The Archive

I’ve put a little over an hour into this so far and I’m enjoying it! The reports are well written and the overall tone is unsettling without trying too hard. It’s not for everyone, but if you like slow-burn mystery games where you’re reading and making judgment calls, it’s worth your time. Could use a little refinement in places, but the core idea is good.

SPOILERS IN REVIEW So, to begin, I think this game had potential. I think the story idea is awesome. However, a couple things to point out and I would love to see be updated sometime in the future if you still plan on working with this game more: 1. I did notice the AI generated photos. I think AI is great for being able to throw ideas around, not for a final project. To make a game you have to either be able to make art yourself, hire people to photograph, or hire someone to make that art for you. 2. It didn't offer much in terms of it being a psychological thriller. The only thing you needed to do was select people or not to. The notes feature didn't even make a lot of sense with this because there were no mechanics involved in actually writing down anything you were learning throughout the game. I DO think it was really cool that I was picking all the people out that I was supposed to. But we need a little bit more content than this. It would have been cool to also look up the police officers that filed the reports or to have another mechanic or two that made selecting certain cases for further review feel more important. Maybe even have more than just sending for review or archiving. For an example: highlighting certain things in the cases or selecting keywords that opened articles on websites. Being able to look up the news reports on these people with a web browser. Any or all of these options would have made the game feel more dynamic. I felt no positive or negative consequences from the choices I was making. (Until the end. But why feel bad about it when we were tricked and not given the option to course correct or even bring the system down from the inside? Good or bad endings. That sort of thing.) 3. Other than that, I felt like this was a lot of fun, but as it stands currently. It could have been an app game.

Enjoying this so far. I really hope that you make another, similar game in future. Deeper investigation and mechanics. Maybe more like an ARG. I enjoy the slow burn and sinister undertones.

So... how do I review this game. Well, it's interesting it's like a lot of similar games. The story is SOMEWHAT predictable (although I tried not to assume because who knows, might have gone in another direction) The reports in the game are very well written, detailed and you can practically imagine it. It's pretty short, but, then, maybe I just read too fast. Who knows. I'd be curious to know what reports these are based on to be fair, and I may actually research it a little. I only have one real question that didn't get answered in my playthrough, (I don't know if doing subsequent playthroughs would answer it, but, I don't feel much motivation to try) And that is... why? I'm trying not to spoil anything for anyone coming to the game new. But, my question, of, why? The game gives a lot of info without really acknowledging or giving a reason. As to why it's "this way". It basically leaves you with more questions than answers. For a game of this type, I would ideally like a bit more interactivity. As overall it feels like a visual novel with no real puzzling. I'm not even sure the choice between escalate or archive REALLY makes a difference. Although, maybe it does. Who knows. Overall, whilst the game is somewhat reasonably priced, I would say go for it on a slight sale. I'm in the UK and it's £6.69. I would say anything £5 or below is well priced. Otherwise, it was a nice time waster. 2ish hours roughly to complete it. I will give a recommend.

"AI was used exclusively to generate the people’s photos; all other content was created manually." This isn't true. The very first piece of evidence in one of the starting cases was clearly made with AI- a receipt covered in AI slop pseudo-text that doesn't even include the information the items description says it does. On top of that, there's zero guidelines about what you're supposed to be looking for, widescreen support is broken, there are no settings at all (accessibility, audio, input, etc. nothing at all), and the devs have been silent for months after release. There are so many good deduction games out there. This one is a hard pass.

I got this because the screenshots looked interesting and I like slower investigation style games. The stories are really good and ended up sending me down loads of rabbit holes on YouTube and Reddit looking into similar cases. I even Googled some of the stories and found out they are actually based on real events, which made it even more interesting. It’s definitely a reading heavy game, but if you like mysteries, government cover ups and things like time slip stories, then it’s definitely worth getting.