Detectives United: Phantoms of the Past

Detectives United: Phantoms of the Past is the fourth installment in the Detectives United series by Elephant Games.

Plot
The opening cinematic shows Agent Dorian Brown sitting at his desk, reviewing case notes. He sounds somewhat despondent as he muses that his twin brother is involved in something bad and that he, Dorian, needs to go and stop him. The 'camera' lingers on an old family photo of the twins with their sister, Arabella, taken at a time when they were all still visible.

As the game proper begins, Agent Shade summons Anna Gray and James Blackthorne to the Detectives United office, where she reveals a secret she has been keeping. Agent Brown left two months earlier on a personal mission and has not returned. He entrusted the truth of his mission only to Agent Shade, and left instructions that if he failed to come back from the investigation, she was to give his folder of information to his partners so they could come and finish what he started. There has been no communication from him since, and Shade is starting to worry, so she feels it's time to bring the others in on the secret. James and Anna express surprise that Brown would not have trusted them, his longtime partners, with the news about his mission, but Shade explains that because it's a personal matter, Brown was reluctant to pull his friends into what she calls his "family drama."

The folder doesn't contain much that's very helpful, but it does reveal Brown's family history to his friends for the first time. He is concerned about his twin brother, Mortimer, whom he feels is doing something incredibly dangerous, and has gone to a community called Restville to try to stop whatever it is he's doing. The somewhat confused pair get into James's trusty Volkswagen Beetle and drive to Restville, where they see what appears to be Agent Brown at the gates of the city. James, who is driving, swerves to avoid hitting Brown and crashes the car; he's injured, but not seriously, and Brown disappears while they try to get themselves sorted.

The investigation takes them into the abandoned streets of Restville, a sleepy little hamlet with strange blue roses lining the streets. It's just past one in the afternoon, and signs on the streets remind the residents that between 1:00 and 3:00 each day, they are to rest (hence the name Restville) and urged to literally stop and smell the roses. The detectives make their way into the nearby bar, where the local sheriff seems to be deliberately ignoring them, and after finally getting the attention of the bartender they're offered a glass of what he calls "blue beer," a drink only found in Restville. He listens to Anna's inquiry about Agent Brown and says that he doesn't know anything, but gives her the address of the town's administration building, saying that the mayor knows everyone and can probably help.

Before they can get to the admin building, the duo encounter a woman in a Renaissance faire costume with a basket of blue roses. She advises James to buy one "for your lady," and though he tries to demur and say that they're in a hurry, Anna can't resist stopping to smell them. Her eyes turn a strange shade of blue, but before James can do anything, the sheriff shows up and arrests James for "conducting an unauthorized investigation." He puts cuffs on James, then punches him unconscious, and James wakes up in a jail cell. He manages to escape and chloroform the sheriff to buy himself some time to get out of the building; in the process, he discovers a note which states that James is proving to be inexplicably resistant to the effects of the blue roses, which is why they consider him a dangerous criminal. Since James has no idea where Anna is, he makes his way to the admin building in hopes of finding her.

Instead, he enters the run-down building to be greeted by Agent Brown - or so the man claims. He's dressed in a purple-tinted suit, very similar to the black suit worn by Brown aboard the Titan in Timeless Voyage, and introduces himself as "Dorian Brown, the mayor of Restville." James is suspicious, not least since this Dorian Brown doesn't seem to know him, and his protests anger the man, who demands to know who released James from jail. Before James can answer, a door opens, and a second Agent Brown emerges. He's identical to the first one, except that his suit is a different shade of purple, and he tells James that he is the real Agent Brown, and the first man is his twin brother, Mortimer.

While James is left to try to figure out which is the real Agent Brown, the scene switches to Anna, who is waking up in an unfamiliar house, complaining of a terrible headache. This turns out to be the home of the flower seller, who appears and says that the mayor asked her to look after the unconscious Anna. The flower seller is kindly but seems almost dazed, and Anna is eager to figure out what's happened. She manages to get out of the house to continue searching for clues, and finds evidence that the blue roses have a hallucinogenic pollen. The town of Restville is not at all the idyllic haven it appears; it's actually quite run-down, but the residents are kept in a tranquil state by smelling the roses, which are at their most potent between the hours of 1:00 and 3:00 every day - which is why the residents are urged to smell them at that time.

