Parker & Lane: Criminal Justice

First of - the game itself is not bad. Not as good as Heart Hospital, which is more fun and involved, but not bad either. That being said - I gave a bad rating because the sexism of this game is so blatant, bad enough that it had me end the game at one point and fume. The main female character is hysterical, slightly dumb, keeps repeating unprofessional slurs against a colleague and shames him for "being a girl." She is sexually assaulted and does not officially report it (what the hell?), instead blames her partner. He in turn is being rude and sexually inappropriate towards her and a colleague in the workplace, who states "I don´t mind." I mean, who wrote this game? Let me guess, some dudes who thought it funny that a woman should be a professional police investigator? It is 2018, the #Metoo movement is strong and clearly the video gaming industry is a sexist as ever. Good job guys.

I love crime stories, especially when it's the main focus in a time management game, as the usual food and restaurant theme is just overdone at this point. Thus, Parker & Lane: Criminal Justice offered me something more refreshing and I was immediately interested in checking this game out. I finally got around to play it and after playing through Detective Jackie - Mystic Case I was even more eager to try out another crime series of its publisher, GameHouse. I have to admit my expectations for this game were high from the beginning and although I had a rather pleasant experience with the first entry of Parker & Lane, I was slightly bothered by a few aspects of this game. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/xTentacleBunny/recommended/739170/]Feel free to check out my review for Parker & Lane: Twisted Minds.[/url] [h2]Mysterious Murder Incidents[/h2] Parker & Lane: Criminal Justice opens with Lily Parker, a detective, who investigates a crime scene. You see, a murder took place, and thus, Lily tries to solve the case. It so happens that she has to work together with Victor Lane, a criminal defense attorney, as her partner, although she cannot stand him as he is quite full of himself. It doesn't help that both of them are entirely different as Lily is a rather righteous person while Victor doesn't care about who he is actually defending, as long as the outcome will be successful. However, this was only the beginning, as there will be more and more victims. Nonetheless, Lily doesn't give up and tries to put the pieces together, as well as enduring Victor whom she is stuck with. [h2]Storyline[/h2] Sadly, I didn't enjoy the story itself very much. The issue here is that there are no real clues available for the actual outcome. This means that when everything got revealed in the end, I felt quite conflicted, as it didn't feel connected to me at all but rather like the writer suddenly noticed they ran out of time and just decided to go for a reveal in the end that is quite unexpected. In fact, it was indeed unexpected but only because there were not enough hints throughout the story, although the outcome wasn't something unrealistic either. In addition to that, I couldn't really get into the story, even at the beginning but luckily, the plot became more interesting later on in the game when the connection is finally there. [h2]What About the Romance?[/h2] Well, anyone who is a fan of GameHouse's games surely noticed that romance is often implemented into the plot as well. Whilst it is present in Parker & Lane: Criminal Justice as well, it's very subtle and not clear whether Lily and Victor actually like each other. Something that isn't missing here is the love triangle, although these scenes are luckily kept rather short and are not one of the main aspects of this game at all. Nonetheless, regardless of the relationship between Lily and Victor, it felt heartwarming when both of them were slowly but surely starting to get closer to each other. You see, they had a very rough start and it was hard for me to picture them going along at the beginning, however, I was delighted when it happened, although the drama is never too far away. Hopefully, there will even be more future development between both main characters with future entries. [h2]Satisfying The Clients[/h2] The gameplay is the same as in every GameHouse game. There are 60 main story levels available, as well as 30 challenge ones, which makes 90 in total. In addition to that, the levels are spread throughout six chapters. There are three stars available for each level, although reaching one is enough to advance with the game. Each level has a challenge implemented which is entirely optional, although completing them is necessary for the challenge levels, and the player gets diamonds as a reward. With the diamonds, the player can fill the pages in the suspect file. Additionally, the player gets a set amount of coins per star they reached, which they can use to upgrade objects in a stage that offer different benefits. That being said, Parker & Lane: Criminal Justice is one of the more hectic games I played from GameHouse. There is a lot going on in the game with multiple clients, which added more challenges and kept the game entertaining to me throughout the chapters. However, I found that it was way too hard to reach all three stars on the levels in the second chapter. The problem here isn't that they're challenging but even when the player is successfully fulfilling the client's wishes in time, they still barely manage to reach three stars. I had to rely on combos a lot and even a small mistake made it impossible for me to get every star. This means, I had to replay a lot of the levels multiple times, although I am used to these kinds of games. The other chapters, on the other hand, were a lot easier, when it came to perfectly completing them. As a piece of side information, there are daily challenge levels available for Parker & Lane: Criminal Justice that reset at a specific time of the day and endless levels which get unlocked throughout the story, the player can play. Thus, there is content available even after the player finished the regular levels, however, I didn't see myself keep playing this game after the main story, besides for possible achievements. [h2]Mini-Games[/h2] Throughout the game, there are various mini-games available that made the gameplay more lively. Although they are available in every GameHouse game, I still appreciate them, as the games are a lot more fun this way instead of just serving the client. But sadly, not only the balance between the levels was inconsistent but also the difficulty of the mini-games. While some of them are overly easy and are impossible to mess up, I found myself struggling at some others quite a lot. I rarely got three stars for these mini-games, as there was simply not enough time available to complete them. Sadly, this had an impact on my immersion and I found myself getting frustrated. [h2]Achievements[/h2] Usually, I like to hunt for all achievements in time management games, however, I gave up for this specific one. The issue here is that there is one achievement available that requires the player to not let their clients drop below three hearts when they are leaving. This applies to every level. Whilst that doesn't sound like a big deal at first, this achievement is way too vague and doesn't tell its player which level prevented them from getting it. This means when I finished the game I didn't have an idea what level I had to repeat and I didn't feel like replaying every single one of them. It's honestly a shame, as the premise is understandable but the possible issues didn't get considered enough in the end. [h2]So, what do we have in the end?[/h2] I feel quite conflicted with Parker & Lane: Criminal Justice. Whilst it's definitely not a bad game, I had high expectations of it but it simply wasn't as good as the other games I am used to from GameHouse. For once, I appreciate that romance isn't one of the main focuses in this game, as it would feel a little bit off. Nonetheless, there are subtle hints available and I would love to see them develop more with the next entries. That being said, while I cannot recommend Parker & Lane: Criminal Justice solely for the story, the gameplay is engaging nonetheless and will be entertaining for any fan of the time management genre, although this part sadly does have its shortcomings as well. [code]𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐲 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34470115/]𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞[/url] 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬!

