Hauma - A Detective Noir Story

The storytelling in this game is atrocious. [Mild spoilers first chapter] You cannot just put into a game that [spoiler]some terrorist blows up a beer tent during Oktoberfest[/spoiler], presumably with people inside, and then have the main character go home like nothing happened. The entire game is full of plot devices like this. Oh you lost your memory - handy that your grandpa's journal has [spoiler]a [i]scorpion skin cigarette[/i] inside that is an antidote to the poison that made you loose your memory[/spoiler]. The entire clue mapping is a joke as it seems very random and half the clues need to be mapped to your grandpa's journal where all answers are conveniently in. Very lazy storytelling. At best this game reminds me of the "Learn English" games I used to play as a child where characters just randomly tell you about local culture and the story is secondary to just telling you about the country (here: State of Bavaria). Also please get voice actors who can at least pronounce the German place names somewhat correctly!

The story feels like a bad parody on the Davinci Code. Puzzles were too obscure and required a lot of guesswork. Voice acting is too exaggerated and half the time doesn't match character's displayed emotions. Listening to dialogue options sounds like listening to a set of unrelated recordings, because sometimes they go from one extreme emotion to another within the same scene - first dialogue option makes the character panic, second one he's talking as if it's a casual chat in a cafe. Main character keeps mispronouncing words, how did that pass quality control? No freedom of choice, the game always has a specific approach it wants you to take and wouldn't allow progress otherwise, making you cycle through dialogue options until you find the correct combination of words. Everything that happens is just unrealistically convenient, like when you [spoiler]fight Charly in the bell tower - he accidentally grabs a live wire hanging outside the window and then smashes his head against the bell, which removes the varnishing on the inside of the bell[/spoiler]. A set of random events that happen to progress the story just because it's convenient, like in the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once" - take off your shoes, switch them, spit behind your shoulder and do a backflip. Congratulations, you've persuaded the BBEG to surrender. It's just as absurd and it happens more than just once or twice or even three times. Near the end, [spoiler]Nasim makes you hallucinate with a frog to figure out the events that transpired in MAP's life, but literally every single piece of information you learn was already obvious from simply reading the description of the painting in the gallery[/spoiler]. That whole portion was super unnecessary. The entire point of the story is to [spoiler]stop MAP from getting the bone of immortality, but why? How is he evil? He's not trying to ruin the world or anything, he just wants to live forever. Why should i stop him? Just out of revenge for setting up an accident for me in the past? It doesn't make sense[/spoiler]. The ending was extremely abrupt and didn't feel like it has closure. Like if in a WW2 movie we saw Hitler kill himself and as soon as he pulls the trigger credits start rolling. Even the art style doesn't save it, not worth buying, 3/10.

