bddevil
Educated
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2016
- Messages
- 71
a lot of what you say is true, and in general the game is a solid game from a detective case standpoint. however, there are a few issues that really annoyed me.For anyone still interested who hasn't tried it, I think Crimes & Punishments is super incline.
I'm generally sour on adventure games, because the "I'm stumped" moments are always linked to having to guess some nonsensical way to proceed. C&P doesn't hide any of the process from you; it's a slow accumulation of clues, associated by deduction to arrive at conclusions. To me this is the pure essence of what a detective game should be.
The puzzle sections, and yes, even the dog sequences, are lightly sprinkled throughout and give a nice sense of pacing. None of them are very hard, but they are good speed bumps to break up what would otherwise be monolithic walls of text. These sections are always at least marginally sensible, and make me feel like I'm doing something to earn my clues ... even when it's a straightforward series of operations like "pick up eyedropper, drop acid onto metal, observe results". Some of them are bona fide puzzles requiring crunchy brain work, but if you are looking for hardcore gameplay challenges, this may not be for you.
The really wonderful thing about the game is that the deduction system lets you be wrong. There's no mechanical penalty whatsoever to screwing up - you can finish the whole game and never get a right answer. The game provides numerous red herrings and false conclusions to pursue, and if you're simply bashing through like an action gamer, trying to "win" as quickly as possible, you probably will ... and you'll probably be wrong. As you collect the clues, though, you are given a great deal of "soft" information that will lead you to the correct solution. It's demanding my attention in a way no game has before. This makes RPS's accusation of "inevitability" completely backwards and dumb. It's inevitable that you will find enough evidence to reach a conclusion; that's it. It is probable, though not guaranteed, that you'll accumulate all available clues, and by testing deductive permutations, unlock all available solutions ... but even then, arriving at the correct one requires thoughtful consideration.
If they keep this system for future games, they've earned a new regular customer.
mainly- the handholding the game does in your investigation. the game explicitly tells you the number of clues, and basically shoves it your face when it's time to use clues/sherlock's intuition. this is by far the worst offender. because simply there isnt much gameplay or clue processing on your part, the game does it for you. you are also are informed whether or not there are more clues, and if you collect all of them (pretty easy), the picture is pretty much clear for all cases (with couple of details left to infer/guess in a couple)
also, the deduction board is nice, but it has too many restrictions and can be trial and errored into something merely by looking through few combinations of clues/deductions that do exist.
I think this guy has the best post on how I feel (no thats not me):
http://www.adventuregamers.com/forums/viewthread/1478/P150/#72176
anyway, my favorite cases were the train (really nice setup, enjoyed that one a lot) and the bathhouse (again, sweet setup). I think the game has amazing visuals/sound and atmosphere, while having some interesting concepts at work .if it had better interactivity and non-hand holding gameplay, Id praise it. as such, it was pretty disappointing to me, but still imo well worth the money I paid.
seems to be a moot point anyway though, since their new SH game looks like assasins creed, literally. doubt we'd see deduction board or mundane detective work in that one *sigh*