The Slaughter: Act One
The Slaughter is a noir point-in-click adventure game from Brainchild, which is a one man team I might add. It’s reminiscent of old adventure games like Monkey Island or Full Throttle, and more recently, it reminds me of The Blackwell Legacy (which also took inspiration from those classics).
In The Slaughter you play as Sydney Emerson, a down on this luck, behind on his rent detective-really is there any other kind-living in London in the East End in 1880. The story opens with Sydney on his side in a dark alley getting beaten by a large man named Sallis and his diminutive employer Mr. Finch. You luck your way out of that situation and you soon get a case to work on. There is a serial killer roaming the streets and a client is paying you for you private detective services.
– Real player with 18.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Detective Mystery Games.
BRAINCHILD, we need more!
This little point-and-click is dark and adorable, funny and unique, and super entertaining! I couldn’t resist playing the whole thing in one sitting, but that being said, it is reletively short. Being hooked, I started reserching the game, and realized that this seems to have been a solo project of BRAINCHILD, which makes it all the more impressive.
| PROs | CONs |
| Entertaining story with adult themes |
– Real player with 8.0 hrs in game
To Each of Their Hearts
Read More: Best Detective Steampunk Games.
AR-K
I received this game as a part of some bundle I bought way back.
I want to like this game. I wish the development team the best. But unfortunately I cannot recommend it, not even for $8 USD.
There are good, or at least decent, things here. There is some humor, including physical humor, that works. The actual voice lines are mostly fine, and what faults there are there in this audio itself are much more likely on the VA director and/or scriptwriters. Barring one jarring segment of lines I noticed in the 2nd episode where something obviously went wrong in recording or compression or something, but the team decided to use it anyway, which… fits with some of my suspicions about how out-of-time/energy/money they were feeling at the time.
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Detective Third Person Games.
AR-K may be a study in how to have an okay story, okay graphics and good voice-acting and still come out with a bad game - soo manyy problems.
This title consists of the first two episodes of the game, “Gone with the Sphere” and “The Girl Who Wasn’t There”, and the second feels way better than the first. Still, we see a lot of beginner’s mistakes in the handiwork. Basically every aspect of the game is flawed in some way or another.
Note: Review was rewritten to fit Steam’s transparent character limit.
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
Choice of Life: New Centurion
Choice of life: New Centurion is a neo-noir detective card game.
The city is bogged down in the dope of azure. The authorities and the defenders of order cannot cope with the flow of a new psychotropic substance pouring into the streets of St. Petersburg.
Who will you become in this troubled time? A champion of the law, restoring justice, or a ruthless avenger who stained his hands with blood?
Decide the fate of the characters on the streets of St. Petersburg. Take a walk along the world-famous avenues, plunge into the luxury of the imperial capital, or descend into the gray outskirts, communal apartments, and gateways.
Investigate, take revenge on your enemies, carry out special operations, weave intrigues, fall in love, have fun … and stop Azure!
Features:
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Stylish graphics, a huge set of cards
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Mysterious atmosphere of St. Petersburg of the future
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Various gameplay mechanics: from detective investigation to action
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Non-linear storyline and multiple endings
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Unique characters with their gameplay
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The story is based on the graphic novel New Centurion: Azure
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Easily the weakest from all of them, even than UDG.
Dull soundtrack with few exceptions, shallow characters, interesting premise of truth and lies thrown entirely in the trash when you get to the last chapters. The ending wasn’t even that bad or hard to understand, my problem with this entry is the lack of any foundation whatsoever, it has so many back-and-forths that it feels like it doesn’t know where it wants to go with the story, especially chapter 5.
This one is a port from PS4, so it runs better than the PSVita counterparts, right? Wrong, it has a myriad of technical issues, it feels worse and slower than playing any of the other games in the series.
– Real player with 130.3 hrs in game
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– Real player with 117.4 hrs in game
Dirty Cop Simulator
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1641890/Lust_from_Beyond_M_Edition/
At the police station, you’ll get your beat and daily orders. Parking tickets, checking speeds, petty criminals and vandals are the daily life of a young cop. Plus a miserable salary and a complete lack of prestige. Great, by performing your duties diligently you will be promoted to detective and get a watch for retirement.
On the other hand, there will be a lot of temptations that will be hard to resist. Bribes, planting evidence, intimidation or turning a blind eye can be very profitable. Desperate people will do anything. And if you don’t get caught, you’ll save for a hefty retirement and respect from the people of the city.
But once you cross the border and become dirty, additional assignments from the criminal world will start to appear themselves and by doing them well you’ll gain more and more respect and allow yourself even greater luxury.
Only the most profitable missions are also the most immoral. You just have to remember that working both sides of the street is very stressful, while alcohol and drugs relieve stress addiction is tough to beat.
Do you want to see how far you can go?
**FEATURES:
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an extensive map of the city with its suburbs
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driving mechanics and car chases
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extensive storylines
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access to missions from multiple locations (police computer and radio, smartphone, storylines)**
Warp Frontier
I do not think the puzzles are good, but overall I find this game compelling, both in the story and for the meta-puzzle of ‘what do I have to do differently to get the other achievement’ element. One playthrough takes very roughly seven hours. I was in the beginning of my second playthrough when I started this review. I think it would need at least three playthroughs to get all the achievements. For full disclosure, I’m an immigrant to Australia. If you don’t like our sarcasm, you may not like the presentation and characters.
