Gamer’s Thoughts: My Top 10 Games I played in 2017

It’s that time of year again, the year is near its end and various websites are looking back at the games released this year. It’s about time that I do the same but in the Jonez’ way of doing things. So, how does this work? Well, if you have read my previous articles where I looked back at the year, you might know this already. Otherwise, here is how it works. I’m a game collector and I often go to garage sales. I honestly prefer buying my games that way instead of buying the newest and latest release. That means I played a lot of older games too. So, in my top 10 games, I played in 2017 are the games I played in 2017, no matter the release date. The biggest rule is that I had to start playing the game in 2017. If I started playing this game in 2016 or earlier, it doesn’t count. The list for this year has been quite a difficult list to put together. I have played so many amazing games, I had to scrap so many games. In any case, enough introduction time. Time to get this article started.

 Place 10: Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle And The Millionaires’ Conspiracy (3DS) (Original release: 2017)

First Impression

Something I saw a long time coming was that there would be a new character introduced to continue the Layton series. What I didn’t expect was that it would be Layton’s daughter. While the gameplay takes a bit of a turn, it’s still a Layton game at its core with more and shorter stories.

While it isn’t the first Layton spin-off that was released in the series, it’s one of the first multiplatform games in the series. So, I’m wondering how the rest of the series will continue. Shall we see more Layton games on Nintendo platforms or will Layton shift to the mobile platform? If you would ask me, I think a multiplatform release will work just fine. Since I think that Layton games should be enjoyed by more people.

It’s an amazing brain teaser. Thanks to the charm of the writing and characters, you can get easily invested in the story. In addition to that, it helps to keep one of my favorite genres alive and that is the adventure visual novel game. The Layton games contain a big story you can delve into, and I love it for that. While it’s not my favorite series in the genre, it comes pretty close. Thank you Level5 for creating this series and I can’t wait to see where you will take it next. Since I heard a new Layton game is under development for the Nintendo Switch.

Place 9: Ever Oasis (3DS) (Original release: 2017)

First Impression

A new IP from Nintendo? Why, yes, please! When I saw the trailer for the first time, I remember that I directly surfed to the website of my local game store to see if I would be able to pre-order the game. Sadly enough, I wasn’t able to do so at that time. When I was able to pre-order the game a few months later, I didn’t think twice.

When I finally got my hands on it, the game didn’t disappoint. I really think that this new IP will be interesting for Nintendo. I honestly hope that they don’t let this game be a one-off thing since this game has a lot of potentials to turn into an amazing new series.

Somehow, I even see a crossover with the Zelda series working perfectly. Since it was a sort of desert-themed Zelda game in my opinion. If they ever make a sequel, I wish that they expand more on the Oasis side of things, I wish there were more interactions with the villagers of my oasis.

But hey, if this is a Fata Morgana or an actual new series by Nintendo, that remains to be seen. Maybe in 2018, we get an HD remake on the Switch for all we know.

Place 8: Etrian Odyssey Untold Stories 2 – The Fafnir Knight (3DS) (Original release: 2014)

First Impression

I have nominated the Etrian Odyssey games for my top 10 games I played in earlier years. Even while a new entry in the series released here this year in the west, I haven’t played it yet. I do own a copy.

I have to admit that I haven’t beaten an Etrian Odyssey game, but I have to say that I have gotten quite far into this game. The story is very enjoyable and I want to finish it in the near future. Actually, I’m thinking about making one of my goals in 2018, finishing an Etrian Odyssey game. And I have a sneaking suspicion that the game I will finish first will be this one.

I just enjoy creating my own maps while I’m exploring the dungeons and labyrinths this game throws at me. I really feel invested because it’s my own maps helping me further into the dungeon instead of a pre-made map. I always see people doing it in a different way, but I do it my way and that’s the way how I like to play games.

Place 7: Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (Wii U) (Original release: 2015)

First Impression

This game really surprised me when I first started playing it this summer. While I’m on my summer holidays, I tend to take some time off blogging and work to actually play a lot of games and watch a lot of anime.

