Gamedec

Gamedec

Pretty well done. Definitely along the lines of Disco Elysium in a cyberpunk setting, but without the roll of the dice involved in your dialogue checks - options are mostly determined by how you branch your professions (the level-up system) and by your past actions and interactions with other characters, things or situations. On top of that, you have to use the information you gather to draw conclusions and make deductions (you play as a sort of cyber detective), and most choices you make will either block certain paths of information or open them, which ends up changing the nature of a lot of the dialogue and the way the story’s told and, inevitably, how you’ll get to end the game.

Real player with 65.6 hrs in game


Read More: Best Detective CRPG Games.


IN A WORD: COMPELLING

IN A NUTSHELL:

WHAT TO EXPECT: Detective adventure game. Isometric presentation. Cyberpunk Setting. Wide range of well-crafted locations. Good variety of crafted NPC individuals. Scripted, linear but self-deterministic story with arcs. Point & click style interaction system with some depth. Minimal character creation. Unrestrictive clue and deduction system. Occupational skill system for additional interaction options. Forgiving design generates some replayability. Made with no soft-caps. Text heavy, requires lots of reading. Extensive Codex feature full of important game data. No combat system. Single-player.

Real player with 31.6 hrs in game

Gamedec on Steam

Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The First Cases

Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The First Cases

As a Poiort fan of nearly two decades I must say I’m extremely disappointed. If this is a game that has absolutely nothing to do with Poirot I would be fine with it; but since “Poirot” was what was advertised I must judge this game on that merit, and I must say it failed spectacularly.

First, the mystery itself was pretty bad; the blackmail plot was highly implausible and had set a certain admirable group back a thousand years (Why? What was the writer trying to accomplish?). The murder plot was…nothing at all like Christie’s, because it was not clever, or surprising, or even well-planned. Even a third-rate Golden Age writer would have been embarrassed to find their name attached to this drivel, let alone Christie’s.

Real player with 36.1 hrs in game


Read More: Best Detective Mystery Games.


I’ll cut to the chase - if you like either Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments or Blacksad, or both, then you will like this game too. If you are a fan of the Agatha Christie films that have been adapted for the big screen, such as Death on the Nile (the original one with Peter Ustinov of course), for example, or the TV series that starred David Suchet, you will love this game too.

The developers of the game have weaved a convoluted tale that is true to the spirit of the original Agatha Christie novels. It is so great that I am actually wondering if it is based on an unpublished work, or the idea for a novel that she never wrote.

Real player with 14.7 hrs in game

Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The First Cases on Steam

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

It is not a game, it is an experience. A very special one and totally unique. And it can be the best one you had in a lifetime of gaming.

I have finally reached a THOUSAND HOURS playing this game. So I guess it is time to review it. Every viable choice and path, probably saw all the dialogues, I dare to say. I really did everything possible, researched all the alternatives, even explored the most grim and absurd outcomes, just to see how far your freedom goes. I did it all. And it really gives you the most absurd amount of choices and risks to take. All the perfect choices, all the wrong ones on purpose. And usually, there is no wrong path to take. What kind of cop do you want to be?

Real player with 1003.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best Detective Choices Matter Games.


SUGGESTION [Moderate: Success?] — “The first time I played this game, it filled me with a sense of nostalgia, which is weird because it was my first time playing the game. The music, the art style, the amnesiac protagonist, all contribute to that feeling… which has now turned into real nostalgia.

A few times, I’ve remembered the theme of the city proper, and had literal tears well up in my eyes, and loved every second of it. That feeling has made me come back to the game three or four separate times now, to try new skillsets, thoughts, and world views. The Final Cut update makes this process even better, as the writing and voice acting are really fucking good; even uncovering tiny new bits of writing triggers substantial dopamine hits in my brain at this point.

Real player with 111.2 hrs in game

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut on Steam

Lucifer Within Us

Lucifer Within Us

Normally I operate a £1/hr to determine if a game is worth playing, and I’ll admit that I was worried about “Lucifer Within Us” when many were seeing short play times in the demo. However, I had enjoyed the demo so much that I gave it a chance knowing that it was very doubtful the game would be very long.

Having completely finished the game with all achievements, I feel the game was worth it.

The story is very well written and pulls you in with the voice acting adding that touch of atmosphere to convey the character emotions perfectly, particularly during confessions. My personal favourite was the second investigation where, despite having worked out what was going on, I was still shocked by the outcome and confession. The little touches with the voice acting delivery and graphic choices were key to creating that atmosphere. Well done!

Real player with 5.5 hrs in game

I’ll start with the good things. This game has an interesting style and setting. The color pallet doesn’t hurt the eye and the graphics are passable if you don’t scroll too close. A strange mix of high-tech and theology would make an interesting setting for a bigger game. The mysteries themselves are pretty good and may take some time to solve on the first playthrough.

But the problem is, you will only play it once. Now, to the bad stuff.

1. The game doesn’t allow you to lose. You can’t accuse the wrong person, you can’t frustrate the suspects to the point of angry unresponsiveness. In fact, you are encouraged to do so, based on achievements. The absence of failure allows you to just play dumb and spam every possible combination of clues and statements until it clicks, making the whole detective part meaningless. Even when performing the exorcism, you are safe. Wrong daemon name? Well, just try another one!