[b]Parker & Lane 1: Criminal Justice[/b] (Dash-TM) [i]Steam copy provided for Curator review[/i] [i]This is a gritty detective story, and is intended for mature audiences.[/i] Options include separate sliders for Music and Sound, Full-screen (NOT the default) and Show Game Hints. [b]GLITCH alert[/b]: If the game does not register that you are finding the mouse when you first start the game, close the program and re-enter. I only had to do this once, and I could collect the mouse every time after that. [b]Story[/b]: Parker: A newly-hired police detective with a chip on her shoulder and a defiant need to prove herself. Lane: A condescending defense lawyer who's good with the ladies and great at his job. When a string of Lane's clients end up dead, this unlikely duo is thrust together to try and make sense of it all, but this case is bigger than anyone ever could have imagined... https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1936231850 I wasn't sure how to feel about the animosity between the characters at first, but came to really appreciate them both as the story progressed. [b]Gameplay[/b]: You can tell that this is part of the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30274976]GameHouse Original Stories[/url] series, but it plays a little differently than the others I've played, so I'm going to concentrate mostly on those differences. Let's get some of the basics out of the way, first. This gameplay style is where you click on a "customer" (police officer, forensics specialist, etc) and direct them to the station they want to go to, then assist them in whatever way is indicated... Usually! At some locations they have pre-determined places where they will go. There's no cleaning of stations (these are mostly crime scenes after all!) and -- you betcha! -- we still have Carl the Mouse (who giggles instead of squeaks.) Now for the main differences. First of all when you're at a crime scene, you can't just click on a [b]station[/b] -- you have to click on a little yellow placard. It's such a small area that after playing these games for so long, it was hard to get used to! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1936147491 Another change is the "[b]special action[/b]" mechanic where you have to move the cursor back and forth or click quickly. In every other dash game I've played, you're stuck at that spot until you complete the action, but in [i]Parker & Lane[/i], you can keep moving around and do it whenever you're ready. This is both cool and NOT, because sometimes it's hard to notice when the action is necessary! The [b]Mini-games[/b] require more attention than I'm used to, as well. Although some of the minis are easy, some are deceptively hard because you have to process what you're seeing and react quickly to get full points. I feel that the mini-game popups stay up on the screen for longer than they should after being completed, but that was a minor irritation. A change I really liked is the way that people [b]check out.[/b] You are not tied to the area and don't have to stand around and wait while they all finish cataloguing their evidence. Just click on the police officer, Lane (or whomever) is manning the checkout area, and you can immediately move on to do more work. LOVE it! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1936147952 [b]Challenge levels[/b] will not earn you any extra money to spend on [b]upgrades[/b], but they will get you up to three [b]diamonds[/b], which you can use to update your [b]case file[/b] with evidence. It's not necessary to enjoy the story, but it's a nice little addition, and appropriate for the theme of the game. Story mode took me approximately 8 hours to finish, and I still have 90% of the challenge levels and most of the achievements to complete. [b]Verdict[/b]: [i]Parker & Lane[/i] is more more serious than your typical dash game. You'll be confronted with death quite a few times before you investigation is done, and the story and relationship between characters is more what you'd expect from a TV drama. The gameplay differences from the other [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30274976]GameHouse Originals[/url] take some getting used to, and although the mechanics can feel kind of clunky in comparison, it becomes more natural as you progress. This is a challenging but fun game with an interesting adult-oriented story, and is a great crime drama. Recommended! EDIT: Seems to have some broken Steam Achievements