Yet, this year, I did write a lot of articles and I played a lot of just one game. I played a lot of Tokyo Mirage Sessions on my Wii U. While I’m nearly half beating the game, my game time is way past that. Since I paused the game when I was eating, I went to the bathroom and once or twice when I went to sleep. Apparently, those moments keep adding to the overall game time.

In any case, I really enjoyed this game. If that isn’t clear and you need more proof; if a crossover makes me decide that I need to collect more games from both series, I think the crossover succeeded in its goal.

I really want to see how both series play. While I have a pretty good idea of how Fire Emblem plays, since I own a couple of Fire Emblem games, I do want to know how Sin Megami Tensei plays. But, thank you so much Tokyo Mirage Sessions for making my summer that more enjoyable with your game!

Place 6: Corpse Party: Blood Drive (Android) (Original release: 2014, PS Vita version)

First Impression

At this moment, I don’t own a PS Vita. But, there were a few games I wanted to buy a Vita for. Now, there is one game I wanted a Vita for and that is Corpse Party BloodDrive. To my surprise, this game was ported this year to Android and iOS. It also got released not too far from my birthday.

I didn’t know about this until Halloween came around. At this moment, I noticed an image on my store home page that looked a lot like Corpse Party. When I tapped on the icon, I was surprised by the Japanese name of the game and then the English title with English looking screenshots. At first, I thought that it was a port of the original game I have on PC and 3DS.

To my surprise, it was a port of the PS Vita game, BloodDrive. I haven’t bought a game quicker on the Android Play Store than that game. I really want to see how the story of Corpse Party continued after the cliffhanger in “Book Of Shadows”.

At this moment, I’m over halfway done with the game and I really want to finish it. I can’t wait to see how the game continues to twist and turn. But, I’ll soon find out, since I started to play this game again.

Place 5: Project Zero – Maiden of the Blackwater (Fatal Frame 5) (Wii U) (Original release: 2014)

First Impression

Like I said in my article, I’m not that fond of scary games. This game is one of the first 3D horror games I enjoyed quite a lot. This horror game surprises me since it’s able to give me unlimited ammo to defend myself and it’s still scary. The atmosphere, pacing, and world-building are all so believable.

One time, I played this game right before I went to sleep. The nightmares I had that night were so bad, I decided I didn’t want to play this game without lights on. Yet, I flick that light switch to off when I’m playing this game. The atmosphere is just a lot better thanks to it.

I’m still thankful to the person who decided to sell their intact collector’s edition in my local game store. This way I was able to pick it up second hand. I admit, I collected some dust on my shelves for like a month, but then I decided that I wanted to play some new games I bought in 2017 and started up this game.

What a great decision! Now that I have a new TV with an HDMI-input, which is bigger than my computer monitor, I get pulled even more into the game. So, beware Maiden of the Blackwater, here I come to take a picture of you. Make sure that I can make a photograph from your good side, okay?

Place 4: Oneshot (Steam Release) (PC) (Original release: 2016)

I discovered this game through a video from one of my favorite YouTubers, NitroRad. When I saw that this game got released on Steam, I decided to buy it and give it a shot myself.

I wasn’t disappointed. It actually broke the 4th wall in many creative ways. I’m not going to talk about it too much since it will spoil the surprises in the game. But believe me, this game can do some crazy things that blew my mind from time to time.

The game was first a free indie title, that you could play once. Therefore it got the name “OneShot”. But now that it’s a commercial product, they had to ditch that idea. While they didn’t ditch it 100%, the way how they solved it was amazing.

After I had beaten this game, I really want another game with similar concepts and new puzzles. But, if this game will never come, I’m glad that I was able to experience OneShot and I’m happy to spread the love and recommend this game again. I decided that I’m not going to write a review nor an article about it, since talking or revealing too much will get into spoiler territory way too quickly. Know that the game needs to be played on PC and that you will have to think outside of the box to solve some puzzles. Or if you want to see more, feel free to check out the videos on it made by NitroRad. While he shows off a bit of the start, most of the surprises in this game aren’t spoiled at all.