Real player with 5.4 hrs in game

Lucifer Within Us on Steam

Pixel Noir

Pixel Noir

it has a interesting story and game play

Real player with 15.3 hrs in game

Been following this game since early development, tried the beta, and have watched the dev work streams. This game is amazing great story telling and the retro graphics sells the RPG element hard. The battle mechanics are very well done, absolutely loved what I have gotten to play.

Real player with 7.5 hrs in game

Pixel Noir on Steam

Murder Mystery Machine

Murder Mystery Machine

Edit upon completion: In spite of the issues with the game freezing, I powered through the remainder of the episodes, and the rest of my review holds: this game is slow, the internal logic is irritating to have to guess at, the character development is minimal, and the investigation gameplay is weak. However, I will say that the overarching mystery kept me intrigued and made me want to finish all the cases. A little more work on the storytelling and some variation and flexibility in gameplay would have made a huge difference. I also didn’t play this game for anywhere near the number of hours listed; I left it on for probably a full day without playing.

Real player with 32.7 hrs in game

So I just finished the game and am wholly unsatisfied with it.

Murder Mystery Machine is a melodramatic diorama that challenges the player to become a REAL DETECTIVE, but has the same pitfalls as any other mystery game and then some. This is also the same studio that brought to you the mediocre title (but interesting and worth a few laughs) The Ship.

The Good

Let’s start with the only good thing about the game, the environments. The game went for a modern-noir vibe and it mostly hits the mark, the environments (when they are good) are suitable and even sets the mood right.

Real player with 18.4 hrs in game

Murder Mystery Machine on Steam

Oniria Crimes

Oniria Crimes

Oniria Crimes is a strange and interesting game from Ckolmos, a small studio from Madrid, Spain. If you aren’t too fussed about expecting a meaty main story, there is plenty of vibrant voxel art and deep lore to make this game worth playing.

This game is set in Oniria, city of dreams, a sort of shared-consciousness virtual reality world inhabited by people in their sleep. There is plenty of talk about “awake-world” in the game, but we never see it; the full game is spent exploring this dreamy urban environment. The lore of Oniria runs very deep, and a big part of the game is figuring out just what this world is, how it works, and what makes it tick.

Real player with 12.2 hrs in game

A really good game with a very interesting background that makes you use your brain.

Totally recommended and if possible I recommend to play it with a partner, it’s a lot of fun to be both trying to solve the case and getting our own theories out !

Real player with 12.2 hrs in game

Oniria Crimes on Steam

Tiny Room Stories: Pure Escape

Tiny Room Stories: Pure Escape

You are in Pure Escape.

It is a point and click adventure game with elements of the “Escape the room” mechanics. The game world consists of isometric dioramas of different places, rooms, dungeons, etc. Each location united by a little story.

A key feature of the gameplay is the ability to rotate dioramas, thus changing the point of view, which allows you to see new places and objects.

The game offers a fresh take on an established genre.

Here are no global story in game.

All game it is a different locations from the fantasy to the sci-fi with own small story. All you need is to find items, solve puzzles, open locks and so on =)

Features

  • Fully 3D levels that can and should be rotated to inspect them from another angle.

  • Variety of locations from the usual residential building to the ancient catacombs.

  • Variety of themes from the fantasy to the sci-fi

  • Interactive world

  • Many puzzles

  • Many mini-stories

Tiny Room Stories: Pure Escape on Steam

Chicken Holmes - Chanislavski Whispers

Chicken Holmes - Chanislavski Whispers

i have played an incredible number of games in my life and this is the one with the single worst case of localization i have ever come across. surely it has been translated from spanish by an online translator like google translate, but even then i’d expect something better than this. other than that, you just click around, try to make sure you click on everything clickable, or you’ll get stuck, solve a couple stupid puzzles and try to find some semblance of sense in the story. even the cutesy characters don’t evoke anything positive, when you can make little sense of what the hell is going on. something with english that bad shouldn’t be offered in english to the public. avoid this mess at all costs, including the prequel.

Real player with 4.7 hrs in game

This chicken is very good, it reveals any secret. This sequel is so cool.

Real player with 1.1 hrs in game

Chicken Holmes - Chanislavski Whispers on Steam

Retro Golden Age - The Abbey of Crime

Retro Golden Age - The Abbey of Crime

Get ordained in The Abbey of Crime, THE most awarded Spanish graphic adventure game of the 80’s and solve the dangerous mystery that has been hidden among the dusty pages of history for more than five centuries.

Become the friar Guillermo de Mosce and return to your order to discover the reasons why you were imprisoned by the Holy Inquisition.

“_After being accused, deemed guilty and imprisoned by the very Pope John XXIII during the fourteenth century, Guillermo de Mosce flees from the jail in Avignon to seek asylum in the court of Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria. But after his death, Guillermo decides to come back to his order, accompanied by a young novice with the intention of meeting Bernardo Moi, head of the inquisition led by the pope.

Nobody never knew what really happened. There is only a disciple’s account left, which would shed light several years after upon those horrible and astonishing events, which remained secret ever since…_”

Features

  • Original studio game

  • Rewind option

  • Original instruction manual

  • Original material

  • Development notes

  • Trophies

  • Steam/Nintendo Switch/PS4

Retro Golden Age - The Abbey of Crime on Steam