Case Files: Behind Closed Doors

Case Files: Behind Closed Doors is a mystery-detective game about figuring out who murdered Daniel Murphy. With different twists and clues, you piece together evidence to discover more information. Overall a good, short story that will make you want to find the truth. Achievements are mainly about finding and giving the correct evidence or answers for each interview. Would recommend to play the game as you think are the correct choices, then go through for achievements on the next run.

This is a decent little game. You take the role of a police detective investigating the murder of an abusive boyfriend, and must examine various pieces of evidence - such as crime scene photographs, autopsy reports, security camera footage, and recorded interviews - to determine which of the four suspects is guilty. The suspect interviews, which make up the bulk of the game, are well-written and acted. They remind me of real-life police interrogation videos, and the writers clearly did a lot of research into genuine interview techniques - no over-the-top Hollywood stuff here. Poring over the evidence to spot lies and contradictions is quite fun, and felt closer to real detective work than pretty much any other game I've played. The downside is that you have very little control over how the interviews play out - what happens is that your detective partner asks the questions, and occasionally pauses to ask you whether you think someone is telling the truth. Since this is a murder mystery, it's hardly a spoiler to say that nobody is being wholly truthful at first, and sometimes your partner seems to ignore really obvious lies in favour of asking you about something else entirely. At times this left me unsure whether to answer "no" because the suspect is clearly lying, or "yes" in the sense that they're not necessarily lying about that SPECIFIC issue. I also picked out the real culprit fairly early on, which made some of the other interviews feel like rather a waste of time. Later in the game you have to identify statements or evidence which contradict something a suspect is telling you. This works rather better, as it's based on hard evidence rather than vague gut-feelings, but there are still moments where you have to guess which of several obvious contradictions the game wants you to highlight. Luckily you're given unlimited tries to get this right, but I really wish the gameplay could be expanded by letting you choose which topics to ask about, and deciding what order you want to interview suspects. I'd recommend getting this on sale, as it's quite short. Assuming you get most things correct the first time through, there's not much replay value apart from a variant ending. Nevertheless I'm looking forward to the upcoming sequel.

Love those FMV type of games,the Cold cases style is great. Acting is acceptable,but not great. My Only critic is there,Everyone seems SOOO cold even when they are facing evidence of them lying.It needed more emotional response from actor,but beside that,loved it very much. Would buy again,no question asked. #BringMeSomeMore

I'm recommending it in part because most people who like detective games will probably like it and also because Steam's recommendation system is very limited (thumbs up or down). However... As a true crime fan, this game frustrated me early on and, as a result, I stopped playing after about an hour. If you're more than a casual fan of true crime, you'll probably share my frustrations. In reality, investigators consider everything about a suspect when questioning them. They do NOT take suspects at their word and simply assume that everything is as it seems or as a suspect claims it to be. Although investigators do take a suspect's story into account, they also consider how the suspect tells their story (tone of voice, mannerisms, emotional responses, body language, etc.). I was quite disappointed to realize that, in this game, players are expected to accept that what's said by suspects during interrogations is to be accepted as fact... no matter how unconvincingly it's said. If you actually try to play realistically, you get questioned, like "are you sure?" letting you know you're going against the superficial narrative of the game. All in all, it just wasn't my cup of tea, but for those looking for a predictable detective game, I'm sure they'll enjoy it.

Amazing game! It had the best acting that I've ever seen in FMV games ever. Of course you need evidences and contradictions but a looot of tme you can truly conclude based on the mimics, body languages... LOVED IT.

I recommend this on deep sale or bundle for a 2-3 hour mystery centered on video interviews that you watch, and then you make some choices that influence the interrogator. Some influence what you actually learn from suspects, and some are just progress gates based on understanding evidence & interviews. I got only half of the six fact checks correct, but they make it optional & easy afterwards to identify which ones were wrong. With those, it was still reasonably intriguing and difficult to figure out who did it, which I saw as the game's strength...or a show of my stupidity? Acting could be better by the oldest guy, and the cop buddy's voice acting on calls was sub par, but everyone else was alright. I appreciate the settings options to skip any video or audio segment, and also an assist when asked to identify evidence that contradicts the most recent interview. This makes it much easy to go back and make choices that reveal more info. There are also clear achievements when you factually get something correct.

I wish I could give this game a neutral review. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. First of all, the actors (all of them,) were phenomenal. They were believable, showed the right amount of emotion at the right time, even sloppy, when the situation called for it. Plot spoilers ahead, but I will spoiler tag anyway-[spoiler] First of all, I feel like the writing could have been better. There were a massive amount of underutilized elements and items. One of the suspects was a debt collector and there were playing cards and alcohol found in the living room. The victim called a cab the night before he was killed. There were both sleeping pills and alcohol found in his system. Now, I know that not all real cases use all of the evidence, but it felt like there was some grand conspiracy here that could have been woven, only to reveal the true killer at the end was happenstance. Also, I think it's an extremely stupid idea to think someone is dangerous and willingly choose to go into their house just to steal their gun. That part of the plot seemed deliberately stupid, but it could have been explained with the killer's naivete. [/spoiler] TL:DR - Great game for 1 night, good building of tension, didn't release too much information at one time and well-paced. Overall, not worth the full price. Somewhat worth it for 50% off.