Back in the admin building, Mortimer Brown reveals himself by moving to attack James. Dorian tackles his brother before he can hurt his partner, and the evil Brown laughs and escapes. Dorian, now able to greet James properly, advises his friend to find a disguise before venturing out into the streets, as he is a wanted man. He promises that they will meet up again a bit later, and heads out in search of his brother. James pulls together a long coat, a scarf, a white wig, and a pair of dark glasses, and leaves the building to spot the sheriff hanging up a wanted poster with his picture on it. He finds a pay phone and calls in a phony tip about his own whereabouts, sending the sheriff on a wild goose chase to throw him off the scent, then enters an abandoned building where blue roses are growing. In the basement of the building, he finds that someone has set up a sort of secret lab, with photography developing equipment and important documents, and he makes use of these. But when he hears the door opening, he fears he's been caught by Mortimer Brown.

The scene switches back to Anna, who finds documents in the flower seller's home that indicate she's romantically involved with Mortimer Brown and is helping him with the blue roses. Using a note about a date the flower seller had with Mortimer, she travels to the past and destroys some of the blue roses, which Mortimer has been cultivating to be even stronger. She then marks the sigil of the Detectives United on the outside of the building so she can find it again in the present. Upon returning to the present, she encounters what looks to be Agent Brown, who becomes the player character for the first time in this game; she asks him a series of questions to confirm his identity, and once he proves that he really is Dorian, they are relieved to be working together again. They make their way to the basement of the abandoned building, surprising James, but the sight of Anna assures James that this is the right Brown twin. It turns out that the basement lab is Agent Brown's field HQ for his investigation - everything James has been reviewing has been his.

Brown apologizes for keeping his friends out of the loop. They address him by his first name for the first time in the series, asking why he didn't tell them what he was doing, and he explains that it was so personal and so dangerous that he felt it was safer for them not to know. He's glad to see them, however, because their help with his brother will be invaluable, and they forgive him for keeping his secrets. Using all the clues they have assembled in their separate investigations, the detectives work out that Mortimer had moved to Restville at the invitation of his and Dorian's uncle, the sheriff, and when he came to the town, he brought the family's rare strain of mind-manipulating roses. Having charmed Anastasia Smith, one of the locals, into a romance, he introduced the roses as part of a plot to turn Restville into a tranquil and completely obedient place, with him as its mayor. Anastasia became the flower seller, who helped to grow the roses and lull her neighbors into their current state. In their mind-numbed happiness, the locals never notice how run-down the town really was, and instead believe that everything was perfect. Any outsiders who happen to stray into Restville end up in the same situation, and never leave. When James and Anna came to the town, the effort was made to subdue them the same way; but since James turned out to be resistant to the effect (and therefore they could not control him), he was named a dangerous criminal who needed to be locked up so he couldn't stop the plot.

While James and Anna subdue the sheriff and the flower seller, respectively, Dorian goes to confront his brother. Mortimer's response is mocking as he claims that Dorian has always meddled in his affairs. The game ends with Mortimer being taken away in handcuffs. Back at Detectives United headquarters, Agent Shade welcomes the returning trio. Dorian, sounding sad, asks what's going to happen to his brother, and she replies that they won't know for a few days.

Bonus Chapter
The bonus chapter opens with an unfamiliar character reading a newspaper. The news article is about how after Mortimer Brown's arrest, Andrew Stevens was elected mayor of Restville, and will have to work hard to restore the town and its reputation after everything Brown did. The man reading the paper is in fact Andrew Stevens himself, and his reading is interrupted by a phone call from the local hospital. One of their new patients is an unidentified man exhibiting symptoms similar to those of the other rose pollen victims, and since he refuses to answer any questions about his condition, they would like the mayor to come and interview him.

Andrew makes his way to the hospital, where the patient continues to be belligerent. He ends up giving the man a sedative and shifting him into a wheelchair in order to get the clues which he's concealed under his pillow. What he finds confirms that there is something about the case connected to the blue roses, and he next travels to the home of Anastasia Smith, the flower seller. She is distraught over the whole situation, particularly her broken relationship with Mortimer Brown. She's not unwilling to answer Andrew's questions; unfortunately, because she was helping to both grow and distribute the roses, she was among those most heavily affected by them, and her memories are extremely addled as a result. He hypnotizes her, and in this hypnotic state she can access the blocked memories.

Anastasia then becomes the player character, going on a date to the circus with Mortimer Brown. After putting out a fire which threatens the tiger's cage, she accompanies Mortimer through Restville to one of the houses. This is enough information for Andrew, in the present day, to go to the same house, where he finds evidence in the attic that Mortimer Brown was growing roses there and that the hospital patient had been in the attic recently.

