Gamedec Review – LF VR Game Detective

In the future, video games will be a big deal. Virtual Reality is going to be so popular, that it’s going to integrate itself into our very lives. It will get so big, that we’re going to need private detectives to investigate ridiculous incidents and solve crimes in virtual worlds, because let’s be honest, the police are already useless as it is. That’s how life is in Anshar Studio‘s Gamedec anyway. We’re gonna have comfy high-tech chairs and wear slick sci-fi body suits, too.

Info:
Developer: Anshar Studios
Publisher: Anshar Publishing & Untold Tales
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC
Release Date: September 16th, 2021
*Played on PC.

Being a Gamedec is a Strange Profession:

Set in a world where the line between reality and video games has become blurred, Gamedec is based on a series of short stories by Polish author Marcin Przybyłek. You play as a successful private detective based in Warsaw City who solves mysteries that occur within the worlds of fully immersive VR games. In other words, you’re THE “Gamedec” everyone comes to when they need help with a video game.

Think of it like Ready Player One, only Warsaw City isn’t on the brink of collapse. It’s a perfectly functioning cyberpunk city, run by corporations, while the rich live up high in the skies, towering above the poor below, and almost everyone is seeking refuge inside of a video game. That’s where you come in. You wake up one morning, after selecting which Gamedec you want to be, and accept a mysterious job by a high-profile client. As you dive into your first case, you investigate both the real world (aka Realium) as well as Virtualia (VR) and things quickly become more than they seem. It’s up to you to use the clues you’ve gathered to deduce what’s happened and successfully get to the bottom of the case.

To put it simply, Gamedec is a fun approach to a Cyberpunk story where humans have become far too dependent on what video games have to offer us as a means of escape. Although its plot is a bit predictable towards the end, I ultimately had fun with Anshar’s attempt at a tech noir detective adventure. The dialog is entertaining, the world is fun to engage with, and you never feel like the game is judging you for how you choose to finish the case. If you want to be a jerk, that’s fine. You won’t miss out on anything down the line. One thing I didn’t like, though, is that while the player is able to come to their own conclusions in order to solve the case, there’s a specific ending and you are right or wrong. However, it is also worth noting that how you handle yourself in earlier cases affects how the last chapters will turn out.

Find Clues, Interrogate Witnesses, Make Deductions:

Gamedec is an isometric, point-and-click RPG with very little action and heavy on the dialog. To dig up clues, you need to interact with almost everything and everyone you can. There are four personality traits that define your Gamedec. Dialogue options are often marked with one of these traits to signify which trait you’ll be tapping into. Depending on how you choose to interact with the world and converse with its citizens, you’ll earn points involving those traits that go toward unlocking skills, known as “Professions,” for your Gamedec.

Professions cover a wide range of things such as technological knowledge, social etiquette, and more and can sway the way interactions go. There isn’t a limit to how many of these professions you can unlock, and each has its uses. For instance, players who unlock the “Infotainer” profession make you more charismatic, while the “Scalpel” provides your Gamedec with a wealth of medical knowledge. You can even invest in being a Cheater to make it a bit easier for yourself in the long run. Basically, by unlocking these professions, you’ll unlock more dialog options, and uncovering the real culprits will become that much simpler.

Unfortunately, the worlds you visit are relatively tame from a gameplay perspective and don’t offer players much to explore. As I said before, action is minimal. While the game does get violent here and there, don’t expect to do any problem solving with a gun. For instance, the first world is about half of a block set inside of a game inspired by GTA. The other worlds don’t get much bigger from there, though I did particularly enjoy the western “farming sim” that followed it afterward. While the cases themselves are strong enough to keep players plowing on through these games, I can’t say that the worlds within them offer a strong reason to return.

The Sights and Sounds of Warsaw City… and Virtualia:

Graphically, I think the isometric perspective actually hurts Gamedec just a little bit. Warsaw and the games in Virtualia aren’t ugly by any means. However, the fixed camera floating above everything takes away from that Cyberpunk aesthetic. As the Gamedec, players visit the offices of the rich, gilded in gold, and journey into the depths of Warsaw City’s lower-end district in pursuit of wrongdoers. The futuristic aesthetic of a cyberpunk city is there; it’s just a shame you can’t take in more of the world.

For example, and without spoiling too much, there’s a moment where a fellow Gamedec dies. When you arrive at the scene of the crime, the Gamedec’s corpse lay broken on the floor, it’s raining, while the police have taped the area off. There are drones flying about, armed police patrolling the area, with a large mech looming over the scene. It is certainly a cool moment within the game, yet from another perspective, the scene would have felt more alive and engaging.

Audio is probably where the game is at its weakest. There is some voice acting, but it’s mostly quick quips made by characters when you first interact with them. Inside the Gamedec’s apartment, players can listen to the game’s soundtrack via the jukebox added in an update. I can’t think of a moment where the soundtrack stood out to me all that much, for what it’s worth. The jukebox gave me a chance to go back and listen to the music again, but nothing really stood out. That’s the statement I’d make to describe Gamedec’s audio as a whole if I’m being honest.

The Gamedec is on the Case(!/?):

If you’re into dialog-heavy, cyberpunk noir adventures, then Gamedec is worth picking up. Most of its issues are minor; if I had to choose which one stuck out the most, I’d go with how cases play out. You can make many deductions, but they seem to play out in one of two ways;  either you’re right, or you’re wrong.

Gamedec is a solid, narrative-driven, point-and-click RPG that Anshar Studio is committed to improving upon. The game has received quite a few quality of life updates in the past, and they’re actively working on the game in an effort to improve gameplay using community feedback. Their latest update confirms that they’re working on making it compatible with Steam Deck and future content updates, including a new case featuring what looks like some twisted amalgamation of Pennywise and H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulu.