A Case of Clever Clues and Clumsy Controls
The role of the crime investigator is quite suited to the world of gamers.
A good detective will need the ability to examine a crime scene in immense detail and decipher what happened and who did what. And that’s where us gamers come in, happy to go over everything repeatedly until we get it right. And a good detective needs to think outside the box at times, hoping to come to the right conclusion. We do that all the time too.
That’s why the DETECTIVE series of games, from which this new one, Scene Crime, comes, is very intuitive for a gamer like me. It’s all about the tiny details, and this game hides them very well.
A Series of Suspects
The same developers have produced a series of DETECTIVE games for the Xbox with DETECTIVE: Stella Porta Case and Detective Minerva Case released previously. All are very different, complete with varying detective mechanics.
DETECTIVE – Scene Crime is a lot less complicated than those and doesn’t have an overarching story to get involved in. Each of the cases you try to solve has its own story to uncover, but you have no idea who you are, or what your rank or gender is. I guess you have to use your imagination.
Five Crimes, Five Cases
The five cases on offer include one set in a hospital where a patient has died, but it’s unclear whether it’s a medical accident or whether something more sinister is afoot. The next is a subway car where there is blood everywhere and some bodies, and you need to solve what in the hell happened. Then following is a roadside crash with cars piled up and four people dead. Was it really an accident?
You then venture to a supermarket where there has been a shooting, but is it random or planned? Lastly, you find yourself in a hotel where a wedding has turned into a bloodbath. Who is to blame?
Case Difficulty and Note-Taking
It’s worth noting that any of these five cases can be selected at the start in any order. Each level has a difficulty rating, from Easy (hospital) to Hard (hotel). When you enter a case, it takes you to a location and from there the game recommends that you get an old-fashioned pencil and paper to make notes.
I advise this as well because the game isn’t going to handhold you, and you need to grab any bit of information you can to decipher what happened at each of the scenes.
Examining the Evidence
The action moves to a first-person perspective, and you can walk around each environment and look at everything in detail. Phones can be picked up, and you can scroll through the contents. Who did they ring? Any messages that relate to what is going on? Any pictures? There are items to find, things lying around that could be related, notes that give you names and clues, and weapons or other hints hidden in areas you might have glanced over. To be successful, you must examine everything, especially in the harder levels.
The Cursed Cursor and a Killer UI
When you feel you have collected enough clues, you open your PDA, and several questions will appear that, as a detective, you need to answer. This might be identifying the dead or figuring out who you think murdered someone or committed a crime. There are normally between five to nine questions, and you have options to choose from a number of names. When you have your answers, you submit them, and you get told how many you got right and are given a grade, with A-plus being the highest.
It all works well, and the detective work is impressive and challenging, which I enjoyed. What I didn’t enjoy, though, was the cursor. You need this to point at things in the PDA, and it drifts around like a wayward pet. It doesn’t affect the first-person sections, but in other moments, it is annoying.
These games are always visually decent, and DETECTIVE – Scene Crime is the same, with some good lighting and a nice atmosphere in the locations. The details are great, and the locations are interesting places to explore. No cutscenes are involved, and the opening area where you decide on the case is a seedy motel room, which feels appropriate. The soundtrack has a noir feel to it, which works nicely, and there is no voice-over.
A Solid Detective Experience with a Frustrating Flaw
Is this the best game in the DETECTIVE series so far? I personally like the ones that have a connecting narrative or an overarching story. But what DETECTIVE – Scene Crime does is give you a solid detective experience, challenging your mind and leaving you to make notes as you try to work out everything from the scene. I got things wrong a few times, but it was quite satisfying to go back and search for the right answers.
But we have to look back to that cursor, and it brings things down. If that were sorted, DETECTIVE – Scene Crime would be taking home a slightly higher score.
Important Links
Five Brutal Crimes, One Detective! DETECTIVE – Scene Crime is a New Mystery – https://www.thexboxhub.com/five-brutal-crimes-one-detective-detective-scene-crime-is-a-new-mystery/
Buy DETECTIVE – Scene Crime on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/detective-scene-crime/9pnqst62f02g
