Score: 5
"Great artwork, not so great game"
date: June 8, 2009
In terms of artwork and visual presentation, the game is unique, stylish, and atmospheric. However, as a game, it barely qualifies.
The click/try everything approach should be considered the antithesis of a good adventure/puzzle game. Granted, this is just a crime scene investigation game and naturally the process is tedious and requires a through examination of everything. There are multiple approaches, however, to break the monotony and make this more of a game than a click-fest.
One way would be to make the whole process of examining things more interesting. This is a murder committed by someone with a motive, so more of that could be revealed (humanize each piece of evidence more with lengthier descriptions, personal thoughts about the profile of the killer, etc).
Perhaps more visual clues could be presented to make finding things easier, but then the game would probably be even shorter than it already is. I love the style of the artwork, but the scene feels pretty static in spite of the background animations when clicking through masses of grey objects.
Also having to collect every last piece of evidence almost demands a walkthrough (fortunately provided). There should be multiple ways for the clever player to solve the game.
That said, I think the animation and artwork shows great potential, and with some improved gameplay, I think there's a chance for a really brilliant game to come along.