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Remember when I mentioned Casebook the Game a while ago? Well, I got it and clocked it. Here are my long-winded, but mostly spoiler free review. Unless you are =SilverandCold516, in which I can confirm that you see the hot detective a lot and you should buy it.

Style, graphics, and all those physical things

The mood and style of Casebook are fan-superbly-tastic. The exact settings are blurry, though I can bet on a parallel universe where the technology is somewhat in the 1990s, yet overall style and feel of the place is a little bit more synthetic, but charming 70s. In a place with similar social structure and culture as modern day New Zealand, in which everyone was using this pseudo American-faking-British-faking-Australian accent that occasionally slips right back into a BEACHED BRU depends on actors’ level of excitement. I made this sound a lot worse that it really is, to be fair the entire feel of the place is just endearing, fake enough to put some distance but not so much that the audience can’t resonant with it at all. The only complaint is that I wish they had the option of subtitles, as I can foresee some overseas users can’t catch half of the lines and smash up something in frustration.

The best aspect of Casebook, is by far the visuals. Once up on the time I did complain about far too many studios fall for the “yey next gen” craze when it comes to craph-I mean GRAPHICS, is that people get so caught up with being more realistic and technologically advanced, that they stopped giving a flip about whether it will enhance the actual sensory pleasantries at all. Also known as “Our Art Director Doesn’t Know What Primary Colours Are but He Sure Can Program! Syndrome”, when the makers seem to be a bit confused about what skills should be used on where. (Incidentally it’s every bit as bad to have a skilled graphic artist working on things he’s just not made for. Any scripts down by Tatsuya Nomura is there to prove that.) As a result, the technology gets savvier and savvier, and the games start to look like they were concepted by the same individual who REALLY likes his reality brown, his boobs Blobber physics, and his texture straight out of a bucket of vanish, shined down to the last polygon.

What Casebook managed however, is a realistic, technologically innovative yet incredibly stylish visual style – it is hard to not get over taken by excitement and start to scream “LOOK I’M IN A PHOTOGRAPH!” once I started exploring. It’s almost like being rewarded with the fantasy of being able to freeze time, staying as the last person freely moving and just explore the world in its set frame state. The slight AU mood only enhanced this further more, making navigating through the game a truly pleasant experience.

Given that it is a game filmed rather than animated, the acting quality could make or break the game. And I shall describe the acting as sufficient, good enough to not get on your nerves most of the time, but not good enough to be anything special. There are some occasional truly cringe worthy moments, but if you can get through the original Resident Evil or the first Forbidden Siren, you be able to tolerate the acting in this.

Gameplay

Gameplay. There really isn’t much to say, beside that it’s a point and click (your Mu- I mean your CAMERA) adventure that takes you from point A to point B, with a few interludes of mini games. Think of it as a crime detective version of Project Zero, aided along the way by Lana and Ema Skye. This is the kind of game play that will polarize the audience, but really the game is pretty obvious about its mechanisms from day one. To me, whinging about something like this don’t play like Ninja Gaiden is Blurb Comprehensive 101 phail, the video game equivalent of buying a jar of Marmite then complaining about how it doesn’t taste like candy floss. The game play of Casebook certainly works well for its intended purpose.

This is absolutely not the game's fault, but I'll mention it anyway: I know that if you talk to me regularly you probably don't use a mouse either. Well, sorry to tell you the bad news but dig it out again, shake the biscuit crumps out of where the roller ball usually is, because no way in hell a tablet could substitute in this game unless motion sickness induced projectile vomit is your kind of thing.

There are only two complaints – the minor one being some of the mini games can get a tad repetitive. I have no complaints over the scientific illiteracy here, after all how many people learn to handle fire arms via Doom, or that my favourite stage in Cooking Mama involves catching random sausages and sauces raining down from the sky. It may have violated everything I ever knew about food origin while violating just about every single health and safety codes out there, but hell it is a video game and I want fun! Not to mention “realism” would probably result in 98% of the game being played as “load the specimen and press the button” plus 2% “EVERYBODY GLADWRAP UP YOUR KEYBOARDS THE IANZ ARE COMING!”.

