Chinatown Detective Agency: Day One

[i]''There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and the deader the corpse the better.'' - S.S. Van Dine[/i] Chinatown, Singapore in the year 2032 - [b]Amira Darma[/b] is the female protagonist operating her first day as a Private Investigator in a dystopian cybernoir world where she feels her detective skills can flourish outside of the financially crippled Criminal Investigation Department that she once worked for under the command of [i]Superintendent Justin Koh[/i]. [h1]The 3 Cases, characters and the puzzles[/h1] It becomes an eventful opening day for [b]Amira[/b] as she encounters multiple clients starting with [i]Rupert Zhou[/i] who wants the whereabouts of a missing woman traced but not before you're tasked with solving a cryptic clue to decipher where to meet him. Seeking out this clue we see [b]Amira[/b] travel on the Rail transport system (that has a zoom feature map of locations) where she ends up meeting the energetic [i]Mei[/i] who is knowledgeable if the price is right! Aside from the cryptic messages, this first case provides a hacking puzzle that surprisingly was a Match 2 memory mini-game centred around a cyber design, this is followed up later by a cipher that could be challenging for anyone who suffers [u]Dyscalculia[/u]. Finally, you get to do your first globe-trotting to locate the missing woman which reappears in the next case posed by [i]Tiger Lily[/i] who is a socialite acting on behalf of a later revealed mysterious benefactor. For this second case, [b]Amira[/b] is given hints to locations that she must travel to in order to return rare stamps and it is in this case that the Player will potentially struggle because, much like the other cryptic puzzles, the solution involves researching the historical location names rather than the more common & recent name known today. Wikipedia is your go-to for quick results and also look at the image and words in the stamps for extra clues. After bumping up [b]Amira's[/b] air-miles (and her jet-lag) you get to the 3rd and final case in this prologue where you are up against the clock in time-management but thankfully, not as a puzzle, instead you're given a location/time and aim to get there promptly. For me, this caused a few issues and boosted my play-time alot higher than it needed to be, mostly because of the time-management being specific in its actions that lead to a few glitches along the way. After a few reloads and narrowing it down to the right sequence the glitch went away and I was able to progress. It finishes with good old detective Q&A plus a final bit of hacking that once more can be tricky if you don't consider using the Asian local name. [h1]The Carmen Sandiego nod[/h1] [i]Chinatown Detective Agency[/i] takes a high amount of influences from their inspiration: [u]Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego[/u] that dates back to the late 80s so seeing the retro use of the HUD (including the whole game visual layout where we see the mouse icon change to show an action) as well as the air-travel and more is a fan-boy nod by [b]General Interactive Co[/b]. The retro theme continues with the familiar use of pixel graphics that I enjoyed seeing as a fan of PnC and I especially liked the use of location landmarks in the scenes which were very well designed particularly the dot icon to reflect locations available. Smart game design both by [i]Mark Dilon and Jenny Hide[/i]. The character portraits used when displaying text conversations were visually very appealing with great attention to detail and colourful much like the neon-familiar cybernoir settings throughout. Great work by [i]Ricardo Juchem[/i]. Some may find the comparison between the portraits and the character pixels vastly different both in detail and in design but I feel the pixel graphics were done purely as a [u]Carmen Sandiego[/u] tribute theme. Expect the comforting ambient sounds that ease you into these cyber dystopian worlds but also be treated to excellent use of VO that is done to a good standard with clear tones, good character acting and extra appeal in the use of Singapore VO actors that definitely adds to the immersion. [h1]Improvements[/h1] [olist] [*]There were a few minor things that definitely are quick-fixes like the use of the Endurance for [b]Amira[/b], there were times when it was very hard to see the % chart against some scene backgrounds and having to press a key to view it I think is unusual when all other functions for the game are shown on the HUD? If the HUD was made to expand (such as click a smaller version of the phone and the keypad appears and, in this case, click an endurance icon and the graph appears) it could be fitted below/above the phone keypads which takes up a lot of space on the HUD. [*]When looking at the mission HUD in the lower right, it expands out perfect for viewing all options within the mission but there is no way to minimise it back down except for clicking on the scene; this became a small issue for me at the final case when at the party location because when I had clicked that HUD to check info I then had to click the background scene to close it which inadvertently caused a character dialogue! If it had a minimise option this solves that. [*]The game has good use of puzzles but be aware of dyscalculia and dyslexia. [*]I realise this is a prologue demo but the game-play was very linear leaving no opportunities to explore whether it be with background characters (which could add humour to the game from their replies) or the scene items that could easily be used to add local culture lore and facts as an added feature. [*]The dialogue box was distracting during VO scenes as it was slightly time delayed (only by seconds though) so possibly a choice to hide the dialogue so the VO can take centre stage then have it appear where there is no VO? Nothing can be missed as the Mission box in the lower right has the chat history to review if needed during VO scenes. [*]The second case is easily the most challenging & probably will blow steam from player's ears so maybe have an added option where [i]Mei[/i] can help solve the locations by providing clues - at a cost of course! [/olist] Overall, this free prologue is a great tutorial insight into the game and the cases are interesting enough with some [b]Carmen[/b] inspired puzzles and actions. There is definitely plenty of scope for expanding on this world (which no doubt will happen in the main release) while there is plenty of variety in the case types and their challenges. The mix of characters are intriguing each with their own particular traits and mannerisms. The finale was very direct and short with little graphical imagery of what was to occur and, considering what is talked of right at the end of this prologue, I think showing a visual alongside it would provide a very effective cliff-hanger. ~~~Liked what you see? You can find more at [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32839633]Have a word[/url]~~~

