When a crime occurs at a motel, you are called to investigate. That’s the basic premise of DETECTIVE – The Motel, though you have more questions than answers. What are you investigating? Where did the crime happen? Do you know who the suspects are? There’s a lot of missing information and it’s up to you to solve it. Be careful as this mystery may take more energy to continue and it might be easier to leave it unsolved.
DETECTIVE – The Motel is a detective game by k148 Game Studio where you do the mental heavy lifting. It tries to provide a unique detective experience; instead of having clues organized on a board or compiled in a list, you must record them yourself. This means getting a pen and some paper to record everything or a decent word document. The crime scene has lots of information for you to uncover and piece together. Using what you find, you fill in the answers until you find the culprit. You then use a digital tablet to record your answers and find the murderer. Unfortunately, the experience is tedious and you are expected to do everything yourself. The clues aren’t interesting and there’s no character connection. It’s tough to continue and the payoff isn’t worth it in the end.
In theory, that’s what the challenge is. But in execution, it’s horrible. You have no idea what the crime is if you weren’t reading the description. The game drops you off at a motel and asks you to put the pieces together. There’s no background, no details, no briefing. All you know is that a crime happened and you must find the criminal. You wouldn’t even know someone was murdered if it wasn’t spelled out to you.
You also have to solve puzzles at the crime scene as if you were in an escape room. While unlocking items isn’t unheard of, there are several privacy invasions that you pursue without a warrant. It feels like you aren’t supposed to be solving this mystery and are resorting to illegal measures. As it’s part of the game, you don’t think about it much. But it drives home the idea that you aren’t attached to this mystery and will solve it however you can.
This makes finding clues boring and meaningless, as if you are just putting puzzle pieces together. While it’s rare to develop a relationship with the murder victim, there’s no investment in the mystery. If you walk away and do nothing, it’s not like the killer is likely to do anything worse. The motive isn’t very clear and you don’t get much insight into the suspects. Once you solve the mystery, there’s no real incentive to go back and enjoy yourself.
DETECTIVE – The Motel is an ambitious game but ultimately fails to deliver a decent detective experience. While it may look appealing from the start, playing the game doesn’t live up to the promise. What you get is a detective experience that makes you take notes while going through a mystery that’s hard to care about. While taking notes can be a fun experience, you are better off doing that in a classroom than with this game.
Victor reviewed DETECTIVE – The Motel on PC with a review code.
