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
Read More: Best Detective Noir Games.
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: 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 Detective 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
Lost Lies
Lost Lies is a true detective feature-length thriller movie game. Walk into the shoes of detective picking up a case of a missing officer:
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Discover a mystery of her disappearing and find the path to solve a case of series suicides.
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Immerse yourself into the thrilling story where your choices can lead to different endings.
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Analyze documents, find clues and interrogate suspects in your way to solve the case.
But be prepared, not everything is as it seems…
Read More: Best Detective Investigation Games.
Overboard!
I never expected getting away with murder would be this fun! I thought Overboard would be a straightforward piece of interactive fiction, a few different routes to a few different endings, a great story along the way. Instead what I found was a deceptively simple game with a ton of moving parts. Everyone you share the ship with has their own routines, agendas and information, all of which are stacked against you. When you start this game, you will almost certainly fail. It’s through multiple (very quick!) playthroughs that you’ll begin to piece together what’s going on, what everyone’s hiding and what gaps in their knowledge you can exploit.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
In the past few years, Inkle has really won me over as a fan by putting out interesting and inventive narrative games like Heaven’s Vault and Pendragon, giving interesting an informative talks on game design at narrative-focused game conventions, and maintaining their popular trademark design tool, Ink, which is available for anyone to use. Overboard, their newest title, is a surprise release, completely unannounced prior to dropping on the storefront yesterday.
In Overboard, we meet an attractive young femme fatale who, in the opening scene, impulsively seizes an opportunity to get rid of her crappy husband by pushing him off of the deck of an ocean liner. The next morning, we step into her shoes, and have one in-game day to help her cover up the crime before the resident Poirot-like detective connects the dots and sends her to jail. To succeed, you will have to lie convincingly and keep your lies consistent. You must search the ship to locate and dispose of evidence without drawing suspicion onto yourself. Meanwhile, find out what your fellow passengers know about the crime and bribe, blackmail, drug, or seduce them into silence. If that doesn’t work, find a more violent way of getting rid of any witnesses. If you are really skilled, you might be able to pin the crime on someone else to collect that sweet, sweet life insurance money.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
To Hell With The Ugly
In To Hell With the Ugly, you play as Rock Bailey, a blond and strikingly handsome young man who systematically refuses all advances made to him. And for good reason : he stubbornly saves himself until the day he turns 20.
One night, however, everything changes when he is drugged and kidnapped outside the Zooty Slammer jazz club and wakes up in a strange hospital.
Why would anyone want to abduct Rocky? Can you track down his kidnappers? Help Rocky get to the bottom of his kidnapping, and find out who is behind this horrible scheme.
Investigate Los Angeles in the 50s
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Boris Vian, To Hell With the Ugly is a turn-based combat and point & click adventure game set in a film noir atmosphere. Unravel the mystery surrounding your kidnapping by exploring some of LA’s most secret corners. Gather clues by interviewing locals, and interact with your environment to find the truth.
But some information won’t be delivered so easily. Use your fists to persuade the most stubborn to help you in your quest.
Nothing To Remember
First off, don’t look at the hours on record, I may have left the game open between streams. Overall a decent visual novelish game. The main story events were good, the relationships were mediocre and made me wish I could ban Dick’s number so I could skip that part of the story. There is a critical choice later in the game that isn’t worded correctly and should be fixed, they either meant to add “don’t” at the beginning of the sentence or were was meant to be “weren’t” which I assumed and made that my choice.
– Real player with 96.8 hrs in game
Plot is very well written and character development is exquisite. More of a visual novel with major choices. It took me about 20 hours for an ending.
– Real player with 40.1 hrs in game
PCI Public Crime Investigation
Excellent game with such a great style… been waiting for a game that plays as legit as this one! Everything in it is full of realism.
Full support!
