Homicide Desk

I don't have anything against AI-generated games, and the idea of talking to AI NPCs in a detective game is honestly great. But once you actually try to play, the problems pile up fast. There is a hint system, but you have to pay $250 to unlock the informant, and what you get for that money is so vague it barely qualifies as a hint. The only thing it gave me was more confusion, and I ended up spending two hours stuck on case 3 even though I already knew who the killer was. The economy is the worst part. In case 3 there's a sealed tape that needs a special screwdriver to open, and nothing in the game tells you that tool has to be bought from the equipment shop. In case 2, a locked box had a key that you simply sent a patrol officer to retrieve for free, so I naturally assumed case 3 worked the same way. I spent an hour pressing suspects and looking for a way to dispatch an officer before I figured out the screwdriver was a purchase. By then I'd already spent my money on the informant, the blackjack mini-game and decorations, and there's no way to earn it back. The case didn't fail, it just became completely stuck with no way forward. The role prompts also feel stiff and scripted, and nothing the suspects say ever counts as evidence on its own. The only reason to talk to them is to trigger some hidden item, and the moment your question is even slightly vague they just deflect to something else. You're not interrogating anyone, you're guessing which words make the game continue. On top of all that, the game keeps interrupting you while you're trying to think: a new email pops up, then the chief calls to hurry you along, then another notification. When you're already lost in a case, constant distractions like these only make it worse. Good concept, but not playable in its current state.

La traduction est incomplète. Il est difficile de communiquer correctement avec l'IA qui répond souvent à côté de ce qu'on demande vraiment y compris quand on confronte avec des indices. Je suis resté bloqué presque 1h à la mission qui sert de tutoriel...

The premise has been seen before, but the main attraction for this game is using AI to give you freedom to talk to witnesses/suspects freely and ask the exact questions you want, which is pretty cool. That is a great idea but executed rather poorly. The AI used for it is not the best, and sometimes if a question isn't exactly inside what the AI was told to tell you they will almost ignore your question and give you random information. Other times it will vaguely mention some crucial detail and nothing more about it, but the game gives you a notification telling you all you need instead. Besides the disclosed use of AI for talking to witnesses/suspects I found AI generated 3D models (a specific one I noticed was [spoiler] the casette tape [/spoiler] on the third case having random squiggles instead of text written on it), videos (again on the third case, extremely obvious "dashcam" footage) and text that seems AI generated. All of this is not disclosed and most of it is poorly made as well. If all of this is fine for you the game is pretty cool and unique, but for me it seems the developer made AI make 80% of the game and also made it be the main talking point of it as well.

