izigame.me

So I rarely find myself disliking the games I get even if they're bad since I tend to give benefit of doubt (I think this my first review ever on Steam actually) but I feel I need to speak my mind on this one. Something I will say before I get into the full game is that I played the demo before the game came out. I had fun with Painscreek Killings and was looking forward to seeing a similar style of mechanics in this game. The demo felt underwhelming but at the time (again), I gave benefit of doubt since the game was still being worked on. This isn't entirely a bad game but I do think some revision is needed. I'm not sure if any changes will be made but I'm currently seeing about getting a refund. I'd suggest for anyone thinking on getting this game to get it if it's on a discount, not just because of what I will explain but since it does seem like a short game (only having like 5 cases).
The cases in the game are interesting concepts but gameplay-wise, it falls flat. It doesn't feel like you solve the cases based on evidence you find but instead just random guesswork, solving the cases feels like blindfolding yourself and trying to throw darts at a board. Having played Painscreek, I'm not unfamiliar with the theme of exploring your surroundings with little to go on. However, unlike Painscreek where you have a rundown of the story you're entering/the premise of the mystery (a murder), Scene Investigators just throws you straight into the scene without something like a case file or brief summary of what occurred or the history of your surroundings which is especially an issue with my next point.
Most questions you have to solve feel irrelevant most of the time to the point that I can't tell if some of these questions are red herrings or just useless filler. One murder case has you guess who was sitting in a specific chair which in the end, becomes null information that's not relevant to the story the case is trying to tell. . Another case has a question where, only by solving the one that comes after it, can you backtrack and actually gain an answer to it. The questions really should have pertained to the theme of being an investigator (Who's the killer/victim? What's the motive? What was the murder weapon, etc.). Yes, it may become repetitive but 1. You can still throw in extra questions/red herrings to keep players on their toes and invested and 2. It generally helps lay down the foundations of what the case is about.
This next point may be a personal preference of mine but when you solve/pass cases correctly, there is no recap or clear explanation as to what went down. I tend to like mystery games where, upon figuring everything correctly, I get the whole picture shown to me, it feels satisfying. I'll be honest, after doing repetitive pure guesswork on answering the questions up until the Scenario 2 of the 1st case, I basically threw in the towel with how irritating the lack of helpful evidence was. I literally just used a guide to answer case questions first and then walked around to check out what evidence laid around to get even just a crumb of understandable storytelling for the rest of the game.
Again, is this a horrible game? No but I do think some revisions or updates are in order. If I had to give some advice:
- Don't make it seem like you wrote out a whole mystery to a case and deleted (not 'hide in a clever way', just DELETED) the major evidence('s) key to figuring out the plot then telling us "Well, you just have to figure out through guessing ;)" when the whole premise of the game revolves on the theme of solving cases with the help of clear evidence. Guesswork is fun but it should be used for filling in gaps between evidence/questions. Clear answers doesn't make a mystery less of a mystery, it helps the player feel that progress is being made and find a foothold in the mystery's plot.
- Change some questions to be more relevant to the case/storytelling. Again, usual base questions like who is the victim, the murderer, motive, etc work very well. This isn't to say those should be the only questions but they should be the huge ones the player should be focused on because in the end, I don't care if Grandma was sitting in Chair 1 during the event, I want to know why Bob decided to commit a very bad crime to John that day.
- Minor issue but maybe a quicker way to see if you got questions correct? I just found it annoying to do constant guesswork on one question at time, get it wrong, get sent back to the case selection menu and have to reload the case just to try again.
- Another minor issue, sometimes the answers I put in don't save when I submit them so it says that I just got one wrong. Thankfully, it saves the answers you put in so if you miss one box, you just go back and fill that one in but it can be annoying. There also should be some clarity for how to type an answer out like do I type out the killer's full name or is the first name enough?