Wow... so, I really do love the Delicious series a lot! They're fun, charming, great story and all around fun. I immediately recognized this game was the same style and artwork, so I bought it. I briefly read some reviews about the blatant sexism and terrible game mechanics and purchased it anyway. Why? Because I'm a beast at time management style games. This game, however, would not be worth the experience if it were free. The way the game referenced mental illness was awful, as if the game developers have not ever spoken to someone with anxiety. And the sexism, as one review put it, is just a lazy way to try to portray the main character's plight as the first female detective. It was executed in such a sloppy manner, that it turned me off. The actual mini games are unnecessarily clunky and disruptive. It was hard to get into the flow of the game or even really understand the plot compared to the Delicious series. It's seriously day and night and I highly recommend that you find another game to spend money and time on. I'm currently waiting on my refund, but I'll never get those 70 minutes back.

Sigh. I dunno. I've been thinking about this for a while, but I think in the end, I'm actually disappointed? I don't think this game is as casual as a 'casual game' should be. There are... moments where it goes beyond challanging, and into frustrating. In one level, no matter how well I play repeatedly, I can't get beyond the 2 out of 3 stars needed to prefect it. The game crashed a lot too in the beginning, less so now but... And sometimes the backgrounds and assets didn't load. There's too many mini-games. By the end I felt like I was slogging through levels. It's just a bunch of little things like that, that made this tiresome to play in the end. Storywise... The end was a little abrupt, but that's fine honestly. The story's kind of ignorable. The pacing is simulateously too fast and too slow. Besically, don't buy it for the mystery. It's just- the main character (Lily Parker) is irrirating and overbearing... It's unfortuante. If I'd liked her, I'd probably find the story more tolerable, but the whole time she's just incredible self-righteous and condescending. Lane (the other half of the title) has his moments too, but he's also clearly meant to be a character that's [i]supposed[/i] to be a bit of an ass putting on a front- at least at first. And he's honestly pretty easy to grow on. Parker doesn't have that excuse. She's just plain unlikable. I wish I'd tried a more reliable 'Delicious' game for my first foray into actually playing these time-management games. At the moment I just need a break. It's been several days but I'm still tired and frustrated thinking about it.

