Loco Motive

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sb游戏，解谜游戏一定要有谜题

Herman Merman and the Ultimate Gaming Sermon: The flawless rail-masterpiece for which you've been yearnin'.

解密部分挺薄弱的，胜在有趣

Damn these rich people and their loco motives (8.5/10) I played the proof of concept back then when I was in junior highschool, looking for a free game to play to kill time in itch.io! I'm now in university and it was really exciting to hear the news that it got to have an entire game and had a huge upgrade of quality (especially Arthur like damn he ate his vegetables), didn't know there was going to be voice acting either! Spoilers ahead for my review aka entire ramble: I genuinely had a lot of fun playing through the game and it really felt like playing a classic lucasarts point and click but thankfully with a hint system. I've heard that a lot of people had difficulty with the puzzles but honestly they aren't that hard if you pay attention to what the characters say and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ around and found out (bruteforcing really has its advantages lol). [spoiler] However I did get a little confused at some parts of the puzzles in some of the acts, one of them being where you have to get on the roof in a silly disguise and admittedly was frustrated because whenever I tried to get into the Sleeper Carriage it kept on kicking me out- the only way I was able to get out of that predicament was to press the luggage room as fast I could, I initially thought I had to do something else before I did that accidental solution [/spoiler]. I did love all of the silly references you'd find in the game too of Monkey island, Sam and Max, Full Throttle (I swear I feel like the [spoiler] motorcycle has got to be a Full Throttle reference unless I'm wrong Ive forgotten a lot on the game [/spoiler]) and even Ace Attorney! I even love how Herman Merman, no longer the thief/antagonist in the proof of concept, is just as much of a menace as he was- hes so cartoonish and pathetic that it makes you feel kind of bad for the guy, I think he's my favorite out of the three characters you get to play. As for the story: [spoiler] The plot is a silly fun little mystery that isn't quite grand and something you'd see in a cartoon (NOT that it's bad! Not every story has to have a life changing plot and moral), I love how it's very "eat the rich"- not to mention the clever foreshadowing- and focuses on protagonists that are passionate in what they want to do but those that look down on them and have much power over them try to exploit and take advantage of their positions and how each of our protagonists respond to it in each of their introductions as the story unfolds; Arthur Ackerman just being your average law abiding attorney that has a passion for bureaucracy but his goodie two shoes ways being taken advantage of the moment he's given a better position due to being trustworthy to Lady Unterwald, Herman Merman being a novelist and a starving artist making silly fun adventures of himself with his novels having to put up with being replaced and disrespected by his bumbling publishers just because he doesn't generate as much profit as his arch nemesis that resorts in him having to find loopholes just to get Herman Merman and the Suburban Burden be approved (I swear The Board HAS to be a metaphor for AI and how corporate slobs use it nowadays- it annoyed me so much how sugarcoating their bs is to Herman), and Diana getting the job she wanted only for it to be taken away (like Arthur) on her first mission because of IRSS's stupid budget cuts which made her- unlike Arthur and Merman- just go "♥♥♥♥ it I'm doing it my way" with April). It's satisfying when they get their good endings fighting against the bumbling rich people through their mystery adventure. I love how much of the characters just oozes with personality and whimsy! [/spoiler] [spoiler] While Jian Liu isn't exactly the main antagonist of Loco Motive, I think he's such a perfect foil to the protagonists- specifically Arthur. He climbed the ranks, sure, but he wanted to remove the competition for his own desires and even used reckless and illegal tactics just to get what he wants. I do want to complain that I find it a little distasteful that the only Asian character in the cast not only has a very stereotypical asian accent but is also one of the antagonists that's greedy and reckless? I can argue that maybe there might be other asian characters in Loco Motive but as someone who's asian myself I find that a little bit of an eyebrow raise but tbh I don't think its that much of a problem since anyone of any race can be this, [/spoiler] [spoiler] I also think that while the Finale is fun, the last few acts were a little lackluster- especially the ending. I wish we got more on Diana than just her origins and introducing the new system of the Loco Trio being able to help eachother (honestly this in itself should've been given more content as much as Diana)- sure it would've prolonged the story but it would've let us be able to get to know Diana more than just her being a plot device! And also Dirk too because while he's a really nice hint system turned a character that you get to see in the ending. I did get a good laugh out of the post-credit scene however, I didn't expect Jimmy to be an agent! [/spoiler] I look forward for any future games the studio will come up and if there's ever a Loco Motive sequel! This game is so underrated and you can really tell it's made with love despite its flaws! I also hope in a potential sequel we get Agent yuri and Enemies to Lovers detective yaoi that should totally and definitely be named Herman Merman and the Glass Closet but thats just me (this is a joke for reasons)

Pros: Great voice acting, good dialogue, clever pixel animations. Cons: Some frustrating puzzles and a lot of backtracking between train cars. Overall enjoying it.