Developer: Wales Interactive, D’Avekki Studios Ltd
Steam Deck Compatibility?: Verified
Rrp: £9.99 (Humble) £10.29 (Epic), £12.79 (Steam)
For a long time I thought FMV games were a thing of the past, being too expensive to make and frankly weren’t all that good (I refuse to believe the bad acting was intentional). However, it seems that several companies have been bringing back this strange niche of gaming. Wales Interactive is one such company and they have been rather busy. It seems there hasn’t been a single year since 2013 where they haven’t either developed or published a video game that features FMV.
In this game you play, as the title suggests, a detective who can shapeshift. With this ability you’ll be able to question your various suspects in various guises that they are familiar with so that they will perhaps drop some clues. Interestingly, the villain changes for each playthrough so you can’t rely on previous knowledge to assist you all the time. There aren’t many games that change who the villain of the piece is with each playthrough. Off of the top of my head I can only think of Shadows of Doubt (which I will eventually play) and now this game that does that.
I have to say I love the acting in this, while the performers won’t be winning any Oscars they still pull it off convincingly enough. If I have a issue with the game it’s the fact that sometimes you’ll get a choice of two things to say in a conversation when I could think of plenty of other things that could be said that would be more… noncommittal and realistic. That being said I’m talking about a game where the detective can change shape, so perhaps I should reconsider my stance on that.
Whether this game is worth your time or not really depends on how much you enjoy playing as a detective. On the whole the game is actually quite short, perhaps lasting three or four hours each playthrough, I know many people that wouldn’t find that acceptable for the Rrp. Speaking for myself though, I found I enjoyed this immensely. It won’t be a game of the year that’s for sure, but not every game needs to be.