Andrew returns to the hospital and gives the patient his identification, which he had left in the attic. The man admits to having been in the attic for an entire day, and that he found the roses; they reminded him of the roses his grandmother used to grow in her garden, so he arranged for some to be sent to her. Andrew takes off in pursuit of the delivery truck, and destroys the blue roses before the recipient can smell them and be affected by their pollen. We are then shown Restville a few months later, where Andrew and Anastasia are working to make it into a beautiful town once more; all the blue roses are gone, and have been replaced with normal roses of various colors. Anastasia is no longer wearing her Renaissance costume, but instead is dressed in modern clothes, and looks much healthier. Restville and its residents are beginning to recover.

Characters

 * Dorian Brown: Mystery Trackers special agent from the Mystery Trackers series.
 * James Blackthorne: paranormal expert and detective from the Haunted Hotel series.
 * Anna Gray: private investigator from the Grim Tales series. She can time travel using personal objects.
 * Agent Shade: Agent Contact of the Detectives United. She is said to be in charge of the Intelligence and Safety Management of the Mystery Trackers agency, and has control over multiple and diverse resources.
 * Mortimer Brown: Agent Dorian Brown's twin brother. We are not told if the twins are identical or fraternal; however, they are both invisible, so for all intents and purposes they are identical. Although Mortimer was believed to have been killed by his father Rafael, it turns out that he managed to escape. At the invitation of his uncle, the sheriff, he eventually settled in the town of Restville, where he used his family's mind-altering roses to subdue the populace under his rule. It's implied that he intended to gradually spread his influence in the same way. He doesn't seem to like his brother very much, but it's clear that Dorian nevertheless still loves Mortimer and doesn't want to hurt him even as he tries to stop him. He is last seen being taken to prison; his exact fate is currently unknown.
 * Anastasia Smith: the flower seller of Restville. She is, or at least believes herself to be, Mortimer Brown's longtime girlfriend. How much of their relationship was real and how much was the result of Mortimer's deception and the influence of the roses is left unclear. She is actually a kind, gentle person who loves flowers and was swayed by Mortimer's description of a complete utopia. He used her image, the sweet flower girl with the basket of roses, as a sort of mascot for the town to encourage people to smell the roses.
 * Andrew Stevens: replaces Mortimer Brown as mayor of Restville at the end of the first game. By all appearances, he's an honorable man who cares about the town and its residents, and wants to protect the world at large from the terrible effects of the blue roses. He seems to work hard at improving Restville's situation.

Connections

 * Mortimer Brown was first introduced in Mystery Trackers: Raincliff. He was also an antagonist in that game, though not presented as necessarily evil.
 * Richard Gray is conspicuously absent from this game, and no one ever comments on it. In Grim Tales: Heritage, it's implied that Richard has somehow managed to leave his skull and return to life, although the exact details have yet to be explained. This is the reason given for his not appearing in that game, which was released a few months prior to Phantoms of the Past; presumably, he does not appear here for the same reason.

Trivia

 * This game is the first time in the Detectives United series that we hear anyone address Agent Brown by his first name.
 * This game uses a lot of voice doubling:
 * Chris McCann, who voices Dorian Brown, also voices his twin brother Mortimer. This means that their voices are as identical as their appearance, which only makes it harder for James and Anna to know which is which.
 * Courtney Christine Rosemont, who voices Agent Shade, is also the voice actress for the flower seller, Anastasia Smith.
 * Preston Ellis voices the bartender, the sheriff, and the doctor in the bonus chapter.
 * The plot of this game mildly changes some facts about Mystery Trackers: Raincliff. In that game, Mortimer was the eldest of the three Brown children, and Dorian was the youngest. Here, Mortimer and Dorian are the younger twin brothers of their sister Arabella; a photograph of the three can be seen on Agent Brown's desk in the opening cinematic. Also, in Raincliff, the mind-altering roses were black, not blue. Mortimer's death at the hands of his father Rafael has also been changed, though his survival is not explained.
 * This is the first game in the Detectives United series to have the player take on the role of anyone other than James, Anna, or Agent Brown. Mayor Andrew Stevens and Anastasia Smith are the player characters in the bonus chapter.
 * Most of the usual collectibles have been removed from the collector's edition of this installment. The player can still assemble fragmented pieces to form pictures which can be used as screen savers, but the only other collectible this time is a series of morphing hats. The hats can be viewed on a separate screen, and clicking on them reveals which member of the Brown family originally owned them.
 * Only one of the hats is indicated to have belonged to Agent Brown. According to its description, he spent some time exploring a jungle.
 * New to this game is the Expedition Room. After both the main game and the bonus chapter have been completed, players can use the Expedition Room to access any scenes where they missed a collectible, in order to complete their collections without having to redo the entire game.