Nostalgia and Supernatural Secrets
I always wanted to be a private detective, or just a normal bog-standard one for that matter. It was a profession that looked so appealing when watching old noir films and TV series; a lot of drinking, smoking, and the chance to get involved in some huge conspiracy. Then, of course, you always fell in love with the very person who had hired you for the job or who was your chief suspect.
In reality, being a detective is now mostly about doing a lot of online research, tapping phones, and following people with a camera in hand.
In The Empty Desk, you are a detective, and thankfully, it is much closer to the fantasy version – though you do still have a camera. So, let’s do some detecting.
One Last Case…
Detective Thomas Bennet is one last case away from retirement (of course he is). Based in London, the detective is charged with investigating the disappearance of Emily Blackthorn. The Blackthorns run a huge corporation deep in the city, and most recently, Arthur Blackthorn died under suspicious circumstances. Bennet goes straight to the heart of the Blackthorn enterprise, which is located in a massive office block. As he enters the building, things aren’t what they seem, and the detective soon finds himself chased by supernatural entities while trying to solve the mystery.
As the story unfolds over this three-to-four-hour game, there are some interesting elements to the case. You find out about Bennet’s past and his ongoing grudge against this organisation. There is the ghost of a woman who acts as a sort of guide throughout this journey, eventually revealing her identity towards the end. There are some nice ideas sprinkled here and there, and the writing is generally good, although it can occasionally feel a bit uninspired. I liked the setup of being confined to one location that simply gets stranger and stranger across its nine chapters.
The Empty Desk is played in the first person and starts off simply enough. You might begin in a corridor, for example, and have to work out which lift to take by investigating the area. You also receive help from a colleague over the phone; think Metal Gear Solid, and you will get the idea. Soon, however, you fall into the true rhythm of the game. The levels operate on a sort of loop, forcing you to keep going around while elements of the environment change or distort.
The Clue-Gathering Loop
For instance, you are equipped with a camera and tasked with finding, say, seven pieces of evidence scattered throughout the level. In one chapter, you are looking for documents that bear a red seal. Some of these are hidden in plain sight, while others are tucked away in hard-to-reach areas that require you to complete several steps to uncover them. One piece of evidence might be hidden inside a safe, meaning you first have to find a document that reveals the code. When you reach the end of the loop, a screen tells you how many clues you successfully gathered. If you don’t have enough, you have to start again; thankfully, you don’t have to find all the clues from scratch.
The tedious part of this camera mechanic, however, is that you cannot delete photos as you go. Once you have taken six pictures, your batteries run out, forcing you to restart the loop to carry on.
Straightforward Sleuthing
The gameplay is straightforward, with no real puzzles to genuinely tax your brain as you progress. It is fine, but it doesn’t do anything to break the mould, and I did start to tire of The Empty Desk about halfway through. It is not a detective game in the vein of the Sherlock Holmes titles, so do not expect to be writing down complex clues in a notebook. Still, it is a pleasant enough adventure, even if it doesn’t do anything spectacular along the way.
Visually, this one boasts a very clean design that occasionally hints at the likes of Mirror’s Edge. It features a good colour scheme and makes great use of its assets to maximise its budget. I liked the character designs and the stranger aspects of the supernatural elements. The sound design is fine, as is the soundtrack.
A Concise and Capable Corporate Mystery
The Empty Desk is a pretty short game, but it is just about enjoyable enough. The clean visuals, and central mystery that slowly reveals itself over the course of the game, work well, but some of the writing is a bit clunky. Thankfully there is just about enough to hook you in. The gameplay is quite straightforward too, and while the camera mechanic is a good concept, the actual execution doesn’t quite live up to its potential.
It is also not a game that requires much detection, but if you fancy yourself the right person to solve the crime, then The Empty Desk is waiting for you.
Important Links
The Empty Desk Opens Its Doors On Xbox And PlayStation – https://www.thexboxhub.com/the-empty-desk-opens-its-doors-on-xbox-and-playstation/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/the-empty-desk/9MXK5NXJSZ3P/0010