As an adventure visual novel, [I]Hauma: A Detective Noir Story[/I] looks great. The graphic novel art style, with splashes of bright colours used against black backgrounds to complement the genre’s cynicism and moral ambiguity, is the best thing going for this VN. A few more action lines could have accentuated movements in the static art panels, but the art was what kept me playing. Sadly, [I]Hauma: A Detective Noir Story[/I] had me at “noir”, but lost me at story. I’ve always enjoyed the noir genre. With lone protagonists navigating their way through conflict and corruption in a morally grey world, the uncertainty and suspense that this construct creates makes for engaging literary and cinematic entertainment. Although, [I]Hauma[/I] has the look, its story is weak; and that’s a shame for a VN. You play as Judith Hartmann, a former detective who was dismissed from the Munich police force. We see her in midst of a downward spiral after losing her job. Why was she let go? Why does she have a gripe with Chief Jäger? What was the “accident” that she refers to multiple times? Who was she referring to when she said that she’ll have proof of “their lies, crime and corruption”? You would think that these questions, all posed within the first 5 minutes, would be answered at some point. Or that her goal in this VN is to uncover political intrigue and bring those perpetrators to justice. Guess again. Instead, the player is thrusted into solving another mystery upon Judith receiving a note, which happens to be related to her grandfather’s old journal that she just came across. Conveniently, her brother, who also by chance is knowledgeable about a few things she’s investigating, asks her to find him. These circumstances strip the story of any plausibility, gravity, and – in the words of Robert Meyer Burnett – verisimilitude. Consequently, the whole story feels like a contrived treasure hunt with clues that have been too conveniently placed. No time was spent on giving characters depth and personality, resulting in them being tropes. It’s frustrating because there is clearly room for character exploration and growth with a seemingly complicated and tormented protagonist like Judith, along with a couple of supporting characters. [I]Hauma[/I]’s hybrid system of “mindboard” and item inventory could use a little polish, too. Combining thoughts/information and/or items make new thoughts and items that can help advanced the story. But, why does Judith need to connect information and items to your grandfather’s journal? Couldn’t she just read the entire thing from the get-go? Plus, some connections are too obvious to require manual joining of ideas; others are slight illogical leaps. When in doubt, I’ve found brute forcing the system worked just fine. I don’t dislike [I]Hauma[/I]; I’m just disappointed by the missed opportunities that could have made it great. It lacks some literary substance and gameplay polish to make this VN from being merely okay to being good. Check [I]Hauma[/I] out when it goes on sale, but I don’t think you’d be missing out if you decide to pass on it.

EDIT IMPORTANT: THIS IS NOT THE SAME STORY AS THE HAUMA PROLOGUE. Ngl. That makes me so mad. It's practically a scam or at least false advertisement. I played that prologue and loved it. The story of that and worldbuilding is amazing. So I got this thinking it'd be the continuation and... nope. Entirely different thing, with much MUCH lesser quality. Don't waste your money. If you do here's my review of THIS game: Starts really good and intriguing... then it just flops. It's a slow downfall to mediocrity. Kinda sad since I can tell people put some love into this game at the start. The mindboard mechanic is ingenious... but it eventually becomes a bit of a chore. There's not any detective work to do. At some point you get a cipher... it's never used except through the mindboard which is essentially just mix and match clues until something pops up. You don't need too much brainwork for it. The protagonist... yikes. I love a strong female lead... but this one starts super cool and slowly turns incredibly obnoxious and unberable. She always chooses violence or rather the game forces you to use violence... against EVERYONE, even her own brother. She's just... awful by the end. There's almost no character developing on any of the characters. The ending is just... bad and boring. Some of the characters were interesting but like I said, no developing.

I'd say yes to this game if I were able to finish it. Unfortunately, there's a hotspot bug in Jager's office that makes finishing the game totally impossible unless you restart from the beginning. Hard pass.

There is a long-standing unpatched game-breaking bug, see Discussions.

