I imagine precious few of our readers were around for the 1970s. But even if you weren't, you're probably familiar with one of the decade's most famous cultural contributions: the cop show.
Unsolved Crimes feels a bit like one of those shows. As a stereotypical rookie partner, you poke around crime scenes, piece together evidence, and walk down the logical path till you've got enough to make an arrest. The chief is gruff but has a heart that shines through between his crazy figures of speech. Everyone's got their own cheesy lines. Some people will be able to see the killer a mile away, but there's still time to fill in the show's timeslot, so we follow through on every possible angle until we've arrived at its conclusion.
If you like to thoroughly work every angle like that, you'll probably enjoy solving Unsolved Crimes' slate of murder mysteries. I did, to the point I found myself unsatisfied when the case wrapped with angles I felt went unexplored. That's not to say I was gripped 100% of the time; at times I was just repeating myself making reports to the chief mid-case rather than delving deeper into the case. I was generally happy with the pacing, though I can see others with more mystery-attuned minds finding themselves bored out of their minds.
There are two key mechanics you'll be using most of the game: searching rooms for evidence, and engaging in Q&A sessions with either your partner or the chief, as the story calls. As you get further into the game, these get harder; if you're the type who can deduce the correct answer from a multiple-choice quiz you'll find your skills failing you in later cases. A lot of what you need to know to proceed through the Q&A sessions can be found in your evidence file; you can check out each bit of evidence in your file from all angles and inspect features of them. Testimonies in your file also figure prominently, as you'll be comparing them to each other and to the facts in order to discover the truth of each case.
On occasion, you'll also have a touch-based puzzle or activity to take on. These range from the good (aligning scraps of torn paper to discover its original message) to the tedious (rearranging items on a shelf to find a hidden bottle) and the crazy (steering a speeding car, with your stylus, down an endless alleyway replete with dumpsters and ramps to jump). They're nice to have to mix up the action a little, but their quality is a bit hit-and-miss.
There's one thing that Unsolved Crimes absolutely does right, and that's the atmosphere. While the art itself is occasionally off-putting, the ambient sounds and the 3-D crime scenes you can move around in first-person work together very well to make you feel like you're there. The crime scene of one case in particular, already front-loaded with grisly subject matter, managed to creep me the eff out thanks to the scenery and background sound effects.
I wasn't sure what I was getting into with Unsolved Crimes; it was coming from a developer I knew nothing about. But it's a good game, and should make people who played along at home when those old cop shows were on feel right at home.
If you like to thoroughly work every angle like that, you'll probably enjoy solving Unsolved Crimes' slate of murder mysteries. I did, to the point I found myself unsatisfied when the case wrapped with angles I felt went unexplored. That's not to say I was gripped 100% of the time; at times I was just repeating myself making reports to the chief mid-case rather than delving deeper into the case. I was generally happy with the pacing, though I can see others with more mystery-attuned minds finding themselves bored out of their minds.
There are two key mechanics you'll be using most of the game: searching rooms for evidence, and engaging in Q&A sessions with either your partner or the chief, as the story calls. As you get further into the game, these get harder; if you're the type who can deduce the correct answer from a multiple-choice quiz you'll find your skills failing you in later cases. A lot of what you need to know to proceed through the Q&A sessions can be found in your evidence file; you can check out each bit of evidence in your file from all angles and inspect features of them. Testimonies in your file also figure prominently, as you'll be comparing them to each other and to the facts in order to discover the truth of each case.
There's one thing that Unsolved Crimes absolutely does right, and that's the atmosphere. While the art itself is occasionally off-putting, the ambient sounds and the 3-D crime scenes you can move around in first-person work together very well to make you feel like you're there. The crime scene of one case in particular, already front-loaded with grisly subject matter, managed to creep me the eff out thanks to the scenery and background sound effects.
I wasn't sure what I was getting into with Unsolved Crimes; it was coming from a developer I knew nothing about. But it's a good game, and should make people who played along at home when those old cop shows were on feel right at home.