Casebook 1899 - The Leipzig Murders

(Follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42150626-Jarl's-Game-Treasury/]my curator[/url] for more reviews like this) I don't like giving negative reviews to small indie games from niche genres, but sadly in this case I have to. Usually I try to see the positives and recommend a game even if it has major drawbacks (see my review of [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/jarlfrank/recommended/25600?snr=1_5_9__402]Eschalon Book One[/url]), but this game's final chapter drops the ball so hard it ruins everything that came before. As a satisfying crime investigation game, which it promises to be, it fails utterly and completely. Therefore I cannot recommend it. This is sad, because it starts out with so much promise and has a very interesting setting. You play a detective in Leipzig, a major city of the German Empire, in 1899. I'm German myself and love the 19th century so this is a great setting. While not the best representation of the era I've ever seen, it's solid enough, leading you to some historic landmarks like the theater and the railway station, and giving you a nice window into the different social classes of the time. The art is a bit amateurish compared to other pi…

Very soft yes. The first two cases were fun, the third felt way too overcomplicated and the fourth was just too much. Voice actors are weird as they range from good to horrible and seemingly they only had young women at their disposal as any middle aged or older woman sounds super ill-fitting. All in all I recommend on a big discount, otherwise no.

A well illustrated point and click adventure that unravels towards the end It's hard to describe - as a point and click where you solve puzzles and speak with characters, it works and is a great way to spend an afternoon, but the way it's marketed makes it sound like a self guided mystery where you make your own deductions (for example, like the more recent Sherlock Holmes games by Frogware), which it really isn't (the game continues regardless of your choice and there's no test of deductive ability)

The game has a strong start, but a weak finish. I enjoy the retro style of the graphics, and the graphics and sound design do a good job setting the scene. As with all games like this, the voice acting ranges from just okay up to very good. The puzzles generally make sense and are straightforward to solve in the first two cases, but the third case adds some complexity it didn't necessarily need. The last case is almost a different game, with some obscure solutions and a bunch of math puzzles that didn't really fit the rest of the game play. The game is mostly a nice diversion if you can find it on sale with a very large discount. Just be prepared for a frustrating final act.

I enjoyed playing this indie game, and some parts I loved. The dialogue was great and I liked the deduction system, and the graphics. The characters were good too. I found some puzzles to be very obscure and found this to be frustrating.

Overall I give this a neutral review, leaning toward not recommending. Pros and Cons: + The setting is interesting (- but completely irrelevant to the story or cases). + Graphics are very nice for the style it goes for (- but make it difficult to pick out areas of interest when pixel hunting) + The voice acting is good and the sound effects are nice. I especially liked the little chuckle the detective does which occasionally humorously matches with whatever you're examining. + The deductions system is pretty cool (- but seriously underbaked and occasionally just plain confusing) - The puzzles aren't explained well and have very little contextual relevance to the cases at hand. - Solving cases with multiple solutions requires a lot of faffing about in the notebook - The story is rather bizarre and unsatisfying. I had to resort to a guide because there was what I would call instances of moon-logic. I played the demo when it came out and I enjoyed the first case so much I purchased the game, but if you liked the demo, maybe you can save yourself some money and stop there.