OVERALL - 8/10
A point-and-click adventure exploring serious subjects. A story that keeps you hooked, an amazing soundtrack and suitingOVERALL - 8/10
A point-and-click adventure exploring serious subjects. A story that keeps you hooked, an amazing soundtrack and suiting graphics.
STORY - 10/10
Spoiler-free. The player takes on the role of detective Michael Stone assigned to investigate a case in the town of Pineview. To stay spoiler-free, I won’t go into any more detail. The story is consistent, engaging and keeps the player hooked. The characters are unique and interesting, and make you care for them. However, it can be mentally exhausting – it is not for the weak nerved.
GAMEPLAY - 7/10
Gameplay is classic point-and-click. All areas are two dimensional, you can only go left and right, rarely up- and downstairs. Some actions require you to have an item, but there is no inventory system. This is not too disturbing, as all items are to be used on the same screen, within seconds of pickup. As a detective, you interact with and question the townsfolk. There are sometimes multiple dialouge choices, but the outcome is ultimately the same (sometimes with different wording). There are no puzzles or challenges, so it could be considered a walking simulator with extra steps.
CONTROLS - 7/10
No touchscreen controls available. Game plays in handheld, tabletop and TV modes, Pro Controller is supported. Single Joy-Con control is not possible. Text can be easily read both in handheld and on TV. Controls cannot be rebound. The left analogue stick is used for movement. This would be more comfortable on the d-pad, but that is used to open the map, the journal/notes and tasks. The same applies to dialogues, where you choose options with the analogue stick. If you go back in the menu, the cursor jumps to the topmost option, and pressing „Up” there doesn’t take you to the bottom, making menu navigation awkward sometimes. ZR can be used to run, but there’s no toggle available, although you’re most likely to run whenever possible.
GRAPHICS - 7/10
The hand-drawn visuals are beautiful and perfect for the game. Running at the border of the screen looks awkward. Models sometimes load after cutscenes and then „teleport” to the intended location a few frames later. There was one area where a scaled down version of the screen was shown for a few minutes at the bottom of the screen, however it didn’t interfere with the gameplay and disappeared – didn’t try to reproduce it, might be a one-time bug. Overall, the artwork is gorgeus and the mentioned bugs don’t lessen the experience.
AUDIO - 9/10
There’s no narration in the game. Music is pleasant, but stops after a few minutes if you stay in the same area (which won’t happen unless you go AFK). Sounds effects are good. There’s nothing extraordinary to mention.
OTHER
Only English language is available. As said, game is not narrated, thus can be played without audio.
There is a bug in the first area where if you start interacting with objects you already have interacted with before, new journal pages start appearing practically spoiling the story. This happens every time, I already reached out to the developer, might be fixed later. This doesn’t occur in later areas of the game, so you can always just restart if you encounter this bug.
There are a few misspellings, but nothing that prevents understanding.… Expand