Defender of Boston: The Rock Island Mystery

Defender of Boston is a Role Playing Game where you take on the role of a Private Investigator, located in Boston in the year 1921. Your assignment is to go to an island called Rock Island to solve a mysterious disappearance of one Fred Black and an dangerous artifact described in your assignment brief as "The Thing", which has terrible powers for any mere mortal to control. Solve the mystery and return to Boston...alive!

The game begins with character development of a numerous amount of skills where you must allocate points for those skills. There is a wide array of skills from standard issue such as Strength, Dexterity to more complex skills such as Chemistry and Ninjitsu (in Boston?).

The interface is similar to most interactive fiction with graphic games with some additional features such as character stats, a clock, and several buttons for skills and other uses. A great additional feature is using several objects and combining it into a new item. The ingredients of the object are automatically available in the skill menu, so you only have to find the appropriate ingredients during your travels.

Travelling in the open is quite a novelty, as it is real time which also applies to combat, making it quite difficult as the you have to balance movement on the map and fighting at the same time.