Game Name: Chinatown Detective Agency
Platform(s): Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Publisher(s): Humble Games, WhisperGames
Developer(s): General Interactive Co.
Release Date: April 7th, 2022
Price: $24.99
GetSelious & Sithscott take a look at the detective noir point and click game inspired by Carmen Sandiego. The pixel art is fantastic, and the character designs are unique and interesting. Sound design was a bit lacking compared to the rest of the world. It forces you to use Google constantly to discover answers to riddles that will need to be completed to get past story spots. The best detective parts are the ones that are in the game itself, which unfortunately is not the majority of the game.
Constantly needing to get out of the world’s immersion leaves a sour taste. Autosaves only happen after you finish missions, so you have to end the mission before you can leave the game. The pacing feels too fast. Overall it isn’t a bad experience. Just try to have a guide to not constantly use Google to seek the answers. One last nitpick is having to use the in-game time for planning flights. This is especially weird when most flights don’t make a difference other than the time. It would be cool if there was a reason to plan earlier or later for different flights, and it could affect other aspects of the game. As far as we could see, there was no difference in the experience between different flight times.
Overall there was fun to be had and enjoyment. Using ciphers to decode messages and figuring out cities to travel through to go find different countries or cities nearby was a great way to use your mind. This game was most fun when we were allowed to play the game.
Chinatown Detective Agency will release on April 7th, 2022, on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC
Review Disclosure Statement: Chinatown Detective Agency was provided to us by Humble Games for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please go review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.
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Summary
Chinatown Detective Agency is a detective noir point-and-click adventure inspired by Carmen Sandiego. It involves real-world sleuthing that will take you out of the world in order to solve puzzles. It has great art and character designs. It also has good voice acting during most major cutscenes.
Pros
- Pixel art is gorgeous
- Characters are well designed
- Voice acting is fantastic
Cons
Having to use your own web browser in game takes you out of the experience
Still bugs in the game
Pacing could be a little smoother
