Nightingale

Nightingale

A bit of background : I have played both acts of Shadows on the Vatican to the end. And I am also old enough to have played every Infocom text adventure when they first came out. So I was really looking forward to Nightingale.

Alarm bells rang when I found I couldn’t save whenever I wanted but I must say the branching system works well whenever you wish to change any earlier decision. I have managed to get a few different endings in one playthrough – and not a save file in sight.

I found the pacing of the text worked well, introducing a sense of tension that might not have been there otherwise.

Real player with 6.3 hrs in game


Read More: Best Crime Choices Matter Games.


Nightingale

This was a very interesting read; I was intrigued!


  • Clean crisp user Interface

  • Story: Not one I have seen covered

  • Excellent music that reflects the tone and pacing in the scene.

    The protagonist in this Text Adventure has a special talent. The Nightingale has been helping people for years with their paranormal gift. One person that the Nightingale helped is a professional assassin. That creates a dilemma.

    This is a short-story set in the “Shadows on the Vatican” universe, but you need not have played them.

Real player with 2.8 hrs in game

Nightingale on Steam

Lacuna: Prologue

Lacuna: Prologue

I can’t wait for this game to drop. I played the prologue through and was excited. the game play was varied, there are alot of interactivity between the character and the environment. I really like how you can move through the game as the character talks to himself, most games you have to either skip the monologue or not hear it to continue playing. I never thought I’d like a game with this type of graphics but I’ve been finding more and more games like this that I really like. I saved the date on my calendar for this game.

Real player with 2.2 hrs in game


Read More: Best Crime Multiple Endings Games.


This is going to be a gem! The prologue mainly is a tutorial of the game mechanics but it doesn’t feel like one at all. It feels like you are experiencing a story and based on the previews of the full game, the choices you make have an impact!

Also, the world just fits my taste perfectly! This is some modern scy-fi stuff mixed with noir elements, considering you play a detective anyways. Filled with so many details, you can’t help but feel like you were in another world for an hour :)

I also love that the game challenges you to use your brain and not just follow the instructions.

Real player with 1.4 hrs in game

Lacuna: Prologue on Steam

cyberpunkdreams

cyberpunkdreams

“The notion that nature can be calculated inevitably leads to the conclusion that humans too can be reduced to basic mechanical parts…”

So, we’re here now. This is a really neat game that’s flourished over the years.

I’m going to start this by saying I’m on the writing staff, but I’ve been testing the game much longer than I’ve had my hands in it and so far my contributions are somewhat limited. My work on this is a recent development so, yeah. Now, I’ve been testing one version or another of this game off and on since 2016 through its alpha, really knuckling down with its steam beta. But since we’re here now, lets get on with this and actually talk about the game.

Real player with 4815.4 hrs in game


Read More: Best Crime Cyberpunk Games.


The approach to how Action points are managed in universe is farsical.

Not only does it make no sense in the story or how the game world operates

There is certain actions that can be done for free but to reverse them costs action points

Action points you need to pay real money for or wait 10 minutes a pop for.

So say you put a goodie bag of Drugs together, 200 pills for 0 Action points, say you want to get some of those back, because you just got an event where you can give soemone 20 of those drugs for another dialogue option.

Real player with 857.4 hrs in game

cyberpunkdreams on Steam

Marlon’s Mystery: The darkside of crime

Marlon’s Mystery: The darkside of crime

Join Abby Marlon to solve the riddles in this captivating mystery and hidden object game. If you enjoy playing detective games, Marlon’s Mystery will test your skills as an investigator. Embark on an enigmatic adventure and discover the darkest secrets of the Taylor family.

Abby Marlon and Jared Evans are recruited by the Taylor family to investigate a murder case: the youngest daughter, Eleanor, has murdered her father Edward and has got away with the inheritance money.

Abby and Jared have to trail Eleanor through different places to find her, but to do so, they will have to solve a mystery surrounding the family.

  • Crime and mystery game. Discover a detective story where nothing is what it seems.

  • Collectible content. Interact with the characters and get objects to customize your detective board.

  • Extra content. Immerse yourself in the secondary plots that involve the 14 characters.

  • More content and updates of the game. Crime never sleeps.

Download it now and start your adventure as an investigator.

Be part of the Marlon’s Mystery story - Download now!

Marlon’s Mystery: The darkside of crime on Steam

PataNoir

PataNoir

Really interesting interactive fiction. It does away with a lot of the frustrations of the parser genre– pretty much no reason to hunt for verbs, the game is in good faith and plays with you instead of against you– and introduces fun areas and items thanks to the text’s reliance on wordplay.

Real player with 5.0 hrs in game

Patanoir is a text-based adventure where you make use of the similes in your surroundings to find the missing daughter of a baron. The tutorial was straightforward in explaining the system of the game as it covered text interactions, the use of similes, and navigation. The similes are easy to find as the sentences contain the word “like” for the most part. Using them is a different story. Progressing through the game can be described as requiring to think out of box or to make use of obscure item interactions. This aspect of the game is what players would most likely find frustrating. There are two options implemented that can help guide you through the game. One is your trusty servant which you meet at the start of the game (a hint system) and the second is a walkthrough which can be accessed in the main menu. The game is fairly linear though you can make use of different solutions in some instances.

