1. Gameplay
WARNING: I tried to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, but some of the images and things that I talk about will reveal some secrets. Just keep that in mind if you want to proceed.
NOTE: The numbers of each category might seem surprisingly low for the age recommendation. However, in this case the age recommendation is based on the maturity level of the content as a whole. If you read the specifics within the “violence” and “sexuality” sections below, you should have a decent understanding of what I mean.
In theory, this game seemed like the perfect game for me. I love puzzles, I love mysteries, I love detective stories. This game was the ultimate union of all three. I was told that there was a mystery involved and I was given access to a database of video clips. The clips were all police interviews with a woman, but only included her responses. Clips were short and completely disorganized, but included a set of tags that allowed me to search the database. I had to figure out the crime, the perpetrator, and the motive.
The story was complicated and each clip provided a great insight into the different characters involved. I promise not to give anything away here, since that would defeat the point of playing the game. The highlight was analyzing each clip and finding out where to go next. I even kept a pad and paper where I could write down key phrases and thoughts that might lead to more answers.
The problems with this game began to manifest once I discovered how the game’s searching function worked. Some clips were tagged with search terms. So if she was playing a musical instrument in one clip, I might be able to find other clips where she was playing that same musical instrument. However, in reality, very few clips were tagged with unique terms. Instead, the clip was tagged with the text in the transcript. So if she said the word “help”, I could search for that word and any clip where she said “help” would pop up.
But this goes for any word, regardless of how simple or complex it was. While I might search for the musical instrument, unless she specifically says the name of the musical instrument there’s no guarantee that related clips will pop up. On the other hand, searching for “and”, “or”, “but”, “not” or any other similarly generic words can lead to hundreds of results and, occasionally, a new clip will appear. Even though you can only see five clips at a time, the easiest way to find every clip is to simply crack open a dictionary and start searching for commonly used words.
This absolutely destroyed the mystery for me. Instead of using my intuition to search for terms that might have led to interesting results, I was instead just doing a brute-force search of every clip in the database. In addition to this, even after I believe I solved the mystery there was no place to enter my results and have them checked. There was no place to get the satisfaction of catching the criminal. What is the purpose of a murder mystery if I can’t catch the perpetrator? Where is my “Murder, She Wrote” moment?!
This was a fun little experiment, and the simple style of the game feels fresh and innovative, but the design decisions associated with the endgame and the search terms left a lot to be desired. It’s worth playing once, but even at its currently low price point I felt like I paid too much.
This game is designed to be very short. I felt like I was done with this game after only 3 or 4 hours, and I could have completed the game in a shorter time than that. While I never found all of the video clips available, I decided to end the game after I lost interest in finding more information.
This game is a very simple puzzle game. It simply requires time, intuition, and the ability to figure out how to effectively search for the right terms. I never found it frustrating.
2. Parental Notices
This game does involve a violent crime. While one of the characters does describe the crime and the violent methods used to cover up the crime, no images of this are ever show. They are only discussed in vague, disjointed clips (like everything else in this game).
Sexuality is, surprisingly enough, a bit prominent in this game. While, as with everything else, nothing is ever shown on screen, one of the characters goes into some detail about her promiscuity. It’s not graphic, but it can be abrupt (especially if the player stumbles upon the tapes without having any context). She says it eventually resulted in her contracting an STD.
Another character is questioned about her sex life with her husband. Again, these don’t get graphic.
Getting pregnant and having children is a key point in the plot and many of the clips. As a result, it should not be a surprise that sex and sexuality is a core subject.
One of the characters does discuss drinking alcohol, but nothing is ever visible on the screen.
Gambling is not a factor in this game.
3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
This character does have to do with crime investigation. However, aside from the crime that took place, there is no indication about anyone actually resisting law enforcement. Therefore, anti-law is not a factor in this game.
There are no multiplayer modes for this game.
Extreme sports are not a factor in this game.
Magic is not a factor in this game.
Language While most of the clips are devoid of any mature language, the times when it does occur are very obvious. These instances mostly fit with the character’s personality and attitudes towards the questions, but I was still surprised every time she swore.
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