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Heads up, I didn't get to finish this game-- the released part was a lot longer than I thought, and I didn't find any way to save it and come back to where I'd left off. Not wanting to replay the 1.5 hours I spent on it, I just decided to review it as-is. THE GOOD: -The art! While I think the differences between the realistic portraits and the pixel... everything else... is kind of odd, the art is good enough that I don't really care. The portraits especially are awesome, as well as the general vibes and the different city pixel art. I love it. -The vibes! I'm a big fan of cyberpunk and this game does a great job of capturing the atmosphere. The sound effects, the colors, the music, it's all great. THE BAD: -The pixel art is great, but the fact that the UI is also done in pixel sometimes makes it hard to read, especially the parts at the bottom. I was able to figure out what the buttons did, but I found myself clicking on things to remind myself what they do. I'm not vision-impaired at all, and I can imagine this might be a struggle for people who are, especially since it's pretty low-contrast. -While the majority of the writing and voice acting is good, sometimes it feels clunky and weird. I also sometimes had trouble advancing the text, because the game expects me to click inside the text box in order to move forward. I understand why this is, but as a person who plays a lot of visual novels, it wasn't my first instinct and it felt odd. -The Puzzles: I like the idea that this game is solved using outside knowledge, but there are sometimes specific things that are really difficult to look up if you don't know where to start. For basically all of the stamp puzzles, I ended up solving them based on looking at the countries that were available for me to fly to, and then working backwards from there. Definitely not the intended way of solving it. (It did make me feel clever, though...) -Random excess features that didn't appear to have a purpose: It's important to keep track of stamina, energy, money, time, and a bunch of other things in this game that served no apparent purpose except to trip me up. It was a pain to coordinate my flights with the clock, especially when I should have been able to board and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't let me. I understand that keeping track of money is important, but the food/stamina/hunger thing was weird and kept me from doing what I wanted to do (which was solve cool puzzles). -No save function? I'm assuming this will be added later (if it isn't already there, and I'm just too dumb to find it) but I was really sad that I lost all my progress when I had to log off for the night. It was a bummer. That's about it! I really liked this game. It was fun to play with some friends to help solve puzzles with me, and it was an interesting time. I'll definitely buy this game when it comes out regardless, but I wanted to give some feedback about what I experienced when playing it. Can't wait to see how the overall story goes! <3

Here, using "real-world detective skills to ... solve cases" is a euphemism for googling geography trivia to progress a linear story. I respect the devs trying a new approach to the genre, but this felt like a typing game only, instead of typing, you perform other busywork. Besides that, the art/graphics are quite nice, but the world feels dead--despite it looking like a classic P&C game, you can only interact with the next thing that will progress the story. The real time clock also seems like a bad idea--I like what I think they're trying for, but I think making it turn-based somehow would be a better approach.