To save you some time, here is a link to his video.

Place 3: Outlaws (PC) (Original release: 1997)

Review of the game

I go to a big garage sale each and every year; well, I picked up this game boxed for like 2€. It was the final game I bought. I caught it in the corner of my eye. Right when I saw the LucasArts logo, I knew I had to have it.

Seriously, this game doesn’t disappoint. Besides the amazing soundtrack, this game has amazing gameplay. When I decide to boot up my retro Windows 98 gaming PC, I almost always take this game and decide to play a few levels.

The love and care put into this game make it worthy of all the praise I’m giving it. I knew that LucasArts was good at creating adventures, but I didn’t know that they would also be able to create enjoyable 3D shooters.

So, thank you LucasArts for creating this underrated and overlooked gem of a game. If you haven’t played this game and you enjoy 3D shooters, you owe it to yourself to play this game. Know that this game is released in 1997 so the graphics will look like the original DooM in a way, but it’s still amazing to play to this day.

If you are unable to get yourself a boxed copy like me, you can find this game on GoG.com for like 5€, so you have no excuse to not give it a try. I honestly find it a way to cheap price for the game.

Place 2: A Hat In Time (PC) (Original release: 2017)

Review of the game

How could I not? To be honest, deciding the top 3 of this list was the most difficult part for me. While I wish I could put these three games on number one and call it a tie, that solution would be too cheap.

Anyways, I will explain why I place A Hat In Time so high on my favorite games of 2017 list. I usually never play collect-a-ton platformers. Besides Super Mario 64, I haven’t played any. While I have seen the first trailers for this game, I didn’t know it released after I suddenly saw some screenshots on my Twitter feed.

When I realized that the game was released, I bought it and booted it up. I think I explained a lot about the joy I had in the review. I gave the game a 100/100 for a reason. Right on my review page, I explain that when I give a game 100/100, I think the game is perfect in my eyes. While I know the game has problems, they are being fixed and improved to make the game even more smooth.

I have to thank Gears For Breakfast for delivering this game and also for the amount of polish and care they gave to this game. I can’t wait to see the free DLC arrive in the near future to play even more vanilla content.

Runners-up

A few games haven’t made the list. These games I started to play in 2017 as well, but sadly didn’t make the list because of a variety of reasons. So, here we go:

Mario Stickers Charged Football (Wii), Lego Jurrasic Park World (Wii U), Axiom Verge (PC/Wii U), Metroid Samus Returns (3DS), Popolocrois (PSP), Hamtaro (GBC), Spellforce (PC), Pokémon Pinball – Ruby & Sapphire Edition (GBA) amongst others I’m forgetting now.

1st PLACE: The Legend Of Zelda – Breath Of The Wild (Wii U) (Original release: 2017)

First Impression

There was this game this year, I played when I didn’t know what to play. A game that needed time to grow me on me. A game that slowly but surely became one of the best games I played all year. With over 200 hours put into it this year, I can’t lie and say that The Legend Of Zelda is the worst game I played in 2017.

Currently, I’m playing through all the DLC and I have a sneaking suspicion that after that, I’ll still spend a lot of time with this game. Especially when I’m going to buy a Switch next year, I’ll be able to experience this game all over again.

If you didn’t know, the Legend Of Zelda series is one of my favorite gaming series ever made. As shown by the amazing blogging celebration I did in October where I looked through the whole main series history with a lot of other bloggers. In case you missed the hub article, you can find it here.

I can only confirm that this game is worthy of winning all those awards at the gaming awards this year. It’s one of the best open-world games made so far and I think we will see a lot of influences from this game gets its way into other games. If you haven’t played Breath Of The Wild, play it. But be aware that it will change your view on various open-world games forever.

Goodbye, 2017!

This year has been so special to me. I have experienced a lot of different things. I played one of the lead roles in my theater group, made a lot of new blogger friends, my blog grew an awful lot and already made a lot of plans to make 2018 an amazing year to look forward too.

