Investigation is a very small game, and I learned that it's a personal project, the developer mentions it as well; a game made of not too high of a budget. I think that describes this game well in many ways.
First of all, the menu doesn't have anything else than "New game" or "Quit game". You have to load into the game through a unskippable cutscene to reach the options menu, that just seemed a bit unintuitive and rushed. The volume slider is not functional in any way. Had to test it multiple times and it did not change the volume of the game, again seems very rushed and poorly tested.
[quote=author]The volume slider is not functional in any way. Had to test it multiple times and it did not change the volume of the game, again seems very rushed and poorly tested.
- The developer has released a patch that has fixed the issues with the volume slider. Great to see.[/quote]
The game does not do a good job at creating a dark/horror atmosphere. It's hard to describe exactly what it is, but the sounds and ambience are not very off-putting. In any horror game, this is essential to get right. It's a part of setting up the entire pace of the game. I felt like any of the ambience was just background music, not related to create a feeling of "being watched over" or anything of that matter.
As for the movement of the game, I think it has a quite good balance between walking/sprinting speed. Many of these small indie-type & solo projects are failing to get right. This one does a good job at that. Though I did notice other parts of the movement that were not quite satisfying, when moving near objects, your character will sort of snap on to them and get lifted up on them which is pretty annoying. You can stand on the ground, walk on top of a chair or other small ledge, and if it's connected to a table, you can end up running around on the table. But trying to jump with spacebar onto the same table would not work.
Also I managed to glitch out of the map, just by running into two chairs at the office.
[quote=author]Also I managed to glitch out of the map, just by running into two chairs at the office.
- The developer has released a patch that allegedly fixed the issues that glitches you out of the map in the office area, again — good that things are getting fixed.[/quote]
Important to note that the game takes roughly 20 minutes to beat on the first attempt, even with exploration and not focusing directly on the "objectives". Very disappointing, especially if considering the price of this game.. When you know the paths and where to look, it's completed in 4-5 minutes (excluding unskippable cutscenes).
The storepage mentions: [i]"This game makes you use your mind, no more straight forward quests and objective".[/i] I just have to strongly disagree with this, it is directly what it is. The most straightforward quests and objectives... There's a journal telling you exactly what to do at all times, and the quests are so straightforward that this journal is not even needed. Sorry.
In Investigation, there's a Hospital area that draws a big amount of inspiration from the Backrooms games, containing a maze-like arena that is designed to make you confused if you're just mindlessly rushing through it. The point is that you need to pay attention, and it does a good job at that - I found that trying to rush through this area without paying attention, did in fact ruin my sense of place, good job on that.
Inside the same maze of the Hospital area, there's AI and it also disappoints.. It does not have any indicator of it's location (makes no sound, just roams), so if you're turning any corner, it could mean immediate death if you have unlucky timing. In one certain run, I spawned in and IMMEDIATELY died to AI. So the location it's spawning in is also a bit too close to where the player spawns.
I fully realize that the developer is learning game development here. I did not make this review to bash the game or it's developer, but I am genuinely disappointed in the game and it's features. A game can easily "steal" time & money from any consumer, and the storepage does not show you all of these imbalances, anyone would have to purchase the product and put time into it to find out about these things. I still wish the developer the best of luck with the game, I just would not recommend this game to anyone in it's current state.
Somewhere, I read that the developer plans to add different chapters - I really hope that is in works, the game is way too short and uninteresting, even given it's cheap price.
[h3][b]TL;DR:[/b][/h3]
"Investigation" is a small, low-budget indie game that feels rushed and lacks polish. Minimal menu, some key settings like volume slider that doesn't work. Weak horror atmosphere, with unconvincing ambience and sound. The movement is decent, but there's glitches related to the movement, ability to bug out of map, etc. Game is super short, 20 minutes to beat on first playthrough and 4-5 minutes once familiar with locations. The game claims it's complex with non-linear gameplay, but this is completely unfounded. While the backrooms-inspired maze is well-designed, the AI in the same place is disappointing with unfair spawns.
[h3][b]Full Gameplay:[/b][/h3]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvK-OXQL_0E
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