Developer: Mografi
Publisher: Mografi
RRP: £15.99 (Gog.com and Steam)
Released: 19th September 2019
Available on: Gog.com and Steam
Played Using: An Xbox 360 Control Pad
Approximate game length: 12 hours
Working in the creative industry is hard work, for many of those within this realm they are underpaid and under appreciated. Few ever attain the ability to actually make a living off of it and even less become rich or famous. However despite all this few fields can be as emotionally rewarding as that of the creative industry. Why am I talking about being a creative? Well it all has to do with a little town called Arthurton…
Ok, so before we continue;
[DISCLAIMER – IN THE INTEREST OF FULL DISCLOSURE THIS IS A GAME I BACKED ON KICKSTARTER AND RECEIVED CODE FOR AS A BACKER REWARD]
Jenny LeClue – Detectivu (don’t ask me why its detectivu rather than detective, I have no idea), is a narrative heavy murder mystery that has most of the trappings of a Point and Click game with a light sprinkling of a CSI game. The whole game is set in the fictional town of Arthurton, as in its fictional even in the game. Jenny LeClue is a young girl who is the main character in series of books, a series that is rapidly losing popularity and is being threatened with being cancelled. So the author takes drastic measures and kills off a character, something he’s never done before. During the game the author acts as our narrator although it must be said he has a somewhat… unhealthy attachment to his characters.
While the game splits itself into chapters each chapter will have multiple ‘Cases’ within them, each solved case is a stepping stone to revealing the greater mystery that haunts Arthurton. You crack these cases by interrogating
suspects, investigating area’s for clues and solving puzzles.
I rather enjoyed the ‘interrogation’ aspect of this game. The reason I put that in parenthesis because it’s not an interrogation as you would usually think of it. It’s more like studying the person of interest for clues and at the end piecing it together.
The thing that really stands out to me in this is the puzzles some of these puzzles are very well put together, I’ve played a lot of point and click games and puzzle games in my time and this has a few that I’ve never seen.
It should be mentioned that despite the fact that this game is a adventure game and essentially in the Point and Click genre the game doesn’t make use of the mouse but instead gives the player the choice of using a keyboard or a control pad. I chose the control pad because there are some puzzles that are easier when the rumble is activated.
While playing this game I kept being reminded of two things, Gravity Falls and Paper Mario. The Paper Mario part is because of the art style where all the characters are all two dimensional (as in flat not as not interesting). Of course unlike Paper Mario the over all design is less child’s cartoon like. The Gravity Falls aspect is because of the mystery and how it kept getting deeper and deeper, although there is something more about it that I can’t seem to put my finger on.
For the completionists out there there are stickers and pieces of postcard hidden all over the place for you to find. The stickers are used to decorate your notebook, which serves no purpose other than to make it pretty. The pieces of postcard will allow you to rebuild the postcards (once they’re all found) which once flipped over hints at a deeper story going on.
If you complete the story without having found all of stickers or postcard pieces then not to worry, there’s a new game plus function that keeps your progress in regard to that, allowing you to search around from the beginning for what you missed.
The game ends on a cliff-hanger and promises to be continued. However I can’t find any mention of a sequel being in the works which, admittedly, doesn’t mean there isn’t one being worked on only that there is no news of it. I truly hope that is the case as I have thoroughly enjoyed this game would love to experience more (and get more answers).
Yeah, I have to say I’m very glad I backed this. I enjoyed every moment and it exceeded my expectations totally.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Night in the Woods
The Dig
Return of the Obra Dinn
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