Real player with 4.8 hrs in game

PataNoir on Steam

Detective Kobayashi - A Visual Novel

Detective Kobayashi - A Visual Novel

First of all, I am really fan of this type of games, for example Phoenix Wright, The Room, Danganronpa … So my review will have of some comparisons with those games.I will give my opinion about some themes that I consider important:

GRAPHICS:Anime style,they are good and you can remember many characters for having such a unique style.Maps are fine too. For me this is 7/10:They are Okey

MUSIC:This is not quite right for me.Some soundtracks listen when they finish and it is not very pleasant because it takes you a bit of experience to hear the same song starting, ending, empty space, starting …However the songs are not bad so 5/10

Real player with 32.9 hrs in game

As a huge Phoenix Wright fan, I had craved a similar game in quite some time, and I had to play Detective Kobayashi. It looks good on a PC screen, the character designs and backgrounds are very pretty. The first stories are not too hard to figure out, but the main fun is the gags and dialogue. I play with the voice volume turned off, since I’m used to this type of game without voiceover, just with silly faces and upbeat music. And because I like to imagine what the characters sound like.

Apart from the detective main story, an extremely fun minigame is texting random people on the phone and talking to them about various topics. It does not influence the cases as far as I can tell, but it is neat world building and learning to know the main character. The conversations are different in each chapter, so I make sure to activate them all right at the beginning.

Real player with 13.4 hrs in game

Detective Kobayashi - A Visual Novel on Steam

Murder On The Island

Murder On The Island


 This game is reviewed for [url]TentacleBunny's Cozy Cottage [/url] who generously offered the steam-key for [i]Murder on the Island[/i] that was provided to the Curator 

Background

This is the first Visual Novel by the renamed Forever Young Games which previously released Global Soccer Manager simulations under the same name. It is written by Márk Kovács as an experimental foray into this genre and it’s purely a Kinetic visual novel where an holiday island owner interviews the remaining 13 holiday-makers after 1 is discovered murdered on the 1st day of a week’s stay on the Island.

Real player with 2.5 hrs in game

Murder on The Island is pretty much a Detective Kinetic Novel were you try to find the Murderer. Sadly you can only try to solve it by reading the Story. You dont get any Choices or get to decide on who did it in the end. Nevertheless just for the Case and the Infos you get while playing i found it quite interesting. It took me axactly 1 hour and 40 minutes to complete which would have been faster but you have to wait for the text to completely pop up and you cant set it to instantly.

So just the Story is quite good, however there are also a lot of things I didnt like about it. The Art is just average and the Translation has a few Grammer mistakes that are pretty obvious. The Game also feels laggy as it is completely in 30fps and the Menu is very minimal. You also dont get a Skip feature or any of the other feature you normally expect of a VN.

Real player with 1.8 hrs in game

Murder On The Island on Steam

Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure

Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure

Disclaimer: I know the developer personally, which is why this review can be considered biased.

Still, I honestly had a great time with Lacuna and recommend this to everyone who enjoys games with a focus on narrative and detective-work.

I played through the game once and will likely play it again, since your choices really seem to have an impact on the story.

The game combines pixel art with several effects such as dynamic lighting and fog. Together with the soundtrack and an overall great sound design, it creates a very captivating and moody atmosphere.

Real player with 16.9 hrs in game

Lacuna doesn’t miss much as the game’s investigation leads you through unfilled spaces and into a deeply compelling sci-fi noir story.

Lacuna - an unfilled space or interval; a gap or missing part - a very intriguing title choice. Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure moves beyond visual novel yet doesn’t really play like a point-and-click game; however, the story and overall feel are sure to please fans of the Blackwell series and similar investigative adventure games.

Real player with 9.4 hrs in game

Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure on Steam

Legends of Murder Collection

Legends of Murder Collection

This set of games from 1989 were ahead of their time, and are a delight to play now. Steam DOSBox integration has the games running smoothly with modern resolutions, with few adjustments needed. These games feel like a past retro version of RPG maker, and it’s uncanny how intuitive they are to play today. Highly recommend - just make sure you use the interact key everywhere, because characters and objects are often invisible.

Real player with 1.8 hrs in game

Legends of Murder Collection on Steam

Fateful End: True Case Files

Fateful End: True Case Files

Nice game! Good suspenseful atmosphere with just a few splashes of light horror. I thought the story was really well done. All the characters have a reason to hate you so it keeps you guessing till the end who wants you dead. The one thing I might say is that there are a few parts that play uncomfortably like a dating sim, but maybe that’s just me. Beyond that I would definitely recommend this game.

Real player with 9.9 hrs in game

Recently, I gave a few Chinese visual novels a try and I managed to absolutely enjoy one or another title, and thus, I decided to give Fateful End: True Case Files a try as well. Obviously, I was already biased after playing through Detective Kobayashi that was from the same developer: Genuine. Admittedly, I never heard of them before, however, what could go wrong after I already made some experience with one of their games, right? Anyway, what stood out immediately to me was the stunning artwork, and the plot that seemed very mysterious. Unfortunately, despite me enjoying Fateful End: True Case Files, I feel like I simply expected too much of the plot.

Real player with 5.0 hrs in game

Fateful End: True Case Files on Steam