1 
0 I’m checking out a crime deduction game developed by k148 Game Studio. Although no story is set, our location is. In DETECTIVE – The Motel we aim to uncover the evidence in a murder. If you’re looking to check it out for yourself, then head over to their Steam page.
Looks like foul play
The last game I picked up for crime deduction was called The Painscreek Killings. I enjoyed walking around the small town and looking for clues. DETECTIVE – The Motel caught my eye for the same reasons. Although, for a smaller map.
Gameplay
The first thing I noticed when playing the game, is that there isn’t any proper set up to what you have to do. We are simply at a hotel to uncover what events have taken place. DETECTIVE – The Motel recommends writing down key information you find, as the game won’t do it for you. All you are given is a tablet with a set amount of boxes for you to fill, such as who is the murderer and date and time of the death.
The location is small and has one or two puzzles scattered around. However, you primarily just look at photos and text, write them down, and try to work out what happens. Once you have all the information, you need to simply fill in the boxes and see if you were correct. Yep, there aren’t any cut scenes or ending just a rating screen.
Graphics & Audio
Longevity
The length of this game depends on how well you write notes and draw conclusions. Steam says it took me 89 minutes to finish and after that there wasn’t any real reason to play.
Final Thoughts
No easy way to say this, but the game is boring, pointless and terrible. All the information you get doesn’t really lead to anything and the actual conclusion (which is why I’m even writing this) was absolute trash. As mentioned above, there isn’t any story or set up. It’s just you at a motel figuring out who’s murdered and who did it. Without spoiling anything, the reasoning for the murder seemed, to me, based on a technicality and therefore unfair. Making the player collate so much evidence manually just to string together a weak and thrown-together conclusion feels like a waste of time and almost insulting. Writing everything down yourself just feels like a tactic to get extra playtime out of you so you can’t refund it.
If I could give DETECTIVE – The Motel, a lower rating, I would, but this is just bad. That’s why I’m awarding it the Thumb Culture Bronze Award. I would suggest playing The Painscreeks Killings I mention, or maybe checking out Tom’s PC review for Shadows of Doubt.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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