is always in the Sunday 10:30 PM timeblock, you at least have some sort of scope of where it will take place. When you have it, send it to the police.
-Play Voyeur. Watch without getting involved. After you watched the Monday morning video, you will have to just exit the game, it won't do that by itself.
-For the murder/family rescue videos it is IMPORTANT to watch the entire video. Sometimes, if you cut it off early, the game won't recognize it as proper evidence, even if you have all the implicating material you need.
-The game takes place in real time, cannot be saved and will last about 45 minutes. Starting up Voyeur is commitment.
-The game takes place in real time. Several things happen at once. You can miss out one video by watching another.
-Checking out evidence that is indicated by the magnifier might be a fun illustration for the background, but it is ALWAYS a WASTE OF TIME!

The game has 4 possible endings, and as a result, cannot be properly walked through. I will give you indications of where the important videos are. To do this I'll use this table. It's a schematic map of where all the rooms are, and what their function is.
1: unused 4: Reed's Bedroom 7: Hallway 10: Lounge 13: Reed's Office 16: Office
2: Chantal's Office 5: Jessica's Bedroom 8: Staircase 11: Staircase 14: Chloe's bedroom 17: Margaret's Bedroom
3: Kitchen 6: Bar 9: Front hall 12: Zach PC Room 15: Lounge 18: Zach's bedroom

There are numerous different endings. I'll discuss them here:

No Ending

This will happen if you miss out on the important videos: the Save video and the Murder videos. Eventually the game will turn to Monday Morning. You can watch Reed Hawke giving a speech on your television, or you can call the police to show them a tape with nothing on it, but that's all. The credits won't roll. So you'll just have to click Exit.

Angry Cop Ending

This happens if you show your tape to the cop when there's nothing of interest there, you have no interesting video and your time is up. You're chucked out without knowing who got killed.

Dead End

This will happen if you send out a video to the wrong character, or if you send out an incomplete video. This is why it's so important to watch all of the Save video: exiting it early will mean a family member will die. And, worse, you have to sit through one of the most toe-curling you-get-shot videos in gaming history: first you see how Reed opens the envelope and finds your tape, then gives you a nasty glare. Then there's a knock on the door. You open it. There's Chantal, sneering at you, pointing a gun and firing. Then you can see how she puts the gun back, then the screen turns black. What The? No camera swinging or falling to suggest our death?

Failed

Happens only if you caught the vid at Sunday, 4:30 PM in room 13, with Jessica and Reed talking about the toxic waste dumping. You can call the police after you caught it, which will lead to a game finish, but Reed will successfully claim that the film was faked, the family member will die and there'll be a Hawke in the White House. There are different versions of this ending, making only slight variation in newspaper headlines depending on who got killed.

Murder On Film

If you shoot the murder video and take it to the police, the game will end successfully for you. The view is the same no matter who got killed: it's always a video of Reed walking out of his house claiming innocence, then three newspapers with headlines claiming his innocence. Zach's murder takes place in room 18, he gets electrocuted. Margaret's takes place in Room 11 (she is pushed off the stairs), Chloe's in her own bedroom (room 14) by lethal injection, and Jessica's in her bedroom (room 5), she is either strangled by Reed or stabbed by Chantal.

Saved Family Member

Happens when you send a video/audio of Hawke finding out about said family member's plans to betray him. This outcome differs depending on who you saved. Zach is the dullest one, he'll leave the house with Lara telling the press that MDS is fake. When you save Margareth by shooting the audio file towards the end of Sunday, 10PM in room 13 and sending this to her immediately, Margaret and Reed will leave the house accompanied by the cop, quarreling. In the newspaper headlines, Margareth digs up some family dirt: Hawke murdered his father. When you save Jessica, you can see a video of Jessica and Masa escaping the house whilst answering questions of reporters. The newspaper headlines show that she reveals the toxic waste dump in Japan. When you save Chloe, you can see a cheesy murder video (Margareth kills Reed), some dug up family dirt about Chloe being really Reed's daughter, and the pair leaving the house.
If you find a save video, watch it to the end in order for the game to accept it as evidence.
Margaret's save audio is at 10:00 in room 13. Zach's is an audio at 10:30 in room 2. Chloe's is a vid in room 16 at the end of 10:00. Jessica's is the vid in room 16 at the start of 10:30.


