Until you solve them, that isUnsolved Crimes is the latest in the ever-growing library of DS mystery solvers. This title chooses to focus on forensics and crime scene investigation, a seemingly obvious route for the mystery crowd, but one rarely explored in the current crop of DS games. Combining exploration of three-dimensional environments, evidence analysis, and a set of disturbingly gristly crimes to solve (yes, the title isn't quite accurate), this game could be a worthy addition to your DS adventure collection - if it stacks up to the competition, that is.
The game places you inside the head of a nameless, voiceless rookie detective, starting out at the NYPD's homicide division. Along with your young, attractive superior, Marcy Blake, you take orders from the black-and-sassy captain Abbott, to solve eight cases. The game is set in the seventies, which, aside from the intro sequence, which pays homage to seventies cop shows, never manifests in the game. Everything in the game, from the characters to the locations, is so generic that the story could be set in any decade. The only reason I could think the developers set the game in the seventies was that they probably didn't want to deal with modern forensic science (and modern science in general - the simplicity of the medical cases is rather telling).
The cases start off simple, functioning as tutorials, but get more meaty as the game heads towards its conclusion. Though the cases aren't connected, there is one extra case that you solve, part by part, throughout the game, though there's less investigation involved in that one.
You interact with the game through a combination of exploring its low-poly 3D environment (standard first person controls with D-pad for movement and stylus for camera control) and using its menus to examine articles of evidence, suspect profiles and testimonies, and the notes that you've handwritten along the way.
Each case begins with a briefing, where Abbott takes you through the details of the case on a chalkboard, telling you the nature of the crime and who the suspects are. You then head to the crime scene, and tap on interesting objects to analyse them. It's usually clear what you're looking for, as Marcy Blake, who comes along for the ride, pretty much spoonfeeds you along the way, usually telling you in quite blatant terms what you need to work out. It's not
always intuitive, however - sometimes the game won't progress till you analyse a seemingly random object, for example, an innocent shower handle.
Looking at the right objects eventually opens up "queries", which is where the detective part comes in. Queries are the questions Marcy asks you, so that you can show what you've deduced from the evidence you've found. The problem is that usually the questions are usually multiple choice, with four possible answers, and often you'll be able to work out the answer simply by eliminating the ridiculous options. Even if you get it wrong, you simply lose a star (the game's life currency) and get to try again. Even if you lose all your stars, you can simply restart from the beginning of the query. This makes it easy for anyone to stumble through the game without working their brains too hard.
The better queries will ask you to present some evidence to back up your answer, which can feel more satisfying, though this is rare, an still usually easy. Unfortuately there is often more than one piece of evidence that could back up your answer, but only one that Marcy will accept - and there's no way you can explain your line of logic to her.
Towards the end of the game, the cases do get harder, but usually this is thanks to the crimes becoming more complex in nature. The multiple-choice questions remain as easy from beginning to end. It's a shame that the developers worked so hard to create engrossing cases to solve, but couldn't come up with a better way to involve you in the crime-solving process.
The characters and plot lack anything interesting enough to grab you. You'll mainly be speaking to Marcy and Abbott, who both are sparsely animated with about three facial expressions each. Neither talk about themselves all that much, and their personalities are fairly one-dimensional. You never see the victims or suspects (except for their profile pictures) and your only interaction with the suspects comes through reading their short testimonies. It's unfortunate that for all the investigating you do, you never get to interrogate the suspects.
So most of the fun comes not from the stories (you won't care about who got killed and why), but from the crime-solving itself. You'll find yourself drawn through the cases because you know there's something intelligent underneath the surface, and even if the people involved aren't that interesting, the murders themselves sure are. The best cases are the ones where it's not immediately obvious who did it, and how. And the cases can get rather gruesome - just wait till you tackle the one about the girl who was stalked to her hotel room, made to strip, and was then killed, decapitated, had all her limbs chopped off, and had a troubling message carved into her back. This stuff ain't for kids.
Breaking up the detective sequences are some lame action sequences that feel like they don't belong in this era. There's a car chase where you must swerve either left or right to avoid debris on the road, a shooting section where you tap on your enemies to kill them, and a first-person maze-like sequence set in a collapsing building. They break up the flow, but are easily forgotten.
Ultimately, Unsolved Crimes is a solid game for players looking to get into a few good mysteries. The horrible graphics, low budget production, and unremarkable plots won't keep you hooked, but that doesn't mean there's no entertainment value to be had from working through this batch of interesting cases. It'll probably feel like the game is babying you with its easiness, though the actual thinking process involved in getting to the bottom of each case is satisfying.
It's obvious the developers were onto a real winner, here, but somewhere among the cheap script and silly pop quiz assessments, something got lost along the way. As a result, it's left as a game that deserves your attention, but won't leave any huge impression.
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Your most anticipated games for 2010....
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HairyArse - on 04/11/2008 at 19:36 wrote:
Oh yeah, we loves us some obscure DS games!
peej - on 05/11/2008 at 07:42 wrote:
Aye! Great stuff NY.
Unsolved Crimes would've been so much better as a Scooby Doo game.
/goes off to google for Velma porn