Here's my problem though. As far as non-realistic CSI styled sparkles go, they really could’ve made some more fun stuff. I thought of at least three simple mini games that could be suiting and fun. A few ideas just as I type: A mock PCR where there’s a background full of bases, the gamer will have to pick the right conformation of shapes to add to the chain. A mock paper chromatography that the gamer gets to click on time to stop the colour separation. Or what about old school gene sequencing on an x-ray film, but have it move upward in rhythms so it's like a sequencing DDR or Guitar Hero. There are so many ideas that could've been used, but never was. Instead, there's the mundane “separate the chromosomes” again.

The major flaw is prominently hinted now, it is just how embarrassingly easy the entire game is. I have to confess that with post Episode One Ace Attorney series I can’t marathon them simply because my brain goes to sleep after several hours, Casebook is the game to be played through in auto pilot mode. Not good. As far as puzzles go, Casebook falls under the mindless territory more similar to Touch Detective, no where near as rewarding as say, Professor Layton.

Plot, Characters, and all things people are still denying about games

Given the nature of the game, the plot and characters are the major selling points. And here I have to announce that this is another disappointment. In all fairness, this is just episode one, and every little bit of the game indicates that it functions more like a trailer on what’s to come than the actual real game. After all, that’s what every single case one of AA is like. Problem being that this is the individually purchased game one, and the predictability and general flatness of the characters and story could really make people not bother to pick up another episode.

Comfort, and self indulgence

Is this game user friendly? I don't know. This is the first true PC game I have played since Doom days back in 1998 or so. Because I am self absorbed, this is the perfect time to slip in a bit childhood story on why I steer clear of PC games. Must be around 12 then, I still don’t know whether it’s my parent’s inability to stick to their words, or if it was their sly attempt to putting me off video games forever. They had this habit of telling me that yes, I may use the computer for games, and I “HAVE TO PLAY IT TO SHOW MY GRATEFULNESS TO THEIR KINDNESS” only once I’m about 50 hours into a 60 hour epic RPG, they suddenly decide that it wasn’t a good idea after all and delete the entire game with save files when I was off at school. They did this about three times, before I finally decided poke that and saved for about four years for a playstation. There are something truly secure about being able to slip the memory card off and carry it on me 25/8, even if I get run over by the bus it would be my ID, my blood donor card and my Perfectly Maxed Stats FFX. As a result, I just don’t want to go anywhere near a PC for gaming purpose if I could help it.

The reason I’m saying that is because I have to make it absolutely clear that I don’t really know what the standard is for PC gaming in the last ten years or so. Sure, there are bugs; sure, it took some wrestling just to get the game going; but unlike console games this is what I expected to be the norm with PC hence I can’t resent Casebook over that.However what I do know is kinda unreasonable by “normal” standard, and it is something I hold slight grudge over, is that Casebook is available as online stream only. The game is close to one gig in size. For the ones of you who didn’t slouch in relief over plastic carbon footprint, ie about 98% of my dear readers (who are still bullied by Xtra thanks to the whole sharing a household thing), let me hear the collective sigh. Yeah. It took four tries with combinations of various download manager, which makes the receiving of the game about six times longer than the game itself.

Which brings in another point – this game is short, but all things considered the game never pretend to be anything epic. It’s around the same length as say, Tracing Memory or Time Hollow, slightly shorter than Hotel Dusk. As far as value for money goes, I’m not complaining.

Verdict?

I recommend this game on the simple bases that it is only $US7 to $US15, and it would be a fantastic short and sweet filler between the other better, pricier detective point and click adventures. Just don't expect a game that will change your life.

(Xposted - ADP forum)

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