Ratings and Reviews by forgepoet

This is my kind of game; entirely entertainment. Choices that move the plot along, interesting characters, competent design. The main character is an actual character, with a past, attitudes, and goals (like everyone else present) and I found that a refreshing change.

Mystery buffs will probably not have much trouble figuring out the killer; I was fairly certain who it was by halfway through, although the author includes a solid red herring that is more than clever enough to leave some doubt. There was still plenty going on to keep me reading through the end, and the protagonist is, while flawed, definitely likable (and thankfully proactive) enough to want to find out what happens to him.

The writing could use a bit of editing, just to tighten things up a little, but I think the genre contributed to the sense things should be terser. I would also have liked more variation in the endings or maybe a twist or two in the endings themselves -- the wrong choices essentially played out exactly as expected -- but the right endings were satisfying and appropriate.

I think this falls more firmly on the side of thriller than mystery, as figuring out who the killer is definitely takes a backseat to survival (and does it matter if you figure it out if you don't have any way to defend yourself?). Definitely fun, and definitely worth playing if you enjoy the genre.

I found this enjoyable, except for one issue -- whenever names are modern names or words presented backwards, it triggers the part of my brain that looks at words instead of reading them. I then find myself testing all capitalized words back and forth just in case.

And since there's no real political agenda presented (or at least none I could puzzle out), I assume the name choices are just to be, ah, funny? I just found them distracting, and worse, I kept waiting for a political point to be made. I felt it detracted from the silliness rather than adding to it.

Other than that, fun! Love the idea of a word and diplomacy based logic puzzle. I would love to see this carried over from the absurd to a more realistic situation with more realistic stakes, and with characters who aren't jokes.

I have to say, at first glance, I thought this was going to be a simulation of sorts (even though the author didn't promise one). I think it's most accurate to say it's a "slice of life" game, and at that, it succeeds.

There doesn't appear to be any randomness and you get the same cases in the same order on every play through. Your choices don't change much that happens (maybe an additional screen of text or a slightly different response) but do affect your stats. The stats were a nice addition but underutilized. I think that's what got me expecting more of a "game" than advertised; if you hand a player stats, they're going to assume they'll be rewarded or punished for how they affect those stats over the game. And this wasn't the case.

I think my biggest complaint is the ending; it was disappointing. I played through twice, and after a week of directing this character, I would have liked more than (Spoiler - click to show)a single line of text and my stat totals. Where's the entirely unrealistic to base off one week but necessary for player satisfaction epilogue stating how successfully my character will be? At least tell me what the stats will mean for him over the next few years! I really felt like it left me hanging.

I would also have liked to see a little more of the dramatic stuff (I know, I know, this isn't Law & Order). Maybe a central case that the protagonist sees as a "big break" that you can choose to devote part of each day to (or not), with a court appearance on Friday that your stats and preparation affect the outcome of or something, to break up the call-response routine a little and give some meaning to those stats.

The game as a whole really does leave the impression of spending a week looking over the shoulder of a new lawyer. It just turns out that this is about as exciting as spending a week looking over the shoulder of a new PI or web designer or any other self-employed field. Which is to say, interesting, but not in the way you'd expect if you were a fan of genre fiction. It was definitely informative and worth playing through, if only to see how ridiculous the callers are.