IN A WORD: COMPELLING

IN A NUTSHELL:

THE LOWDOWN:

Pros:

• A mix of an unusual RPG and an interesting point-and-click adventure. You do not have to fight even a single time here [spoiler]if we do not count the sheriff and guards’ scenes[/spoiler]; there are no actual skills to upgrade; no classes or races either. However, instead of all of these you have professions that determine how you can access the situation at hand. They also open various conversations brunches that can affect the dialogue significantly and provide you either with useful items or important information. Oh, and by the way, there are four personality aspects that you need to open specific profession paths. In addition, there is a deduction system. To move on the next part of the story, you need to work on cases and reveal many secrets – so, collecting evidence is vital. Then you can assemble everything you know on a special screen and decide ‘who did it?!’. As for the point-and-click part, you have to interact with the world a lot: talk to people, gather items, receive aspects, etc. And yes, this involves not only running, but also pointing and clicking. So, as you can see, this is an RPG that explores new types of gameplay. For me, this is a huge plus and a really fascinating experience in general;
• Intriguing story with a good mystery and a lot of suspicion + great world-building + generally good writing. Realistic virtual reality where one can live and experience everything firsthand has been my dream for many ages at this point. I have always wanted to be more than just an icon on the screen in my favorite RPGs. Heck, I am even ready to wrestle geckos in Fallout if it means I can walk the Wasteland with my own two legs! Gamedec shows what might happen if this dream comes true one day.
Also, the idea of gamedecs – detectives working in games and solving digital crimes – is brilliant. True crime meats virtual reality and turns into a game of deduction and loot.
• Living in several virtual worlds – you literally play multiple games inside another game. From something kinky to puzzles and harvesting – this world is open for everyone (who can afford it);
• Beautiful visuals and level designs. Each world is unique and has features specific to it and its rules. Some are dark and twisted, others offer paradise and pumpkins. Even better – each place boasts its own set of characters that you can interact with. And trust me, these people have a lot to tell a gamedec like you. Also, their avatars (artwork) looks awesome – artists did a great job;
• Music and suitable sound effects + good variety of tracks. Though I should also note that the sound of flying tray in the protagonist’s flat tends to become irritating after some time.

Neutral:

• Your choices do affect the outcomes you get at several points, but ultimately you always come to the same thing. Some options you go for can make your life easier, others will even prevent you from speaking to specific characters. And this is great! This is the essential part of any role-playing game. However, I tested several ways how to approach one of the cases and I am sad to say that I did not see that many changes in the global story itself. What I am trying to say is that you always go through the same plot line: I am not sure that making a wrong deduction really changes that much. Once again, I checked it out in chapter three – selected completely different culprits and reasons for [spoiler]Ken’s death[/spoiler], but I still got the same ending there. So, to sum up, your choices matter, but not as often and as much as they should be. You are programmed to always end in the same place, just with different consequences or people. This affects the replaybility quality, imho;
• One playthrough takes about 20 hours, which is not bad at all.

Cons:

• No proper epilogue. Why is it important, you may ask? Simple: without an epilogue of some sorts or at least a short ending you do not feel literally any impact from your final choice. [spoiler]Why did you go through all these chapters, made all these choices, met and saved/killed all these people, read all this text? Just to see several lines about what ending (out of 6) you can get and then a screen that lists several major points from the journey? Guys, what actually happened AFTER this whole ordeal?! The final was trying to be something epic, and it really was until the very last point where it was just…cut off.[/spoiler]
• Having no skip options in a game that aims for replayability is just UNACCEPTABLE! I reloaded my saves many times at some points, and each time I had to sit through all cutscenes. And some of them were long enough to become annoying (in the last chapter in particular);
• Infuriatingly long loading screens during the late part of the game. I did not have this issue until the chapter three. But as soon as I got to the middle of it, my deduction scree started freezing during several selections; then the loading time increased for each save; then there were even freezes during actions of some characters. I swear, I spent at least 2 hours (or maybe even more) in total just waiting for the game to load the file I needed during the last three chapters!
• Only 20 saves available. This is not such a big downside for many players, but I do like saving before important choices or at any moment when I am not sure what might happen next. So, as you can imagine, just 20 saves are not that many. Not to mention that as soon as you hit the maximum, you cannot even rewrite them (why?!) – you must delete one of the previous files to be able to save anything again;
• Crashes if you reload any save file several times in a row.

Would I recommend this game?

More reviews on our Curator Page