Mindcop

I'm going to give this a positive review, because overall I had a great time. There is enough things here done really well. That the few things I don't like aren't dragging it down enough into a negative review. It's short and sweet. The presentation is incredible. The art direction is going for a very specific style and is nailing it. The writing is solid. Not mind blowing but certainly caring a lot of charm that won me over. Linda, your partner, is incredible. The voice acted dialogue you have with her in the car each morning shows off Tarantino-esque quality. Way better than I was expecting for the scope of the game. The fact she is twice the height of everyone because she also carries all the possible items. And the max number of items is enough that the trench coat UI that stores it must be big enough that she needs to be that tall. And no character ever addresses this. It got me. Alright, so now for the negative. I managed to get the good end on the first run. However, I can easily foresee how someone could have a really bad time with this game. It feels as if it is mandatory to do multiple runs to see everything. You have 7 hours each day to investigate everything and ev…

This is exactly what I want from an indie game: indulgent choices in art style, character design, and dialog that inexplicably pay off. Mindcop is a flavor somewhere between Twin Peaks and Adventure Time that defies existing classification, like if Sam & Max took a page out of Blacksad. In cooking, there were four flavor profiles: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. In 1908, Kikunae Ikeda coined the phrase umami and now there are five flavor profiles. What does this have to do with an indie detective game? About as much as surfing has to do with the central minigame of Mindcop. Somewhere between the silliness of entering the mind of a dog and the seriousness of domestic abuse Andre Gareis finds a way to balance the reasons why we love art against motivations for murder. Mindcop offers surprising character depth, not just in the occasionally shocking character interactions but also in the perspective shifts revealed by them. While some players may be annoyed with multiple playthroughs, I found the excuse to write real world notes made me feel like more of a detective than many games of that ilk... and Mindcop made me laugh more than any of them.

Mindcop is a detective game that initially seems unique and interesting due to its "Mindsurfing", but instead succeeds far better as being a non-linear investigation game with stakes and tough decision-making. The mindsurfing mechanic is a compelling hook, and features great imagery. It's an interesting puzzle to try and figure out what's actually happening within a suspect's mind, especially since memories are categorised as "Truths", "Uncertainties", and "Lies". Truths are straightforward enough most of the time, but trying to interpret the uncertainties and lies with what you know through your investigating is quite compelling and difficult if you don't have the full picture yet. Despite that, it ends up feeling like more of a fun novelty rather than a key part of your investigation. The aspect of the game that works best is its time limit. Many non-linear investigation games are pretty easy to solve when given unlimited time to find all the clues that end up conclusively painting a picture of what happened. An example of this would be "Paradise Killer"; a great game with the fantastic concept of being able to present your case once you feel like you've reached a conclusion, t…

Awesome, really great job, super fun! Loved the quirkiness mixed with the dark themes and the absurdity. It just feels like the perfect combination of all the things. On Your Mind is forever playing in my head... Get surfed!

i have the "my miiiiiiiiind~" jingle stuck in my head lol! this game is pretty good and has a lot of genuinely flawed characters, which i like. but like other reviewers have said, it seems like a pain to replay or explore new things so until there's a better save mechanic i won't be 100%-ing it!

Hugely underrated. Great mystery game where you actually have to think to figure it out. You 100% can, and likely will fail it and the bad guy will get away.