Short Video Guide

There are a lot of interesting videos in Voyeur. I'll list them here, dividing them into the stories that develop throughout the game:
Reed Hawke
You will want to keep an eye on Reed unless you're playing voyeur: he is in all the scenes that will lead to an ending.
Saturday 4 PM: Enters building, room 9
Saturday 7 PM: President Phonecall, room 13
Saturday 8 PM: audio of Reed & Margaret going to bed, Room 10
Sunday 2 PM: Chantal & Reed love scene, room 10
Sunday 2PM: Margaret & Reed ticket confrontation and love scene, room 4
Sunday 4:30 PM: Jessica & Reed toxic dump confrontation, room 13
Sunday 8 PM: Chantal & Reed computer hack, room 16
Sunday 8:30 PM: Reed & Lara on the MDS project, room 7
Sunday 8:30 PM: Reed & Lara in Unsuccessful Seduction, room 4
Sunday 9PM: Chloe & Reed rape confrontation, room 10
Sunday 10 PM: Reed & Zach MDS Confrontation, room 16
All the murder/save videos are in the list of the respective victim.

Margaret Hawke
Of shopping sprees and her incestuous relationship with Reed
Saturday 4 PM: Reed & Margaret Greet, room 9
Saturday 7 PM: Margaret Tries Clothes, room 17
Saturday 7:30 PM: Jessica & Chloe & Margaret Greet, room 9
Saturday 8 PM: Jessica & Margaret Room Decoration, room 5
Saturday 8 PM: Reed & Margaret Call It A Day, room 10
Sunday 2 PM: Margaret sees plane tickets, room 3
Sunday 2 PM: Reed & Margaret ticket confrontation and love scene, room 4
Sunday 4:30 PM: Zach & Margaret chat, room 15
Sunday 8:30 PM: Margaret Football Memories, room 17
Sunday 9 PM: Margaret audio, room 17
Sunday 10 PM Indication Video: Chloe & Margaret on Reed's Rape, room 14
Sunday 10 PM: Margaret Digging For Ring room 9
Sunday 10 PM Save Audio: Chantal tells Reed what she overheard, Room 13
Sunday 10:30 PM: Reed & Margaret discuss ring, room 16
Sunday 10:30 PM Pre-murder: Margaret gets caught by Reed while packing room 17
Sunday 10:30 PM Murder: Reed kills Margaret, room 11
Margaret is saved

Jessica Hawke & Masa Endo
Telling the story of Masa's true identity and toxic waste
Saturday 7:30 PM: Jessica arrives, room 9
Saturday 8 PM: Margaret & Jessica room decoration, room 5
Sunday 10 AM: Masa & Jessica erotic chakra, room 5
Sunday 2PM: Masa phone conversation, room 6
Sunday 4:30 PM: Reed & Jessica Toxic Love, room 13
Sunday 4:30 PM: Chloe & Masa Cheesy Erotics, room 9
Sunday 8 PM: Masa & Jessica You Sold Out, room 5
Sunday 8 PM: Chantal & Jessica Endo File, rooms 5 and 16
Sunday 8:30 PM: Zach & Jessica Meeting room 6
Sunday 9 PM: Masa & Jessica confrontation, room 5
Sunday 10 PM: Lara & Jessica Guy Talk, room 6
Sunday 10 PM: Indication Vid Masa Jessica, room 6
Sunday 10 PM: Non-indication vid Masa Jessica, room 6
Sunday 10:30 PM Save Vid: Reed hears of Jessica's Plans and Plots Murder, room 16
Sunday 10:30 PM: Jessica Deals With Reed
Sunday 10:30 PM: Masa & Jessica Kiss Better, room 5
Sunday 10:30 PM Murder Vid: Jessica Gets Murdered, room 5

Zachary & Lara Hawke
About their bad marriage, Zach's MDS infatuation and Lara's Looking For Love In Several Wrong Places.
Saturday 7 PM: Zach & Lara enter, room 9
Saturday 7:30 PM: Zach & Lara moved to guestroom, room 8
Sunday 10 AM: Chloe & Lara Harley Ride, room 3
Sunday 10 AM: Zach Audio She'd Better Be Making My Breakfast, room 15
Sunday 2 PM: Lara & Zach Unsuccessful Seduction, room 15
Sunday 4:30 PM: Margaret & Zach vid, room 15
Sunday 8 PM: Chloe & Lara in That Bra Has To Go, room 14
Sunday 8:30 PM: Reed & Lara on the MDS project, room 7
Sunday 8:30 PM: Reed & Lara in Unsuccessful Seduction, room 4
Sunday 8:30 PM: Jessica & Zach Sibling Chat, room 6
Sunday 9 PM: Zach I'm Innocent plea, room 3
Sunday 10 PM: Jessica & Lara Guy Talk, room 6
Sunday 10 PM: Reed & Zach MDS Confrontation, room 16
Sunday 10 PM: Zach Missing Something, room 15
Sunday 10:30 PM: Lara calls daddy, room 18
Sunday 10:30 PM: Zach & Lara Make Up, room 15
Sunday 10:30 PM: Zach & Lara Make Out, room 18
Sunday 10:30 PM: Indication Reed gets diskette, room 16
Sundat 10:30 PM: Save Audio, room 2
Sunday 10:30 PM: Pre Murder Vid, Room 18
Sunday 10:30 PM Murder Vid: Zach Gets Murdered, room 18