In terms of gaming, 2017 was a year of both nostalgia and modern games to me. I played a lot of new games and I love how people ask me about which games they should buy for their children at work. It gives such a great feeling to be able to spread the joy of playing games to others.

In 2018, you can expect more articles from me. Like I said in my update article for December 2017, I have a few plans for 2018 and I think you will enjoy them. But, thank you for reading my blog this past year. I had such an enjoyable ride and I am so thankful for all the chances I get to review indie developers their games. It was also flattering to see how one of my quotes made it on a Steam Store page.

Before I ramble on too much, I’m going to close off this article. If you want to talk to me about the past year, your favorite games of 2017 and things of that nature, feel free to leave a comment. Since I do read them all and reply to them all. Thank you so much for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog but until then, take care and have a great rest of your day.

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First Impression: Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katerielle and the Millonaires’ Conspiracy (3DS) ~ Miss Layton

Wikipedia page

To be honest, when I first heard about the release of this game, I thought that Level5 was going to port the Android spin-off Layton Brothers to the 3DS. Since it has a similar concept. A team that solves smaller cases as a detective and try to solve crimes. Yet, to my surprise, the story of this game goes about the daughter of the famous professor Layton, named Katrielle. While the game first released on mobile devices, I played the 3DS version. I’m used to be playing Professor Layton games on the 3DS, so why change that if I knew that a 3DS version was coming. Since I haven’t played the mobile version, that means I won’t be talking about it in my first impression here either. So, I think it’s time that I talk about this game, is it a good entry into the Layton franchise or is it a spin-off that should only exist one time? As usual, feel free to leave your opinion on the article and/or the game in the comment section down below.

It’s Miss Layton now

In this game, you play as Katrielle, Layton’s daughter. She just opened a mystery solving shop in London and she is awaiting her first mysteries to solve. Her motto is “any mystery solved”. Together with her assistant named Ernest, you come across a talking dog. Katrielle gives the talking dog a name, Sherl. Yes, as a reference to Sherlock Holmes. The strange thing is that not everybody can hear Sherl talking. Katrielle’s first mystery is trying to solve why that is. Yet, it doesn’t take long before the first case reveals itself and Katrielle gets distracted by solving that. Not too soon after, Katrielle, Ernest, and Sherl go on different adventures to solve cases.

The writing in this game is very lighthearted and a joy to read. I really enjoy how Katrielle does anything for food, how Ernest is the clumsy romantic and Sherl the dog that knows a lot about how humans live their daily lives. The story can take itself seriously when it needs to, but overall, this is a less serious entry into the series compared to the previous games in the series. I’m currently at the 5th case in the game, so it’s possible that it can change. But, we shall see. The voice acting on the characters is also amazing. I think that the cast did an amazing job voicing these characters and make them come to life. A gold star for that!

I do have one minor complaint about the naming of certain characters in the game. The word puns in some cases made me cringe a bit. They didn’t feel creative, they felt forced in. Like, there was a couple where the lady was called Vic and the male called Tim. There were a bit more names like that and it didn’t click with me. I felt that more day-to-day names like Marc, William, Sara, Marian would be fitted better.

The story is structured in such a way that it more resembles a Saturday morning anime. Each case doesn’t take too long to solve, but each case has a nice start, middle and finale. During the case, you gather clues, that you have to fit in a puzzle. While this puzzle is extremely easy to make, I think it’s a step up from the previous Layton games since it’s more than a button that unlocks in a menu.

I do have one complaint about the story actually. I feel like the focus on the backstory of Sherl is a bit too much pushed to the background in the first cases. For real, the twist the game starts with about Sherl didn’t go anywhere substantial in the first four cases. If it did, I must have missed it.

Layton at its core

While this game has a different main cast, the gameplay of this game is still the usual Layton gameplay at its core. In this game, you solve brain teasers and puzzles to get information from people. There are over 150 puzzles in this game. While you don’t have to solve them all to beat the game, there are some points in the game where you need to solve a certain amount of puzzles in order to progress. In this case, the game will clearly state how many you need to solve.

