Dylan Dog: Through the Looking Glass

Dylan Dog: Through the Looking Glass trades the usual point-and-click verb commands for a ticking clock and Lovecraftian dread, pitting London's investigator of nightmares against a brutal murder and a deadline that resets your day if you miss a single clue.

Lovecraftian horror meets London detective work in Dylan Dog: Through the Looking Glass

Most players in 1993 expected point-and-click games to follow the LucasArts template: take every item, talk to every person, and build a massive inventory while wandering freely. Simulmondo s.r.l. had different ideas when they adapted Tiziano Sclavi's comic character for MS-DOS. The game casts you as Dylan Dog, starting out at your Craven Road apartment before pulling you into the gruesome murder of anthropologist Geoffrey Foulkes and an ancient Cthulhu mythos conspiracy.

The first-person perspective forces you to look directly at the scene, clicking through rooms rather than walking an avatar around them. When Sarah Fawkes hires you to investigate her uncle's death, you are immediately forced to make decisions about where to go. Unprecedented volcanic activity is shaking up the scientific community, ancient cults are moving in the shadows, and every trip across London costs precious time. If you spend your afternoon wandering the cemetery instead of checking key leads, the day simply ends and you are left stranded.

No verb lists, but a harsh author who resets your progress

Instead of listing commands like "Pick Up" or "Talk To", the mouse interface presents contextual icons. You click directly on objects or people to interact, which keeps the screen clear but places absolute weight on your deductive logic. You collect physical clues, newspapers, and strange relics into an inventory that you must actively consult to piece together what happened to Foulkes. Lord Wells offers advice and hands over a key amulet, while Inspector Bloch pops up to track your official progress.

The design gets harsh when you fail to hit necessary milestones. The game tracks your calendar, starting on dates like June 16th, and limits how many locations you can visit before night falls. If you fail to find a crucial piece of evidence, a meta-character representing the "author" intervenes. Rather than giving you a generic game over screen, the author resets your timeline back to the morning, forcing you to play through the day again with better prior knowledge.

How Simulmondo built its comic adaptation

As Simulmondo's second full retail release for the comic hero after Gli Uccisori, this game was designed to feel like a visual novel come to life. The development team included coders Mario Savoia and Marco Favaretto, artist Anthony Aicardi, and audio designer Massimo Perini, working off a storyboard by Gian Battista Aicardi. Comic creator Tiziano Sclavi was directly involved with the story, ensuring the mix of detective work and Lovecraftian dread matched the Italian comic books.

In Italy, the big box hardware release for the Commodore Amiga came packed with collectible extras: a limited-edition Dylan Dog pin badge and an exclusive printed short story by Sclavi setting up the murder plot. Italian retail boxes even sported a promotional sticker featuring football star Antonio Cabrini, who acted as Simulmondo's celebrity brand ambassador at the time. When the title made its way to MS-DOS computers abroad, the atmospheric soundtrack and detailed pixel art drew praise, though international players noticed the English localization contained some awkward phrasing.

The design choices that still test your patience today

The linear constraint hidden inside a non-linear choice structure is the single biggest hurdle for modern players. You feel like you have total freedom to visit Victoria Road or the cemetery whenever you like, but missing an item like a specific note early in the day invalidates the entire run. Because the game does not explicitly warn you that you missed a trigger until the author sends you back to the start of the day, you will likely retrace your steps multiple times just to figure out which interaction you skipped.

That rigid trial-and-error structure puts this title squarely in line with early 90s European adventure games, where mood often trumped puzzle fairness. Still, the dark story and the direct involvement of Sclavi give it a tone that stands apart from standard PC horror titles of 1993. If you enjoy deductive games where time management actually matters and wrong choices have immediate temporal consequences, the mystery holds up surprisingly well.

Play Dylan Dog: Through the Looking Glass online in your browser

If you want to experience this Italian comic mystery without tracking down retro PC hardware or setting up custom emulators, you can play Dylan Dog: Through the Looking Glass free in your browser right here. Running the game directly lets you experience the eerie audio stings and atmospheric graphic frames without dealing with slow disk load times. Jump straight into Dylan's shoes, keep an eye on your pocket watch, and try to solve Foulkes's murder before the author sends you back to breakfast.