Part 6: Ep. 4: Burn

: Last time on MySims Agents: After a seemingly-routine case brings Sam to the attention of the Sim Protection Agency, Sam finally realizes his dream of being a special agent! But will it turn out to be a dream? Or a nightmare?


---


The next morning finds Sam at the train station overlooking the neighborhood, freshly barbered and wearing a tie.



: Let's get down there and find some fresh cases!

And down we go.



The train station lets out onto the small plaza on the other side of Gino's pizzeria. Now that we're here, we need to find a case to work. Where better to start than by talking to the guy who runs the newsstand? He'll know all the news!

: Anything in the news, Luis?

: Oh, hey Sam, did you hear?!



Oh. He knows yesterday's news. Oh well. Maybe Buddy's found something.

: Hey Buddy, where shall we go?



Guess not. Anyway, there are plenty of other people out and about--



--that looks promising.

: Hi Gino, how are you?



: Maps?! Not tomatoes, this time? Okay, I'm in! Don't worry, Gino, I'll find those maps!



: In your restaurant?

: You couldn't have told me that first?

: Yes. Derek, Shirley, and Patrick were all having dinner. Suddenly, smoke and flame started pouring out of my stove!

: You were the first out of your restaurant?

: Yes! But the others soon followed. After the flames died down, I went back in to confirm that I was ruined. Not only was my stove destroyed, but my safe was open!



: You kept maps in a safe?

: Of course! Those maps show the secret locations where I find my arcane herbs and forbidden cheeses.

: How did they get the combination to your safe?

: I don't lock it.

Sam stares at Gino for a long moment.

: Okay.

: So either Derek, Shirley, or Patrick "cracked" your safe during the fire...

And into the pizzeria we go, to begin work.



Let's go look at the destroyed stove.



: This stove is too badly damaged for me to make out what caused the fire. I'll need to repair it before I can learn anything.

: I should salvage some stove parts from other machines in Gino's.

Next, let's examine the open safe.



: Did the thief leave behind any evidence of where they went?

On the way back to the kitchen, something about this trash can catches our eye. We dig through it and...



: I wonder if the thief discarded any more of the maps as they fled the scene of the crime.

Three leads should be plenty for now. Let's vandalize some stuff! We equip our trusty wrench and--



--wrench the heck out of this gumball machine. Wrench, wrench, wrench.



Spare parts. Sure. Anyway, we also dismantle the teeny-tiny stove:



: Now I can repair the stove!

How do we repair the stove? Through the power of our first puzzle minigame, of course!



The repair-a-device minigame is pretty straightforward. First, we run around and steal parts from other machines. Then, we use those parts to fix the machine.

Gino's pizza oven is apparently gear-driven. The damndest things in this universe are gear-driven. Anyway! To fix it, we need to reconnect the sparking generator on the left-hand side to the stopped red gear on the right. We have a short gear belt and a small gear to work with.



Simple.



We go back outside and around to the patio, where Gino is working away at his backup pizza oven.

: Gino, your fire was caused by a lack of ventilation. Your chimneys must be blocked!

: Impossible! I clean the chimneys all the time!

: Well, there's something fishy going on. How can I access the chimneys to check them out?

: Climb the ladder behind my building! But hold the ladder tight, Sam, it's slippery with delicious pizza grease!



But that sounds like work. I mean, it sounds dangerous. Let's interview the witnesses first. We catch up with Derek outside.

: So, what happened in there, Derek?



: Derek, you need to answer my questions. I want to learn what caused the fire.

: Why should I care?

: Derek, I think this fire might not have been an accident.



: ... nice.

Well, that was productive. Let's go talk to Shirley.

: So, what happened in there, Shirley?



: And you left immediately?

: Dropped my fork and bolted! I've been here ever since.

: Thanks, Shirley. Good to know.

And finally, our last witness, Patrick.

: So, what happened in there, Patrick?



: I see, it happened very suddenly.

: I couldn't even breathe, but I managed to finish my slice on the way outside.

: What? You finished your pizza, even though there was a fire?



Well, that's all our witnesses. Let's go see if Buddy's found out anything interesting.

: Hey, Buddy, Who do you think is behind all this?

: No idea, but we're agents! We'll smoke 'em out! Haha! Get it, pal?

Sam laughs a little...

: Not really.

: ... oh. Oh! 'Smoke 'em out.' Now I get it!

Rather than go up on the roof, let's follow up on the cracked safe. Going back inside the pizzeria, we pull out our magnifying glass...



Aha!



The footprints lead past the wastebasket where the first map was dumped and out the front door. We follow them outside.





They really do fade! Fortunately the thief turns around and returns to the sidewalk.

: Prints are easier to see on the sidewalk than the street! I'll have to remember that surfaces show prints differently...

Whoever left these prints is heading for the park... but they took a detour to visit this garbage can.



: Hey! There's a map in this trash can. The thief must have passed this way.



Now carrying two of Gino's maps, we follow the prints through the park to this tunnel, which we haven't been through before. Looks like that's our next destination!


---


: Next time on MySims Agents: Whodunit, pal? Who stole Gino's maps? ... no, really, I don't remember. Who was it?

---



Sam's new look! Don't worry. We'll see him in trenchcoat and fedora yet.

Video: There Was A Fire
One of the things that I have trouble showing off with screenshots is the game's decent sense of comedic timing. Case in point: the opening movie for this particular case. (Case not in point: I scrolled through the dialogue a bit fast in the middle of this clip. Sorry about that.)

Concept Art: Derek
- by Ben Seto