As I said earlier, this game is all about solving mysteries and finding clues to solve that mystery. Like I said before, the game is pretty lighthearted, so the mysteries aren’t; well how shall I put it? A missing pet or a missing part of a movie, that is the two of the first four cases. Yeah, I think that explains itself. So, you have to explore the London to find clues to what happened and how to solve the case.

While you are exploring, you can go to various locations and each location has various things to do. Exploration is just traveling from screen to screen. Sometimes you will have to ride a bike to another remote location, but that is about it. Also, you can only go to screens you unlocked. What I mean by this is that when for example, a lady on street tells you that your client lives a bit more down the road, the map opens up to that location.

This is how exploration always worked in the Layton games. Yet, you can do a lot on each screen. You can find hidden collectibles or puzzles, hint coins, progress the story or get interesting commentary about the object you tapped on. I really advise you to look at each screen with a lot of attention since all those things can be handy in solving the future cases. Especially the hint coins, if you can collect them, that’s always a great idea.

If you have played Layton games before, most hiding spots of the hint coins won’t be a surprise to you. Otherwise, try to tap on everything and it won’t take long before you will start to understand how this whole system works. So, why are these hint coins so handy? Well, let me tell you. You can get a hint when you are stuck in solving a brain teaser. Believe me, some will get you stumped and make you think. A great advice from me is to have a pen and notebook handy and maybe a calculator too.

While you can take notes and draw on the touchscreen while you solve the puzzle, I always felt that this system didn’t work flawlessly. If you want to input an answer, you have to exit out of your notes. In addition to that, I love writing my thoughts more on paper or on a bigger screen than the 3DS’s screen to solve puzzles.

The puzzles that you can solve in this game will range from math riddles to mazes you will have to solve. If you are stuck, don’t hesitate to think outside of the box. Since a lot of answers will simpler then you think. Something I didn’t like about this game is something that Level5 stopped doing in the previous entry in the Layton series. In the first games in the series, they explained the answer. In this game, they don’t always do that. So, when I didn’t understand why I had to answer in a certain way, I was disappointed to see a simple screen saying “you do it!” and nothing more.

Compared to previous Layton games, this game has also some side quests you can perform. During your exploration, you come across various characters who give you a new puzzle that is saved in Katrielle’s trunk. Like a puzzle where you need to solve a maze with the least amount of steps and finding the perfect meal with a cryptic description. Actually, I wouldn’t call them side quests, I think a better name is a side activity or a side puzzle.

Each puzzle is worth a certain amount of picards. The side puzzles aren’t worth any picards. So, what do these picards do? Well, the more you earn, the more bonus material you unlock after finishing the game. So, try to gain as much picards if you can. Since, if you give a wrong answer to a puzzle, the number of picards you earn from that puzzle drop. Keep that in mind if you want to unlock everything.

Visual eye-candy

The visual presentation of this game is just amazing. This game has some amazing artwork and is a real piece of visual eye-candy to look at. While the game doesn’t use 3D that often, or at all, I think I can’t decide which art style I like the best for the game. The overall game is 2D, but the character models are rendered in 3D. While in cutscenes, everything is in 2D. I think the screenshots will explain it better than I can with words.

But, there is one thing that I didn’t like about the presentation and that are the cutscenes. To be honest, most cutscenes are just too short. Some cutscenes aren’t longer than one sneeze and blowing your nose. This is a shame since the cutscenes look so well made. I really wish there were longer cutscenes to enjoy. I feel that they are just an afterthought, while they feel like a nice reward for finding a breakthrough or solving the case.

The music for this game is enjoyable as well. The soundtrack isn’t one where I would listen to when I’m doing other things, but it adds a lot to the atmosphere of the game and I have no complaints about that. The music really fits the Layton universe perfectly, if you didn’t know better, you would say that it’s a soundtrack from another Layton game earlier in the series. The sound design also feels right at home. While there aren’t too many sound effects in the game, when they are used, they are used to give the world a bit more life or the story a bit more punch.