– Real player with 19.0 hrs in game
edit: more save slots available + skippable travel animations.
warp frontier stars space cop and former drummer vince ‘tin man’ cassini, who kicked some ass back in the day when he wasn’t on the turps or gigging with his band, but still has some juice left in him (the non-alcoholic variety). on his way home for a birthday celebration, his ship gets shot down. after some first aid to the ship he finds the attackers, killed by nothing somehow, then runs into a girl who leads him to something he’s been trying to find for a long time.
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game
Misadventures of Laura Silver
PLEASE SUPPORT THESE DEVELOPERS AND THIS GAME! I couldn’t recommend it more. I’m a massive fan of detective noir themes and everything involving 1890-1959, so this game was exactly what I was looking for. Like a visual novel sent from heaven.
PROS: Just about everything else.
-The art is unique and memorable. Every character design, pose, emotion, everything is absolutely fantastic. The artist has fantastic use of fashion from the time period, as well as strong shape and color language in their designs. I was attached to the cast the moment I saw the steam page, it had me totally hooked.
– Real player with 216.2 hrs in game
The Misadventures of Laura Silver :Chapter 1 is billed as a visual novel created by 3 college students in their free time. By that standard, it is an admirable product.
Summary: OK visual novel when things worked, but bugs ruined the game for me.
Basics: You follow the protagonist, Laura Silver, through her investigations in 1935 Czechoslovakia. Although it has supernatural themes, they are treated in a very matter-of-fact way and the game is not at all scary. You make choices along the way. Some matter, but most do not. The art style is consistent and the music is a bit minimal but adds to the ambiance. The writing is OK, but does feel awkward and clunky at times. The overall effect that of a fair to good visual novel.
– Real player with 8.7 hrs in game
Hector: Episode 1
Funniest game ever;;
~Updated Review~
Hector is an episodic adventure game developed by Straandlooper and published by TellTale Games, another company that creates episodic based games. The game is now sold as an all in one package, and is one of the funniest adventure games (could be debated as -the- funniest video game) I’ve ever played. The humor is dark, witty, and perverse, and doesn’t pull any punches with political correctness.
Hector is an overweight, under-worked, highly unqualified detective inspector on a case that has him visiting all parts of Clapper’s Wreake, the town that took the “Great” out of Britain. As an adventure game you’ll talk to other inhabitants, pick up all sorts of silly items, and find even sillier ways to interact with the environment with the previous two.
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
DISCLAIMER: This is a full review, and NOT a first impressions review
Hector: Badge of Carnage - Episode 1: We Negotiate With Terrorists is a game originally developed by Straandlooper and originally published by the now defunct Telltale Games and is now originally ‘developed’ by LCG Entertainment, Inc. and now published by Athlon Games, Inc.
The game offers some nice graphics, although some ugly glitches here and there, it is pleasant all the same
The game does suffer with some repetitiveness at certain areas of the game but a fun game nonetheless
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
Methods: The Detective Competition
This game is so charming and wonderful, it’s quickly become one of my favourite games ever! If you like mystery stories and fun characters, I highly recommend you pick it up. And if anything seems interesting, don’t be afraid to try out the demo!
On to the (spoiler free) review! (I’ve never written a review before, so apologies if it reads oddly at all.)
The gist of the story is that, 100 of America’s greatest detectives and 100 of its worst criminals are pit in a battle royale against each other to win a million dollars. (And parole, if they’re a criminal.) You play through the stories of several participants as they advance through the competition, meeting new faces at every turn. The game is split into 100 chapters, and it took me personally about 7.5 hours to play through them all on my first playthrough.
– Real player with 51.6 hrs in game
This is probably one of my top ten games I have ever played, in part because I love solving locked room mysteries so much. I do realize it will not be everyone’s cup of tea, however. Here are (in my opinion) the main downsides of this game: 1. character art is a little lackluster, but you can see that for yourself on the steam page. You do get used to it though, and the character designs do have a lot of personality. 2. The pacing is a little weird. Sometimes you will go through long-ish periods of cutscenes back to back or mysteries back to back. 3. Finally, the ending does leave some loose ends, which could maybe have been intended to pave the way for a sequel (or maybe the game designers just couldn’t decide how to wrap them up, I don’t know). With those downsides out of the way, here are the things I love: 1. mysteries upon mysteries upon mysteries. Both little murder scenes you have to solve and some big over-arching mysteries within the game. 2. The characters are really fun. Both detectives and criminals all have a special method they use to do what they do, and it is very fun to see all of the varieties of detectives and murderers they came up with. You also get to play as different detectives and use their methods of solving mysteries, which is cool. You also get to briefly step into playing as a criminal as well. Again, I’ve never met a game with so many mysteries to solve, so this game was lots of fun for me. To me this game is very worth the $20 it normally costs (so I’d say to definitely get it if it sounds interesting, especially if it goes on sale).
– Real player with 13.0 hrs in game