While I did play Parker and Lane all the way to the end, it was more to say I completed the game rather than because I was having fun. The minigames were not as fun as others in the GameHouse series and there were a few times that the graphics glitched out and made things difficult to play properly. More than anything, though, I did not like the story or the main characters. The case is hardly above an episode of every cop show ever and Parker is incredibly dislikeable as a person. The intended tension between her and Lane is over the top and tiresome. Police officers and lawyers are often at odds, yes, but her being this jaded as an officer on her first case is annoying. There is no background given to explain her level of toxicity for lawyers, thus she's a stereotype and frustrating to listen to. Lane is a cardboard cutout with a sprinkling of drama but not much substance past the cliché backstory. If you're a fan of the GameHouse series for the gameplay, you might like this one too but there are better titles in their roster.

[code][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: IndieGems[/url] for more reviews.[/code] [b]Parker & Lane[/b] is a casual adventure and a time management game. You play as a detective Lily Parker. Lily starts as a rookie. She is on her way to become a homicide detective. You will help her grow through the ranks while she is solving a series of crimes. The plot of the game is actually good and can get pretty dark which is not something I expected from a game like this. [b]Parker & Lane[/b] starts with you arriving at a crime scene where someone discovered human remains, lower body to be exact. You need to find whom those legs belong to and where did the rest of the body go. It will be a while before you are able to get to the bottom of this as the game is quite long and there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. The story is split into 60 levels. Each level usually starts and ends with either a cut scene or a piece of dialogue that keeps the story moving. There is no voice acting by the way but it’s not a big deal. If you are just interested in the story you can ignore extra challenges and bonus levels for the most part. If you ever played any time management sim you will know exactly what to do. There is a constant flow of people arriving. You have to accommodate their requests, move them to correct stations, provide them with certain items and participate in a number of mini games. The faster you complete all tasks (and don’t make too many mistakes either), the higher your score will be. You earn money and diamonds on each level. Money will be spent on buying upgrades that will make your life a little easier. Diamonds are used to unlock evidence to help you solve your case. Levels become gradually harder. The game keeps adding new items, mini games and additional challenges. Getting all diamonds on each level can be somewhat frustrating and will likely require multiple attempts at later stages. This is when you need to be very quick and also smart by stacking bonuses together to get the highest score possible. The game is designed for tablets and can be played in short bursts or hours long sessions. Some mini games are easier with a touch screen but I found it to be manageable with a mouse as well. [b]Parker & Lane: Criminal Justice[/b] is a good casual game that will last you at least 10-15 hours: there are 60 main story levels, 30 bonus levels and endless levels. Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGEHrmGeWYk [code]Disclaimer: A copy of the game was provided by the publisher, however, it did not influence my opinion in any way.[/code]

Hey Game House! What's with all the anti-medication stuff lately? First Amber's Airlines and now Parker and Lane? Abusing medicine is bad, yes. Implying that people who have to use medication to moderate their anxiety isn't good and makes me not want to keep buying your games if you're going to say that taking anxiety meds somehow makes me irresponsible or an addict or something. Not a happy customer.

Parker & Lane: Criminal Justice это первая игра серии «Parker & Lane», жанра «принеси-подай». Это новая линейка игр от GameHouse про детектива-новичка Лили Паркер и опытного адвоката Виктора Лейна. Вам предстоит: расследовать убийства, собирать улики, помогать криминалистам и полицейским, а также проходить разнообразные мини-игры. Надо отметить, что здесь их очень много и они классные!!! Некоторые такие сложные, что с первого раза их осилить, никак не получается. Но когда вы поиграете несколько уровней, то пройти мини-игры идеально становится возможным. Всего в игре 60 основных уровней и 30 дополнительных. На собранные монетки вы улучшаете полицейский участок, а за алмазы – заполняете досье. В игре присутствует мышонок, поимка которого отражается на шкале. Графика и музыкальное сопровождение как всегда находятся на очень высоком уровне. Из минусов: Персонажи, почему-то дерганые, плавности передвижения у них нет. Это немного утомляло. И вставки между уровнями можно было нарисовать красивее. В игре присутствуют качественные русские субтитры! Имеются достижения. Сложность возникла только с одним «Детектив месяца». Если решили его заработать, то внимательно следите за полицейскими и криминалистами, а именно что бы при уходе у них было не меньше 3 сердец. Я сразу переигрывала уровни, где по сюжету полицейским необходимо было иметь меньше сердец. Игра мне очень понравилась, именно новыми мини-играми, которые действительно сложные и очень разнообразны! Меня зацепило. Обязательно буду играть во вторую часть. Оценка 8/10