Like previous Layton games, this game also has daily puzzles. But this time, I feel that the reward is better for solving them. As you might know, I’m a game collector and I love seeing artwork from the games I played. So, when you solve a daily puzzle, you will get museum points. If you get 100 museum points, you can unlock artwork from any of the previous titles. This is such a great feature since it pulls on my nostalgic strings so much. To be honest, I spend a lot of time-solving the daily puzzles. I really enjoy solving most of them and I wish that time went a bit faster so I could receive my puzzles a bit faster.

While most of the issues I have with the game are minor, I think this game is still a great game. Some issues I have with the game or some minor, they became a nitpick. For example, I really liked how in previous games, each save slot had a different character from the main cast presenting it. In this game, it’s Katrielle for all three. Yeah, major nitpick right there.

Another minor issue that I have are some parts of the controls. While you can use the “A” button, and strangely enough the arrow buttons, to continue dialogues; you can’t use the psychical buttons for anything else. Besides solving some puzzles. Everything is done using the touchscreen. I really miss some shortcut keys. Like using the circle button to move your looking glass around or the shoulder buttons to open the movement menu or a button to open the trunk like “Y” for example. That would be a great addition.

Then again, there are things in the game I really like. Like how you can decorate the mystery solving office to how you want. Changing the Fengshui if you want. Depending on how many puzzles you solve, you get a ticket to “buy” a new item to change up the decoration of your office.

That isn’t the only thing you can change, there are also outfits for Katrielle you can buy. Some even as DLC for a small fee. While they have only a visual purpose and nothing else, the ones you can buy as DLC have an additional puzzle for you to solve.

About the costumes, there is one minor flaw I have to bring up. You can change Katrielle’s costume at any time you want. Yet, I noticed that Katrielle wears special outfits during other chapters. For example, in one chapter she dresses up in a nice dress since she is going out to see a movie with Ernest. If you exit that case and go to a different case to find hint coins you missed, Katrielle is still wearing that special dress. This is a bit out of context in my eyes and shouldn’t happen. Oh well, only a minor complaint?

Oh yeah, you can go back to previous cases in order to find hint coins and puzzles you missed. The only minor complaint I have is that there is no indication when you missed another collectible in the case. Even an indication on the case brief screen would have been nice. Since, if you skipped over one collectible, have fun looking for it, since the game won’t help you there. On the other hand, I think it’s a great move that you can visit back and solve puzzles you haven’t solved or found and looking for hint coins you missed. The only tip the game gives you there is the screen you missed it on. So, have fun looking for what you missed.

So far, I’m enjoying myself with this game. While the game isn’t flawless at all, I think that the positives outweigh the negatives here. If you are still deciding if this game is for you, know that it’s a more lighthearted Layton game with the same atmosphere and gameplay but without Layton, Luke and the usual gang. This game has a completely new cast of characters. It’s a breath of fresh air for the series and I can’t wait to see where Level5 takes this. I would love to see Katrielle and Layton meet one day.

That is everything I wanted to say about this game for now. I thank you so much for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

 

First Impression: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – Fatal Conspiracy (PC) ~ Ah, CSI.

Wikipedia entry

Lately, I’m getting quite a lot into the series of CSI. I’m currently watching the original series to the end. Then the spin-offs. But the games, oh man, the games are something special. Published by Ubisoft and developed by TellTale Games. This game has mixed reviews all over the board. I have seen reviews ripping this game a new one and I have seen reviews praising this game. This is the latest PC game that came from the series. I have beaten the first two cases and I just started the 3rd case. Is this a good game in my opinion? Is this a game made for fans of the series or can it be played by everyone? Well, I took a look from both angles. So, I won’t get the criticism that I gave this game a positive review because I’m a fan of the series. So, let’s dive right into this game. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the content of this article and or the game. 