– Real player with 19.1 hrs in game
Really interesting concept and very well executed. PCI casts you as an armchair detective. The French police are asking for assistance with some of their cases. You must create an actual account in order to play online as a team or by yourself and accrue points after finishing up cases. There are 6 cases total ranging from around 30 minutes to 4 hours. The content is VERY dark in some cases and deals with some heavy realistic topics (I’ll list some TW’s at the end of this). While I felt uncomfortable during playing I was so hooked. The cases are riveting and the quizzes at the end really engage you actively with the material. The actors/actresses do a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life (even the worst ones) and not even making you realize they’re acting.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
Rainswept
Rainswept provides an overall enjoyable experience but suffers from a lack of consistency in what is otherwise a mostly-polished piece of interactive fiction.
You need to go into this with the mindset that you’re about to watch a movie, not necessarily something that’s groundbreaking or will blow you away, but at least delivers on the genre by giving you all the things you expect at it from face value.
Yes, you will be required to show Detective Stone around a small town and click on various interactables as the investigation of an apparent murder-suicide plays out before you, but the developers make it clear from the start that they have a story to tell you, and a specific order of events in which they want to tell it in.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
*This review is for v1.1.5a
Playing status: 100% achievement, ~3x playthroughs
Grindy Achievement(s): No.
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (11 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.
Intro
Rainswept is a text-heavy adventure game where you have to investigate a murder that is happening in a small town.
Pros:
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2 endings with minor story branching
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Freedom to explore the area in any order that you want
Cons:
- No fast forward for most dialogues
– Real player with 7.1 hrs in game
Acolyte
Acolyte: Prologue is the first act in a dynamic narrative detective/puzzle game that gives you your own Acolyte; a digital assistant you can talk to freely without pre-defined dialogue options. Just like a real conversation.
Become an employee of Nanomax, a well-funded tech start-up looking to change the face of consumer AI with its upcoming Acolyte application. As a remote-worker for the company, you’ll interact with its employees and absorb its culture. But unexplained firings, missing employees and a strange, highly-classified bug in the Acolyte code-base point to something being very wrong.
As you work with your new Acolyte, who seems to be intrinsically caught up in the company’s problems, you’ll find yourself at the very heart of the conspiracy.
//FEATURES
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//NATURAL LANGUAGE INPUT - interact freely with your Acolyte, using your own words to advance a non-linear narrative.
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//BECOME A PART OF THE STORY - the worlds of the game and your own will blur, with ARG elements that contribute to a sprawling real-world narrative.
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//INNOVATIVE PUZZLES - use your Acolyte to help solve puzzles that require out-of-the-box-thinking, as you dig deep into its programming.
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//CUSTOMISE YOUR ACOLYTE - personalise how your Acolyte looks and interacts, as you tailor your assistant to your preferences.
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//UNRAVEL THE CONSPIRACY - uncover a dark truth as you dig into the past of your employer.
//ABOUT SPIRIT AI
Acolyte is powered by the Spirit AI Character Engine, allowing for natural language interaction with the game. Spirit AI uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to both understand conversations and create digital personalities.
Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story
‘‘Our prime purpose in life is to help others and if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them’’ - Dalai Lama
Accidental Queens have followed up A Normal Lost Phone over 6 months later with a similar UI mobile interface but with a different, yet vital, informative theme for the player to uncover clues to solve the recent dilemma.
In this continuation of the Lost Phone theme it is centered around the female protagonist, Laura, who has an active social life & is a lively confident woman who starts a relationship with Ben who she encounters on a night out. Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story has you acting detective with her phone to uncover the reasons why the phone was ‘lost’.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
Another Lost Phone is similar in concept as the developer’s previous game A Normal Lost Phone . This one, however, has a deeper story which I enjoyed more than the previous one. You’ll find a phone belonged to a woman named Laura and learn how her life used to be before this phone was lost. She has many friends who care about her and has a nice job too. But there are things people don’t know until they pry into other people’s life. The story is intriguing, some people may relate to her problem as it is very common but no one actually speaks about it.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game