Chloe Hawke
Seduction, Drug Abuse and Groin Kicking.
Saturday 7:30 PM: Chloe Arrival, Groin Kick and Bottle Seize, room 9
Saturday 8 PM: Chloe in Bedroom Teased By Reed, room 14
Saturday 8 PM: Chloe hints rape audio, room 14
Sunday 10 AM: Lara & Chloe in How Did You Know I Like My Eggs Scrambled, room 3
Sunday 2 PM: Chloe Audio: I bet you'd like to watch Frank, room 14
Sunday 4:30 PM: Chloe Lara, room 14
Sunday 4:30 PM: Masa & Chloe Cheesy Erotics, room 9
Sunday 8 PM: Lara & Chloe in That Bra Has To Go, room 14
Sunday 8:30 PM: Chloe Installing Microphone In Blouse, room 14
Sunday 9 PM: Reed & Chloe in When I Tell My Story You Won't Be Elected As Dog Catcher In This Country, room 10
Sunday 10 PM Indication Video (Mag Murder): Margaret & Chloe in Come Out, room 14
Sunday 10 PM: Chloe Gets Money, room 14 (unless Chloe is killed)
Sunday 10 PM Save: Frank gives Reed the tape recorder, room 16
Sunday 10:30 PM Murder: Chloe is Attacked room 14
Sunday 10:30 PM Murder: Chloe Stumbles And Dies, room 14
Sunday 10:30 PM Save: Chloe Lives, Reed Dies, room 14

Chantal Pousette & Frank Stewart
Bondage made hilarious!
Intro: Frank Is Tied Up At The Moment, room 4
Saturday 4 PM: Chantal meets Reed, room 9
Saturday 4 PM: Frank & Chantal & Reed audio: That Wasn't Funny! room 4
Saturday 7 PM: Zach & Frank (& Lara) audio only; room 9
Saturday 7:30 PM: Jessica & Margaret & Chloe & Chantal & Frank: Buttle and get kicked, room 9
Saturday 8 PM: Chantal & Frank bondage video, room 6
Saturday 8 PM: Chantal & Frank audio cucumber action. Thank you! room 6
Sunday 10 AM: Chantal & Frank Bark Like A Dog (and Zach takes part too) room 2
Sunday 2 PM: Reed & Chantal Power Is Sexy, room 10
Sunday 2 PM: Frank & Chloe in I Bet You'd Like To Watch, Frank, room 14
Sunday 8 PM: Chantal has file for Jessica, room 16
Sunday 8 PM: Chantal & Frank discuss sneaking into Zach's room, audio room 8
Sunday 8:30 PM: Chantal & Frank in Zip Up Your Pants, Big Boy, room 15
Sunday 10 PM: Chantal phone audio with Jim, room 2
Sunday 10 PM Indicator: (Mag Murder) Reed & Chantal I have news for you, room 13
Save Audio: Chantal tells Reed what she overheard, Room 13
Sunday 10 PM Save: Frank gives Reed the tape recorder, room 16
Sunday 10:30 PM: Chantal Phones Jim
Murder scenes are with the respective victim.

Miscellaneous:
World's Worst Get Shot Scene
Show Environment Issues To Cop
Policeman Scolds You


