Can Case Solved Crack The Mystery?
Over the years, detective games have allowed us to exercise our little grey cells alongside Hercule Poirot on the Orient Express and reconstruct crime scenes with Sherlock Holmes. Every interview, piece of evidence, and contradiction can pull you deeper into the mystery. Case Solved: The London Files is the latest of its ilk to try and tempt crime-solving enthusiasts into its 1960s noir setting, albeit with a series of simpler logical puzzles to tackle.
So, is there a compelling investigation hiding within the London fog, or is it ‘case closed’ before you even open up your wallet?
In Case Solved: The London Files, you play as an unnamed detective who’s thrust into the thick of it, tasked with solving three unusual crimes in London. The first case, Fatal Chord, begins after an American musician is strangled following a performance in a Soho pub. Last Act is the second case, turning its attention to the theatre when a leading actress collapses and dies during a final rehearsal. And last, but certainly not least, is Stolen Time, which involves Big Ben’s master clockmaker being found unconscious and all the clocks stopping at a specific time.
The premises are fine, taking place in fitting locations and featuring a cast of suspects you would expect from a cosy murder mystery. Unfortunately, no case develops into a gripping tale where you’re on the edge of your seat waiting for the culprit(s) to be uncovered. The suspects merely offer titbits of information, rather than actual personality, and any revelations don’t really have an impact. Don’t expect a tension-filled reveal akin to a gathering called by Poirot, you just solve the mystery with little fanfare and get ready for the next crime.
The lead detective does his best to liven things up with a steady supply of silly, often dark, one-liners. A few raised a mild chuckle, but ultimately they’re there to ensure that the game never treats its crimes too seriously. While it can briefly lighten the mood, it doesn’t enhance the main narratives and isn’t humorous enough to carry everything on its own.
Three Crimes, One Familiar Formula
As for the gameplay, each investigation is split into short stages that essentially follow the same routine. First, you explore a compact scene and interact with suspects to collect their statements, with each character just waiting to hand over a clue. There aren’t any branching conversations, clever interrogations or meaningful choices to be had. Once everyone has had their say, you must then find a handful of objects hidden around within the environment.
Unfortunately, the quality of these searches varies wildly. Sometimes the evidence is so obvious that locating it feels like child’s play and is rather unsatisfying. Elsewhere, a tiny item might blend into the scenery or be partially obscured by poor lighting, which only brings relief when found instead of reward. The on-screen evidence list can cover the scene too, which is a rather novel way for the interface to conceal one of your suspects. As a bonus, a cat is hidden somewhere, which can grant you a hint if needed in the next stage of the investigation.
The Deduction Board Is The Real Detective Work
In the next part, you move to the deduction board, which is the heart of Case Solved: The London Files. Anyone who has tackled an Einstein’s Riddle or logic-grid puzzle before will recognise the setup. By comparing statements, you link each suspect with the correct motive, location, alibi or object. These statements could clearly state what a person did or saw, while others can insinuate that whoever had a specific motive was at a particular location. You can gradually eliminate impossible combinations, fill in a guaranteed correct answer, and reassess the clues to work out more.
Easy To Understand, Not Always Easy To Trust
Watching the pieces fall into place is satisfying, and the game makes this puzzle style accessible. The problem is that it rarely asks enough of you. Most deductions are obvious after reading the clues once, with only the later stages requiring you to focus on longer reasoning chains. The later stages also spread clues over three or four pages, which means you’re cycling through them all to find relevant clues in order to compare them and make progress.
More concerning though, are the clues that do not make logical sense, no matter how many times you read them. A couple were awkwardly worded or appeared to contradict the available categories, leaving guesswork as the only practical route forward, which goes against the whole idea of a logic puzzle. Trying an answer just to see whether it’s accepted is not what should be happening, but it does. Seeing writing mistakes doesn’t fill you with confidence in a game reliant on the art of comprehension. Even in the storytelling part, the detective refers to somebody else’s relative as “my uncle”, while other phrases sound unnatural.
A Very Short Investigation
All three cases can be finished off in under two hours, including time spent wrestling with unclear information and awkwardly positioned objects. If you’re eager for more though, there are a bunch of secret cases that contain standalone logic puzzles. Apparently these are unlocked using codes hidden within the game, its menus, and beyond. Code hunting could be a fun treasure hunt, sure, but hiding content outside the game feels needlessly awkward.
Worse still, the secret case I attempted to dive into didn’t work. The clues and deduction board failed to appear, leaving an empty case and the whole thing bugged out every time. Having dozens of cases waiting to be solved and impossible to play, for technical reasons, is damn annoying.
In regards to the visuals, it makes a pretty good impression. The scenes capture a typical noir atmosphere, whether in a shady pub, theatre dressing room, or a dodgy alleyway. The colour palette makes each environment look like something you’d find in an illustrated detective novel. As for the audio, dialogue is not fully voiced and the characters produce short bursts of gibberish as text appears on-screen instead. It’s easy to tune out to be honest, so it doesn’t add or detract from the experience.
Case Solved Struggles To Deliver A Satisfying Investigation
On the whole, Case Solved: The London Files certainly looks the part of a stylish detective game, but the investigation aspect lurking beneath is less than convincing. The logical puzzles are easy to grasp and occasionally satisfying, however that’s where the positivity ends. The brief campaign, rather uninteresting stories, clue presentation, and awkward writing stops it from succeeding. Add in the clues that require guesswork and the secret cases that may not function at all, and it’d be criminal for me to recommend this one.
Important Links
Case Solved: The London Files Opens – https://www.thexboxhub.com/case-solved-the-london-files-opens/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/case-solved-the-london-files/9NN7208WF2BC/0010
