I’ve been following the development of Brok the Investigator for quite some time and was delighted when it got announced for consoles. Developed by French solo indie developer CowCat Games, the game was initially released on PC in August 2022.
Brok The InvestiGator – Punch & Click!
Fabrice Breton (who is CowCat) completed the majority of the work himself including game design, programming, writing and artwork.
Played here on PS5 the game is also available on PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac and Linux.
Gameplay
Brok the InvestiGator is a mix of a point and click adventure and a beat’em up. Hence the “Punch & Click” moniker given to it by its creator. Set in a light cyberpunk world where animals have replaced humans, privileged citizens live under a protective dome while outsiders struggle to make a living in the polluted wastelands. Players take on the role of ex-boxer Brok, who is now a Private Investigator trying to make ends meet.
Explore, use items, find clues and piece together the evidence you need to solve investigations. Sometimes your brain power will not be enough and you will need to utilise your muscles. Fights earn XP and some money allowing you to level up your character. Although you can take the peaceful route and use your charm to talk your way out of skirmishes.
It’s nice that some of the cases you take on will take some brain power and may leave you scratching your head. If you are meticulous in searching the environments then you will find ads that can be picked up and redeemed in return for a clue to assist you progress.
Your decisions through your playthrough will affect how things pan out so choose wisely. A funny example of this is that I continuously punched a crack in a wall causing a whole building to collapse on top of me, so it may be a good idea to avoid doing that.
Graphics & Audio
When first seeing this game it felt so familiar. I’d seen these characters somewhere before or so I thought. The reason became clear as I learned a major inspiration for the game was 90’s cartoons. And there I had it… Tailspin and Darkwing Duck. These characters could easily have been lifted from those beloved toons from my childhood.
The art throughout is beautiful and the animations are excellently done. Likewise, the lip-sync on the characters is very well implemented. The nuance in the character performances really adds to the storytelling.
Extremely impressive for an indie title is the fully voiced cast of characters. There are an insane 23,000 lines of dialogue in this adventure. Sacré bleu!
There is also some smart use of the DualSense speaker and touchpad. It’s not common to see an indie dev make use of these features so the effort is appreciated.
Longevity
The main story will take about 12-15 hours to complete. With multiple endings and secret scenes to find, you’re in for 30+ hours of investiGatory fun to fully compete. There’s certainly bang for your buck here.
For trophy hunters the list consists of 30 trophies – 9 bronze, 15 silver, 5 gold and a platinum.
Final Thoughts
If you want to experience one of the most accomplished indie games that’s ever been released then this one certainly deserves to be investigated.
An enjoyable story with memorable characters and plenty of humour – I do hope we get to see Brok in some form again in the future.
Big plaudits must go to CowCat not only for delivering a smashing polished adventure but also for uncovering a Steam key reselling scam and highlighting this detrimental issue to other indie developers on Twitter. Bon travail enquêteur!
Brok the InvestiGator uncovers the Thumb Culture Platinum Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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