Got hit the the bug in jaegers office and i can't continue the game

看似标注的是“推理”，实则更类似于“视觉小说”，喜欢推理游戏的快跑！ （寒假通关的第一部游戏，只能说令人失望） 优点：美漫画风，很多转场处分镜做的很不错，全程下来有看漫画书的感觉；每个人物都有各自配音，性格鲜明；少有的背景放在德意志慕尼黑的故事，从里面也可以get到一些冷知识。 难绷之处：主界面的选项UI直接就是简单的白色方框＋黑色文字，十分敷衍；有中文这很好，进来自动设置成中文也不错，然而我对着选项看了半天也没发现在哪里切换语言；人物配音某些地方居然缺失了，而且似乎是分段录制的，导致人物对话时前一秒还在歇斯底里地大叫下一秒突然又平静下来，给人一种精神分裂的美感。 至于游戏的槽点是真多，先挑小地方讲：首先是游戏里的bug，这个游戏是单线程而且无法手动存档，导致一旦出现bug直接坏档只能重开，这无疑在消磨玩家耐心（警察局那里出现bug之后啥也点不了也不能切换场景直接寄，很多玩家也提到了这个问题）；除此之外在人物对话时快进有时候会出现人物消失喜提短暂黑屏。 如果以上还能勉强接受的话，那么游戏里所谓的“推理”部分更是拉了坨大的——首先游戏里一个重要玩法是寻找线索然后把相关的组合在一起产生新线索，这一点在很多推理游戏里属于正常操作，然而本游戏里的组合往往莫名其妙——玩家根据已知的人物对话和线索很容易推理出前因后果，然而主角不懂：一定要根据作者给定的思路把特定的A和B组合起来才能推动剧情否则啥也做不了，导致明明知道接下来应该干嘛的玩家只能拿着线索两两组合做随机尝试，往往是一通乱点才终于可以推进剧情；其次是幽默的解谜：解谜要素藏在之前场景线索和与NPC的对话里，这也属于正常操作，然而这个游戏也出了问题——Make an example，警察局的柜子密码那里需要用到家里一处地方的线索，然而警察局那里你没法切换场景回家看一遍线索，根据剧情你可以说是因为事态紧急咱不能出去，然而结合单线程+不能手动存档就纯逆天了：切换不了场景还读不了档直接卡住了。虽然是解谜游戏，你也不能指望玩家都是小时候天天喝黄金搭档啥细节都记得住的吧？好几处都这样。 故事发展也是比较老套的，基本上一半左右就知道结局走向了，中间还会出现降智行为：女主Judith时不时暴力上头以及无能狂怒，钟楼那里莫名其妙开始怀疑查理还把人痛扁一顿（严重怀疑就是狂躁想揍人）；老弟Job不听话，酒精上头后又唯唯诺诺；反派也有些智力不够的样子……看起来是想努力塑造一个时间跨度很大的故事，然而很多地方缺乏细节，前因后果讲不清楚，到最后突然又弄了一堆新设定一股脑灌输给玩家，加上那个无语的结局，打完后让人一头雾水。 含剧透的槽点：[spoiler]反派马普追寻了刻有永生药配方的遗骨好多年，然而他要拿它来干嘛也没讲清楚，他的女友纳西姆为啥和他翻脸甚至不惜一切代价阻止他也说的很含糊，女主爷爷和犹太商人为啥要加入更是语焉不详，还莫名其妙涉及到纳粹。而马普找了这么多年似乎也没干过啥大坏事，这就让一切显得更加莫名其妙——但凡用老电影惯用的套路说反派要用它创造不死军团毁灭世界，所以大伙要阻止他都不至于这么突兀呢，编剧什么水平啊[/spoiler] 总评：看似推理游戏，关键的推理部分有问题不说，故事也是讲不清楚，还有离谱的bug，喜欢推理的可以跑了。真想体会一遍游戏剧情的建议去看视频云一遍，别整的到时候没法退款了。

Full run takes about 3.5 hours, unfortunately it has a game breaking bug where you just get stuck inside a room and all interactive objects disappear, reloading doesn't work, so you either had a backup save or you have to restart the game and hope it doesn't happen again, not sure why they didn't fix it yet as I see a lot of people encountered the bug, including me. That aside it's a nice little detective game, lots of puzzles that require thinking and paying attention to what's happening in the story, finding clues, decent dialogs with great voice acting, story itself is kind of, well, lets say not making a lot of sense :D My favourite thing was the comic look of the game. I'm a bit disappointed it doesn't have achievements, but alas. Overall a decent short game I'd recommend, but only if they ever fix the bug.

Update: The devs are actually working on the issue after I reported it, and they made a workaround available on the discord. This game is broken, there are soft locks lying in wait for you here and there which will render your save unplayable. Other than that, it was at times entertaining if not very good writing. You follow a trail of breadcrumbs left hundreds of years prior and somehow are left untouched even though many are in very public places and are exposed by increasingly dubious chance. It definitely invoked 1990s adventure game vibes, not always in a good way, some of the puzzles are very nonsensical, but that is part of the charm too.