The Case of the Solitary Resident

I only played this game a couple of days ago, but it was an enjoyable way to spend an hour or so.

You're a detective investigating a (Spoiler - click to show)possibly suspicious death of a little old lady who lives alone and loves plants. There's no real gore in the game per se, but the description of the body is pretty realistic. Actually, all of the technical information in this game appears to be authentic (and despite the obligatory disclaimer that the author put in, I do feel compelled to note that I was very impressed with the research done into the medications since I'm in the healthcare field myself). There's also a pretty yummy-sounding recipe that I'd like to try out sometime soon. Overall, as I stated, the technical and forensic parts of the game shine through nicely, and I'm willing to suspend my disbelief at having results of analyses done so quickly (and the game explicitly refers to this with a message that had me smiling inside).

Where it falls away a bit is in the interactions with persons of interest/suspects. While the usual questions were all there, that part of the game lacked some personality. It felt as if I was running through a checklist, rather than actually interviewing people and gathering information.

There is only one correct solution to the game, which I figured out a while before the end, and which you don't need every single clue in order to achieve. However, the technical aspects of the game made me want to try to get everything I possibly could prior to that - although I did miss one clue somewhere (15/16). A few red herrings/plausible alternatives are sprinkled into the mix, but it shouldn't be TOO difficult to come to the right conclusion and there's no need to go looking up anything outside of the game.

Gameplay is smooth and streamlined for the most part. Playing on my phone was probably not the most ideal of choices, but it didn't hamper the interface too much. Looking back at it on my laptop for the purpose of this review, a bigger screen is definitely recommended but not a necessity. The presentation is neat and having the sidebar for your case file is well-implemented.

One annoying thing was that for some of the research you have to be in a certain location, as that's where the resources for that research are located. That was slightly annoying, but it's not a deal-breaker. Another (slightly less) annoying nitpick is that at times the game won't really advance until you've done practically everything you can do. It's more helpful to think of the game like one of those old point-and-click games from the 80s and 90s. Examine and interact with EVERYTHING, and if you have a choice to do something, might as well go ahead and do it. It makes things somewhat linear in that aspect, but again, I don't really think that's a terribly bad thing.

Overall I did have fun with this game, and I'd definitely recommend playing it if you're into police procedurals or CSI stuff. Not too difficult, and the only real choice you have to make comes at the end. But it's about the journey, not the destination, and for the most part I enjoyed that journey. Some tightening of the interactions, and I'd love to see a sequel to this one.