[code][h3][b][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45030479/]🧩Undecided & Puzzled Reviews🧩[/url][/b]Visit and follow my curator page if you enjoyed this review💜[/h3][/code]
[h2][b]Unsolved Case: Killer Popularity Collector's Edition[/b][/h2]
*I had no technical issues whatsoever with the game. I mention this because the majority of reviews seem to be based on technical problems. The issues might've been resolved at a later date since I am playing the game in 2026.
5th in the series, here we go. Right off the bat we are introduced to a new are of the bureau that had me a little confused at first. I thought maybe they had rehauled the offices, but it becomes clear it's just a new area pretty quickly. No big spoiler here this is literally the starting first minutes and nothing that affects gameplay or story. Just a nice creative touch, a much needed one too.
Unfortunately, even if the new area was a fresh idea, in some of the cut scenes they again re-use areas and redress them to make them seem like different ones. They used areas from previous games and even from other series too! Random assets and random placements can also be seen inside scenes (meaning outside of Hidden Object scenes). As I've mentioned before, not a fan. It's just very lazy. I do give it a pass since they were mostly in cut scenes or non-playable areas, but still noticeable.
It also seems the police department area got thrown more assets to fill the room that make no sense, nor alters the story. It just makes it look like a random clutter. I don't understand the reasoning behind just throwing assets like that in a non-interactive area.
As far as the stories in this one, they were ok. The rookie is back and they've kept the reporter consistent through the whole series. The main storyline is meh at best. Not as terrible as it was in the last game, but it wasn't something that kept me hooked. It was like a badly written CSI or NCIS episode and those were not the best written shows either. It was entertaining enough that I didn't hate it but still not great writing.
Story related spoiler: [spoiler] in the second chapter, at one point you get shot. While coming in and out of consciousness you see your ex-partner Scott for a moment telling you not to give up. This scene makes it seem like he probably passed away or something of the like, but his storyline was abruptly eliminated with no explanation or mention in the last game so that would be just inferring. This was a very confusing scene. [/spoiler]
On the bright side, the stories for the cases were more interesting than the ones from the previous game.
The hidden object scenes were hit or miss. Some worked well, some were classic, some were weird and some asset dumps. The latter making it hard to see objects since they would be placed behind others and barely visible. Scenes do get repeated quite a bit as well, and this is common in HOGs, but the series did start off by not repeating scenes or barely doing so. They set up their own standard at the start so seeing this change in the series is a bit sad although not surprising. There are way too many find the difference scenes within the Hidden Object areas. Too many.
When it comes to puzzles (or mini games), it's quite on par with the previous game. Difficulty varies even when selecting a difficulty: Easy may be hard and hard may be tedious, Hard may be easy still, etc. Many of the puzzles are long and tedious rather than challenging. A lack of creativity in the puzzles and their mechanics compared to what we've seen before. Puzzles are my favorite part of these games and the last two games have completely been disappointing, this one joining the club with them.
Bonus Chapter- Same applies here with puzzles and hidden object scenes. Although I will admit they were slightly better in the bonus chapter. Now to the story. The chapter is very short but well worth it. It was much more interesting than the main storyline and better written as well, [spoiler] even if it doesn't follow previous story continuity [/spoiler] I think the bonus chapter alone is better than the previous game as a whole and that's quite the bold statement.
In this chapter we see [spoiler] finally what happened to Scott. At the end of the third game, he comes back to work after almost dying from a gunshot wound, but he comes back. Then he suddenly disappears with no explanation. Well, it seems that we imagined him coming back because he's been at this mysterious hospital all this time, and we never questioned his whereabouts. Horrible partner. The bonus chapter is us semi-finding out what happened (I say semi because if you don't buy the DLC you don't get the full story and I refuse to buy the DLC) and escaping from this nefarious hospital. The downsides: it was very short. Being a character that was important and got suddenly removed with no explanation I would've expected a little bit more but at least we got something. The other downside, they left it at a cliffhanger. So, in the end, we still don't know what happens to Scott. [/spoiler] I still loved the bonus chapter, and it was worth playing the whole game just for this chapter.
Overall, I'd recommend at a discount. I think this is a much better game than the previous one in the series. I didn't feel like I had to drag myself to finish this one, but it didn't hook me either.
I think the previous game could even be skippable. Yes, you'll miss two semi-important details but here they are:
[spoiler] A new character is introduced, a rookie, that takes the place of your character and the interim chief from the previous game quits and leaves the game on the first case [/spoiler] There I saved you a game purchase.
These are my reviews for the previous games in the series in release order:
1.[url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/UndecidednPuzzled/recommended/2228400?snr=1_5_9__402] Unsolved Case: Fatal Clue CE [/url]
2.[url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/UndecidednPuzzled/recommended/2353870?snr=1_5_9__402] Unsolved Case: Murderous Script CE [/url]
3.[url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/UndecidednPuzzled/recommended/2487160?snr=1_5_9__402] Unsolved Case: The Scarlet Hyacinth CE [/url]
4.[url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/UndecidednPuzzled/recommended/2602810?snr=1_5_9__402] Unsolved Case: Above the Law CE [/url]
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