Best Served Cold

There’s something deeply romantic about the idea of speakeasies. On the one hand, there’s a conscious understanding that they served as the fronts for mob empires through the 1920s, and that they were the fuel for engines built on suffering. On the other hand, when paired with the naive glamour of the same era - the short hair, shorter skirts, and knowledge that life would never be better than it was in that moment - the idea of people shyly shushing one another over the click of illicit glasses is an almost cosy one. There’s a soft glow around it and perhaps around the idea that their problems are so much more innocent than the ones we now enjoy. It’s this cosy innocence that’s part of what makes Best Served Cold such a delight. Everything in the game takes on this nostalgic haze for an era that never existed and a vision of the past that never was. You feel yourself getting lost in the idea of what was, the stories that could have been, and the faint hints of conversations you never were and never will be part of. The speakeasy in this game is predicated on atmosphere, but ultimately, it’s that focus on atmosphere that permeates the game itself. https://steamcommunity.com/sh…

Detective games are my thing. I love having to think things through and not be handed the answer when it comes to puzzles. Sadly, this game is relatively rinse and repeat each case and you literally ARE handed the answers. HOWEVER, I DID enjoy playing this game. It was very very repetitive and you do the same thing the entire game. The only thing that changes are the cases themselves. I did enjoy each character and they were all very different which was refreshing. I did love that your relationship with them grows over time and conversations are manipulated by how intoxicated you get them. I did wish the drink mixing aspect of the game was a little more actually bartend-y and not a 2 second mini game. I did like each case and how the stories flow. If you are into actual detective style games like Golden Idol, Obra Dinn, Roottrees, etc, this game might bore you a bit. Overall, it was a good game, not bad or awful by any means, just not what I look for in a detective game. 7/10 because it was enjoyable, just not a game where I had to use much brainpower.

Wonderful story, engaging characters. TBH I am decidedly hardcore shipping a good bit here and would love to have some direct dlc or more story lines. I am super excited for the sequeal!

hella good storyline

protagonist change after case 0 ruined this for me. i liked first protagonists' dynamic with other characters, why am i supposed to care about this new person? all of that work talking to customers and getting affection points with them for nothing? infuriating. the clue system feels severely underbaked. i am forced to make connections on the board that already are obvious to me just to get another clue that i already understood on my own. [spoiler] the fact that hugo presents the lighter and syringe and that murder chart only after a VERY specific interaction almost ruined the whole case for me - at that point i already deduced that it was elliot and just presented hugo everything i could out of desperation to progress the game. [/spoiler] this game would've been quite enjoyable, if not for these two major issues which made me not want to continue past case 0. there are other things i didn't particularly like, but i could've overlooked them otherwise.

Interesting story, love the alt-history elements and the bartending is a fun mechanic to manage around the conversations