Lecoq : Investigations in Paris 1900

Lecoq is a very interesting concept with some very promising mechanics and U.I. taking place in a very well-built simulacrum of 1900's france. The menu itself is simple and intuitive, it gives off the feel of a police detective's folder while maintaining that each of the main sub-menues are easy to return to and remember. The dedication to filling in so many extra names and locations across the maps is impressive, and once more complicated cases develop I could see this contributing to a very immersive feeling of sifting through notes and logs in search of that one smoking gun you've been missing all this time. And while the suspected use of AI generated art is not appreciated, I understand it as this is a project early in development that requires artwork to help the player associate names to characters.

That said, while this game has many promising elements, in its current state it is too open-ended for its own good. The depth of information availible from the get-go is impressive, but the way it's all presented to you at once is intimidating, and the brief, up-front tutorial instead of a more guided first case that walks you through each mechanic left me feeling lost and disengaged, even though I technically understood everything that I could do within a few minutes. Most of the information availible feels like fluff, as I spent most of my time pushing the notes button, reading a name from the guest list, finding the name in the address book, holding an interview, returning to the guest list, and repeating. The police station provided me more clues, but they didn't feel like they lead me much of anywhere.

The case itself is simple enough on purpose, but after interviewing everyone involved and checking all areas of the police station, I hit a wall. Maybe I could have found something I was missing, but I didn't feel motivated to. Pushing through texts of maybe-relevant information in a list of names, addresses, and newspaper articles didn't leave me excited to pursue the truth as a detective.

Even if this game is meant as a proof-of-concept, I feel like it needs more of a guiding hand, or a more obvious point-a to point-b, at least for the first case. Let the audience get in sync with the character of Lecoq and the suspects while showing them how the game can be played in its simplest form, and then let them do the busywork once they've already seen how it ought to be done. That said, I think with a future update with a proper tutorial, this could make for a very cool detective game.