发现库里有不少发行商之一标记为Whisper Games的游戏，于是去查了查他们的资料，发现Whisper Games又名轻语工作室，是一家位于厦门专门做游戏翻译的公司，貌似也做一些发行的工作。不查不知道，一查吓一跳，大名鼎鼎的《极乐迪斯科》就是由他们做的本地化。工作室主要是由民间汉化组和专业人员组成的，算是成功由灰色地带民间松散机构转型为正式商业团队的成功案例，国内多个网站还对工作组有所报道。该工作室接的活不少，其中就有很多来自GrabTheGames发行的小游戏，我刚测评过《Sorry, James | 抱歉，詹姆斯》，紧接着就玩了这款《Chinatown Detective Agency | 牛车水侦探社》的Prologue或者叫试玩版。 我先说一下翻译的问题，开场动画和设置的翻译问题比较大，视频设定里面的口式（窗口化），开场背景中的中医口所（中医诊所），独白中把伟大翻译成大字幕看起来就很奇怪，而且还有多处字符确实等。正式开始后的内容就好多了，翻译问题骤减，直到最后也没什么很明显的问题。另外补充一点小知识，Chinatown一般翻译为唐人街，但牛车水是新加坡本地的一个特色称呼，不是制作组乱发挥的。 游戏玩起来还可以，是个赛博朋克背景下的像素侦探游戏，每个案件都很短小，1个小时的试玩版中我们就能解决4个案子，当然这取决于你解决谜题的速度。游戏地点设定在新加坡，我没去过，但是坐新加坡的航班好多次，在樟宜机场停留过好几次，这里华人很多，看起来是中国、东南亚和欧美文化融合的非常好的地方。游戏很多内容中直接都有中文，中文母语玩家玩起来肯定有不少优势，甚至一个案件的解决地点跟上海和哈尔滨有关，但是英文不行的话，有些谜题你也解不了。游戏整体还可以，但是我并没有特别的喜欢，主要原因来自于解谜方式。游戏中第一个谜题是一句希罗多德《历史》中的名言，怎么解呢？我们需要点击游戏中的网页页面，直接跳到浏览器用搜索引擎解谜！这~~~后面的邮票谜题等等基本全都是这么解，我用Google一搜其实就把别人写的游戏谜题解析搜出来了，直接照抄就行了，最后一个迷题直接有提示——亚洲最长的河流，结果当然是Changjiang，这种谜题设置方式太偷懒了吧，不知道正式版是不是也这样。【PS：游戏虽然基本是点击式，但是时间跳过需要按W键】总之，游戏从试玩版看质量一般，不讨厌但也没多喜欢，看看以后有没有机缘吧，没有就Pass了。

While not being my style of game, I find this to be rather impressive With attention to detail from the smallest chord in the music to the intro that sets a scene and precedent for the rest of the game. Impressive, I'll keep my eyes on it.

Without a save game option I decided immediately not to play further and cannot recommend it. This is such a basic thing to have in a game that I cannot change my review to positive without being able to save my progress.

Yes, yes, YES! I want more of this. What a fun and fabulous demo / introduction to a game. Everything about this game hits right so far. Beautiful pixel art, noirish atmosphere, a mystery to unravel, and it does not hold your hand, it slaps it away in fact and tells you to go do research. Is this love I am feeling? Could be. xD Do yourself a favor and try this free game prologue. You too may fall in love with it. That's ok, we can share. ;) P.S. I liked this promo game so much, I went and played it again. Also, [spoiler] Shameless plug incoming [/spoiler] I wrote a guide for the second case (stamps puzzle) to solve: [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2700285773] The Stamps Puzzle [/url]