-
While there may be some crimes here to solve, the major obstacle feels like the interface and some odd decisions made
This is one of those titles that’s hard to put a finger on, as it opens with a video sequence which may be a little on the dark (in terms of lighting) side, but gives a sense of promise. But then it drops you into a generally very minimal experience, sometimes feeling almost more like an old-school flash game as you move between your options for investigative work and try your best to do whatever the game is hoping you’ll do in the right order. Honestly my favorite part of my experience was taking a moment to enjoy some classic Freecell on my inspector’s PC, but getting back to the core experience it was more of a mess. A combination of cumbersome controls to perform key tasks and an all-or-nothing approach the game takes in some situations really sucked my energy for the experience out of me quickly. I actually tested this, because it was honestly nonsensical to me, but if I didn’t look someone up for their info before calling rather than me getting turned back around or stopped before ringing them up the game ended, having me start again from the beginning. Just conceptually this is so unnecessary in the first place, but it also makes the underlying code feel terribly linear and even fragile in its expectations for how you play, with no real allowance for even mild deviance. If you have patience for those apparent constraints, perhaps you’ll get more out of it than I did.
Justin Nation, Score:Bad [5.4]