First up, The Case of the Solitary Resident
Plot Deconstruction: You are a detective sent to investigate the death of a woman found decomposing in her apartment. Question all the available suspects as clues come in from left and right throwing off the path. Sniff out the right deductions through the traps and figure out what happened to this multifaceted woman.
Positives: I loved playing this. It was short, but succinct. Every time I suspected a new person, the game would throw in a different clue with new analyses that came back to the case file and effectively threw my impressions off. I really thought Ethan scheduled a hit on his own mother using the Lantana! And that’s my favorite thing about stories like these, you can’t trust every piece of evidence you see no matter how glaringly it points you to a suspect. I liked the twist at the end and I felt very smart, putting down the answers I surmised and getting it right. I would recommend this to anyone, even those who aren’t great at solving mysteries, because the built-in hint system is great at keeping you on the right track. I only had to use it to figure out how to contact a certain suspect, but perusing over it afterwards showed me that a lot of care was put into helping first-timers keep their footing.
My Questions/Notes:
Here are some random thoughts that arose during my playthrough
- It is MOST DEFINITELY Ethan.
- WHY CAN’T I FIND OUT HOW TO CONTACT JAMES CODY!
- I’ve gotta use a hint.
- Oh… Ethan’s babbling revealed it.
- Why can’t I accuse yet!!
- OH!! I GET IT NOW.
- I’m glad that the accuse button didn’t show up 30 minutes ago because I was ready to send Ethan to jail.
Criticisms: None! It was a great game and the hints were well-placed and kind when I got stuck on how to contact James after putting his name in the textbox 20 different times. Though if I had to recommend something, I really think that some expressive writing that adds more personality to each character would make for a much more compelling narrative.
Overall Impression: I loved this! Whodunnits are some of my favorite stories to watch and complete so understanding exactly how it happened despite the red herrings was incredibly satisfying. I’m just upset I had to use a hint to figure out how to contact James Cody when I had it all figured out by the end haha.