Klare Empfehlung – für den Preis fast schon absurd gut Ich bin von Homicide Desk wirklich überrascht. Genau so habe ich mir ein Detektivspiel eigentlich immer vorgestellt: nicht einfach Hinweise anklicken und einer vorgegebenen Spur folgen, sondern tatsächlich ermitteln. Das Spiel kombiniert erstaunlich viele Mechaniken. Man arbeitet mit Beweisen, Fallakten und Verhören, bekommt immer wieder neue Meldungen und muss aufpassen, welche Aussagen zusammenpassen und wo sich jemand widerspricht. Besonders gut gefallen mir die Verhöre. Man merkt, wenn ein Verdächtiger nervöser wird, die Situation kann eskalieren und irgendwann kann die Person sogar nach einem Anwalt verlangen. Gleichzeitig kann man nicht einfach endlos Fragen stellen – weitere Fragen kosten Ressourcen beziehungsweise Zeit. Dadurch muss man sich tatsächlich überlegen, was man wissen möchte. Was ich beim Start überhaupt nicht wusste: Selbst wenn man einen Fall komplett neu beginnt, kann offenbar eine andere Tätervariante aktiv sein. Genau das hat mir in meinem Livestream ordentlich einen Strich durch die Rechnung gemacht. Ich kannte den Fall bereits ein wenig, hatte deshalb einen bestimmten Täter im Visier und kam irgendwann überhaupt nicht mehr weiter. Tja – Ermittler mit Scheuklappen. 😄 Erst danach wurde mir klar, dass ich mich schlicht auf den Falschen versteift hatte. Trotzdem zeigt mein Livestream meiner Meinung nach ziemlich gut, wie viele Mechaniken in diesem Spiel stecken und wie lebendig sich die Ermittlungen dadurch anfühlen. Natürlich gibt es hier und da noch kleinere Ecken und Kanten. Allerdings veröffentlicht der Entwickler momentan gefühlt alle acht Stunden einen neuen Patch und arbeitet offensichtlich sehr aktiv am Spiel. Für den aktuellen Preis ist das Gesamtpaket aus meiner Sicht unschlagbar. Wer Detektivspiele mag und wirklich selbst kombinieren, Beweise auswerten und Verdächtige verhören möchte, sollte sich Homicide Desk definitiv ansehen. PS zur deutschen Übersetzung: Nach weiterem Spielen muss ich einen Punkt ergänzen: Die deutsche Übersetzung der Verhöre ist derzeit leider wirklich problematisch. Teilweise werden Aussagen so verdreht oder unverständlich übersetzt, dass sich sogar der Sinn einer Zeugenaussage verändert – bei einem Detektivspiel natürlich besonders ungünstig. Da ermittelt man irgendwann nicht mehr nur wegen Mordes, sondern auch wegen Mordes an der deutschen Sprache. 😄 Die gute Nachricht: Ich habe das Spiel testweise auf Englisch neu gestartet und dort funktionieren die KI-generierten Antworten bislang deutlich besser. Sie sind verständlich, logisch formuliert und lassen sich vernünftig für die Ermittlungen verwenden. Das eigentliche KI-Verhörsystem scheint also zu funktionieren; das Problem liegt offenbar vor allem bei der deutschen Ausgabe/Übersetzung. Für deutschsprachige Spieler deshalb aktuell mein Tipp: Wenn Antworten merkwürdig oder widersprüchlich erscheinen, testweise auf Englisch spielen. An den Entwickler: Bitte die deutsche Übersetzung der Verhöre noch einmal dringend überarbeiten. Das Spiel selbst ist viel zu gut, um an so etwas zu scheitern. Klare Empfehlung. Viel Spaß beim Ermitteln! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD_Q6w_JCJw

[spoiler] Every single time the criminal is extremely obvious and you're just hoping there's a twist somewhere but it never comes. Also the criminal is always the first person in the list to interrogate or when you're choosing to arrest them. [/spoiler] Feels like chatgpt made every case and there's nothing interesting about them.

This is actual AI slop. Models such as the cassette tape (mangled text on the label) and the cable (which has a second cable somehow sprouting from it that goes nowhere???) on the third case are very obviously AI generated, not to mention the videos showing supposedly the same person even though they look completely different. None of this is mentioned in the AI disclosure. The one gen AI use they do disclose is for the interrogation responses, and whatever model they are using is just really bad. Half of the responses don't make sense or are completely unrelated to the question, and none of it can be used anyway - apparently confessions don't count as evidence? Even the evidence descriptions cut off halfway, just like the interrogations answers do... Probably because they use the same length-limited model. So the disclosure - "every case, the crime, the evidence, the suspects, the solution and the endings ,is fully hand-written." - is a straight up lie. Some of it is obviously pre-written, but the game literally makes stuff up as you play so none of the evidence makes sense, which makes it just unplayable even if you're okay with AI generated content.

I like the concept behind this game, especially the idea of interrogating AI “witnesses.” Unfortunately, the AI itself is extremely poor. It often seems to rely on different information than what I’m given, and its answers frequently misinterpret my questions. Asking “Why does it say you were there at that 9:30PM?” might get a response about a completely different time that was never mentioned in connection with the person being interviewed in any log or my question. The AI can not be corrected and re-centered – if you run into a question it misinterprets it will continue to do so. The AI also reveals clues far (far, far, far) too easily - you can ask about the color of the sky and come back with information about the suspect writing in a diary on their desk. The dates and times on paperwork often do not line up, years – months – days – One document will say he died on Friday, but another document will be covering Monday. There are a lot of strange issues that make this game feel thrown together. I don’t know if it was just AI coding with some lipstick or if someone needs to do some more work but it makes things difficult when even the paperwork doesn’t lineup. The experience lacks depth and the AI implementation needs significant improvement. I would not recommend buying the game in its current state. Hopefully, the developers continue refining the core mechanics and build something great, but it is not there yet.

The game is a product of blatant AI use. Although it is stated on the store page, the use of AI is inherently overwhelming. In a detective game, where you need to find contradicting statements of witnesses and suspects, running into contradictions that originate from the way AI works is confusing and misleading. The result is, that the game is not fun and lacks any sense or purpose.