Character/Cast

All links go to the respective actor's IMDb page.
Reed Hawke (Robert Culp): Owner of Hawke Industries with ambitions to run for president. Widower, father of Zachary and Jessica, and brother of Margareth. Reed is involved in many scandals: apparently he was responsible for the death of his father, and possibly of his wife. He has dumped toxic waste in Japan. He has an incestuous relationship with Margaret. He has a relationship with assistant Chantal, tries to get involved with his daughter-in-law Lara and has on numerous occasions raped his niece Chloe who turns out to be his daughter.
Margaret Hawke (Grace Zabriskie): Sister and secret lover of Reed Hawke. Adopted Chloe. Reed has bought plane tickets for the tour, but not for her. Charity donator, but also a big spender. She was raped by her father as a child.
Jessica Hawke (Kat Sawyer Young): Daughter of Reed and girlfriend of Masa. Environmental worker and a smart young businesswoman.
Masa Endo (Bruce Locke): Jessica's Japanese boyfriend. Environmental terrorist who is sought for accidental manslaughter in the US and Japan. Is also seduced by Chloe.
Zachary Hawke (Michael Corbett): Son of Reed, husband to Lara. Has a bad marriage, as he prefers to sit behind his computer over sleeping with his wife. He invented an missile defense system, then was promoted off the project by his father. He seeks revenge in the game by hacking into the computer system of Hawke co. If the game ends well for him, the couple reconciles and has a nice night.
Lara Hawke (Denise Loveday): Wife of Zachary. She tries to convince Reed to let Zach back on the MDS project, but instead Reed tries to seduce her, unsuccessfully. Somebody else does manage to seduce her: Chloe.
Chloe Hawke (Sherrie Rose): Adopted daughter of Margaret. Vixen and all-round bad girl. Rides a Harley and is a drug user. She has been raped numerous times by Reed as a teenager and she'll record her confrontation with him in order to get money out of it. She also seduces Masa and Lara. She turns out to be Reed's daughter.
Chantal Pousette (Musetta Vander) Secretary and lover of Reed. She'll do most of the killing. She also has a heavy bondage relationship with Frank.
Frank Stewart (Robert Frank Teller) Reed's head of security. Involved in bondage relation with Chantal. Gets kicked in the groin by Chloe.
Tish Van Alden (Blaire Baron) Anchor of the Channel 6 Election Gossip show.
Jay Jacobsen (Jay Richardson) Reporter for Channel 6.
Cop (Frank Ciraci) The policeman that rewards or scolds you.


Review

I bought Voyeur as CD-i collector. I paid E 1,50 at the second-hand store. It sounded interesting straight away: a slick design, adventure, FMV without wild shooting...
And in Voyeur's case, it's WYSIWYG. It is indeed an interesting outset, an FMV, a calm adventure.
FMV suggests cheesy acting. Live Action is a true budget eater, which will lead to low amount of content, low amount of puzzles, and the cheeziest acting imaginable. It became a cult phenomenon because of this.
CD-I is also cult. The Philips console was very quickly outgraded by computers, although Philips kept on seeing possibilities and development. CD-I was never designed as a gaming console: there are little controls (joystick and 2 buttons), the controller is slow at responding, the disk is slow... Philips imagined a world of interactive media, watching films at high quality, receiving information, watching photos... Initially only low-graphic standard games were issued, like Connect-Four and Battleship. Because CD-I has a low amount of memory, the AI (artificial intelligence = strength of the computer) at these games is very low.
It wasn't until CD-Roms were getting ground that Philips decided to use CD-I as gaming console. Approximately a hundred games were released. Several were considered to be the worst among the worst games, as the lack of proper controls and the absence of a decent AI killed most game types. Except for Adventure games. The high-quality graphics on TV-screen make the few FMV adventures a joy to behold, and the sloppy controls don't make much difference.
Voyeur is pure and good for this system. While the apartment may not look too classy and the product placement is pathetic, the video quality is very good for its age. Although I could have done without the stripes suggesting it was shot from behind the Venetian blinds.
The acting is... ehm... FMV. The genre is notorious for its D-grade or worse acting. In Voyeur, there are three levels: the Good (Robert Culp), the Mediocre (Corbett, Rose) and the Bad (Locke, Loveday). The Good are Good all time, the Mediocre are good when playing with Good actors and are horrible when playing with Bad actors but not always, and the Bad are awful allround. This is not much different from most FMV games. A million dollars may be a large budget for a game: it's the same as a budget for a B-movie. But for that money, the producers need to make about 4 times the material AND create a game around it. The money is saved most at the acting by one take scenes (two if you really mess up), starving actors, and a bluescreen to save on decor.
In Voyeur a lot of things contribute to the cult value, such as the acting. Also the script is quite funny at times, although the performances aren't always too stellar. Not to mention the murder scenes, which are very camp.
[i]Voyeur[/i] is an enjoyable title in the CD-i catalogue, one that is a lot trickier than the low amount of interactivity makes you think, and that preserves a gorgeous memory to Robert Culp. As a game, it may have many issues, but this doesn't take the fun away.

For my YouTube Video Walkthrough of Voyeur, I had to play this game 13 times. I hope you're happy...

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