TellTale made this

It’s quite clear that TellTale games made this game. The formatting is just like their other series. The game is 5 cases long. During the game, you get another partner every time. What seriously amazed me is that the characters from the show actually did the voice acting for this game.  This give me goosebumps. One of the goals of these games is trying to give you the feeling that you are part of the team. The voice acting helps a lot with this.

The writing is done on a very clever way. Some lines are left out. Information your brain can easily fill in. Questions you would ask if the game was voice controlled. This helps draw you in a bit more too.

Storywise, this game starts off quite interesting. The idea of having a storyline over the whole game instead of having five separate stories makes it very interesting. The only minor complaint I have here is that the pacing is a bit off. It distracts a bit from the case in my opinion. Truth to be told, you can’t avoid it.

 The individual cases are quite interesting. But they aren’t my favorite cases from the series. They are good but my favorite cases are from the second game in the series.

Why is it bad?

Visually, this game doesn’t look that well. This game has been released 5 years ago. I know for a fact that visually, games can look way better then this. Tomb Raider Legend, which released 4 years prior, looked way more cleaner then this game.

So, I played a little bit more of the game and found some blurring issues. It would surprise me if my computer is at fault here. I’m extremely sure it can run this game three times without slowing down my computer.

But for a licensed game, visually this game looks quite fine. Some things could have been animated to look a bit better. So, after closer inspection (see what I did there) the issue with the visuals is that some things like hair aren’t animated which giving the visuals a bad impression to a PC gamer. Thankfully, in an adventure game the graphics aren’t the priority. The actual adventure is a bit more important.

One thing I find a negative in this game is that you can’t walk around. In a previous installment, you were allowed to walk around on the crime scene. I was hoping they implemented this again. But now, it’s back to the old point-and-click interface. Which is quite fine by me, expect for one flaw. In the game you are scored on how thorough you are. A visual indication for this would be nice, there have been various times that I was searching on a spot that was actually clean. They did this in the previous installments.

Another thing I don’t understand is that they cut the lab into two area’s. It’s rather annoying when you need to switch between the two places. Also, it’s annoying to see a number showing with the evidence. I can understand that it’s to help you remember that are is something that needs your processing, but you have no visual indication which item you still need to take a closer look at. That number also doesn’t decrease when you investigate it with the proper machine.

Oh, I talked a bit earlier about the lab. Some instruction videos actually didn’t work and it played part of the intro for this game. This is the weirdest bug I have seen for quite a while.

The GUI (graphical user interface, the menus and such) in the lab is a bit lacking. In the past it was easier to switch between evidence. Now, you need to restart before you can continue.

Yet, the worst two issues is that you can barely alt+tab out of the game. Your screen will show some weird bars like a smashed LCD screen. And related to that, sometimes the sound cuts out on a scary way… as your headphones just popped.

What is good…?

Apart from the visuals, I find barely any major flaws, apart from some nitpicks here and there, in the game. The soundtrack in this game feels a lot like the series. Music that won’t go to your music library but is perfect to set the mood.

The design of the crime scenes and the locations you visit are well thought out. The “hiding spots” for the evidence are sometimes so well hidden, it’s easy to look over them. This is very lovely, since this gives the game a more challenging nature.

Also, there are achievements in this game. For the people who want to 100% this game, this is some replay value. You can try to avoid making the mistakes you made in the first playthrough.

The tips system is more streamlined. Sometimes you get mails from the night shift supervisor telling you what you should do or might overlook.

Is this game perfect? Hell no, it has some flaws that might hinder the experience. Is it good? Yes. Is it for everyone? Not really. I would recommend it to fans of the series and adventure gamers. I would also recommend it to people who like to solve crimes, virtually or in the real world.

If you are able to look past a few minor issues, this game is quite well crafted. When the developers had a bit more time, this game could be a bit better polished. That’s all I have to say about this game in my first impression. If I finish it, I might write a review about it and go a bit more in depth about certain area’s of the game.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this for you guys (or girls). I hope to welcome you at another article. But until then, have a nice day and game on~