[code]Puedes ver más reseñas como esta en la mentoría [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34129733/][u]PIXEL 404[/u][/url][/code] [h1]Esta reseña no contiene spoilers[/h1] Particularmente, nunca he sabido que es lo que tienen los juegos de “gestión de acciones” que hacen que me pique a saco y no los suelte hasta que los acabo, y duran bastante todos. Es cierto que el argumento de estos juegos suele ser bastante simplón, así como su jugabilidad en sí, pero el hecho de estar planteándolo todo dos o tres pasos por delante del momento presente es realmente adictivo. Yo no juego a estos juegos por su argumento, eso está claro, ni tampoco por sus gráficos, pero sí por el reto que plantean, el cual sorprendería a más de uno que denosta este género con una sonrisa en los labios y cierto aire de superioridad. Lo entiendo, yo también lo hacía, hasta que jugué y vi lo adictivo que pueden llegar a ser, y lo equivocado que estaba. Y lo difíciles que pueden llegar a ser en su nivel más alto de dificultad también, por cierto. En algunos momentos puedes llegar a volverte loco teniendo que ordenar en tu cabeza diez o doce peticiones y yendo varios pasos por delante de lo que te está pidiendo el juego en ese momento. Eso particularmente me encanta. Sin embargo, este juego es diferente a todo lo que he jugado con anterioridad. No es que sea malo, pero sí que me ha aburrido un poco. Para empezar, puede que sea el juego de este tipo con el argumento más elaborado que he podido jugar. Sí, es cierto que no llega a niveles de Heart’s Medicine, por ejemplo, pero se lo intentan currar, eso seguro. En Parker & Lane tomaremos el papel de la inspectora Parker, la cual acaba de incorporarse a la comisaria y tiene que investigar un asesinato bastante extraño en el puerto de la ciudad. A partir de ahí, tendremos que realizar un total de 60 misiones, como siempre pasa, para llegar a descubrir quién es el, o la, responsable de todo. Como tal todo funciona perfectamente bien, y su jugabilidad es exactamente igual a todo lo visto con anterioridad, y sus minijuegos con bastante novedosos y entretenidos, pero hay algo que no termina de funcionar bien dentro del juego. En mi opinión, esto se debe a la falta de verosimilitud de lo que estamos haciendo. Si ya has jugado a juegos de este género con anterioridad, ya sabes que todo se basa en servir cosas a la velocidad del rayo, y, sobre todo, a organizarse muy bien mientras se hace. Ya sea un hospital, una tienda o un bar, todo se basa siempre en eso. Estar en un bar y servir copas o comidas a saco es algo normal, al igual que trabajar en un hospital y atender a los pacientes con sus pedidos. Sin embargo, en Parker & Lane se lleva este sistema al absurdo. Mientras investigas el lugar del crimen empiezan a llegar a saco investigadores, uno tras otro, pidiéndote cosas, 30-40 investigadores pidiendo toda clase de cachivaches. Esto no tiene sentido, y carece de toda lógica. Más que investigando un asesinato parece que estuvieras en un bar, donde una parte de la escena del crimen la analizan como 15 personas diferentes. Es una idiotez en mi opinión. Esto provoca que todo caiga en un absurdo, ya que es difícil imaginar que eso pasara en la realidad, ¿te imaginas? (jaja). Es por ello que si ni te estás creyendo lo que estás haciendo por lo absurdo que es, pues la cosa pierde bastantes puntos. Por lo demás el juego funciona bastante bien, e incluso se ha subido la dificultad de los escenarios opcionales de desafío, lo cual es de agradecer, pero para mí es insuficiente por lo ridícula de la situación. Además, todos los investigadores van con esos trajes blancos de pies a cabeza, y me recordaban todo el tiempo a los espermatozoides de la película de Woody Allen. Así que me lo tomaba menos en serio todavía. Aun así, y con todo, el juego me parece lo suficientemente bueno para darle un voto positivo, aunque sin duda es el menos bueno que he jugado hasta ahora. Eso seguro.