Crime O'Clock Reviews

Recommended

When the game is so unclear that it feels it has to hold your hand like a tutorial through the whole game... makes it obvious that it was not designed to be more than a visual novel.

If you seek a funny hidden-object / where's-waldo game and if you can catch Crime O'Clock on sale, then why not. But just to be clear: this game is an interactive story where you try to spot one thing after an other on a map and not a riddle solving games. You have no choices to make: the game decide when you need to move in the timeline of an event, which mini-game you must play and when to obtain more clues. I enjoyed the story and really liked the graphics, the latest being the strongest part of this game, but I wouldn't recommend it (except in the case stated in the first sentence). The time-travel theme and the in-game detective tools at the start made me think it would be more open-ended with more possibilities of trying different strategies to solve the case but you keep just following the single-lined story.

A linear, and locked story. The real game is filling in the linear story by finding story elements, spaced out by simple mini-games. The in game hint system can be use to avoid frustration from any one clue or object being too obscure. I averaged about 20-30 minutes of play per case, plus around an hour for the additional free-hunt (non-hint assisted or story lead) side stories. Over-all about a 20-30 hour game. The shifting time progression is what keeps and creates interest in the surrounding little people as they experience life, one freeze frame at a time. The game is set-up for each case to be completed and if you quit a case, you do have to start the case from the beginning. There is no easy controls to leave the game during some parts, and leaving at certain points will set back progress, but there are many, many games that do that too. The story is crime based, with the theme of hope and kindness, all mixed into a tale about a human and future AI's struggle with those themes. All around good, this games seems to have pretty good handling of subject matter and topics as to be appropriate for players of most ages. I experienced no crashes or game breaking bugs, and was able to complete the game. The ending felt, sort of, subdued, but it feels alright for the story. Over all, it was a satisfying play-through of a relaxing, causal game.

Maybe it's not suitable for adults due to the limited freedom in gameplay. However, for young children who are just starting to play games, this game can help develop focus and thinking skills. It’s a great choice for spending quality playtime with kids.

A search-and-find game with a temporal twist, this game was so much more than I expected it to be. It’s really incredible what they managed to do with essentially just five pictures. The mechanics were fun, the mysteries and plots intriguing, and the art and soundtrack delightful. Overall a very fun time.

Initially bought the game without really knowing what is inside. The game looks incredibly stylish and bright. Art style, menu music and the idea are all great. A lot of fun references and details. Crime O'Clock had so much potential, ruined by quite boring and monotonous gameplay. The main story is a straight line, lead with a leash by "AI" companion. Mini-games are too simple. Something is definitely missing.

TLDR - Artwork great, gameplay gets tedious after a couple of hours due to overnarration and frequent, boring minigames. If you're still interested, pick it up on sale. Starting with the positives: The artwork in this game is wonderful and each map is filled with little easter eggs and pop culture references to discover. On the rare occasion that the game lets you explore the map and follow a breadcrumb trail without interruption for a few minutes, it's actually very satisfying. You're able to follow a series of events through time and work out key details to help you solve the crime. It's just a shame that they added so much extra which only takes away from the enjoyment of the game. Now for the negatives: The sub routines and over narration got pretty tedious after only a couple of hours and as the game goes on it feels like I'm spending less and less time doing the part of the game I enjoy most - exploring the map. The subroutines are very simple and repetitive minigames that you are frequently forced to complete. They pull you away from the map and really start to suck the enjoyment out of the game. Some of the mini-games also have timers which feels like an odd choice for a game that feels like it's trying to be a relaxing puzzle game for the most part. The story, in my opinion, is just not interesting enough to get me invested and the AI character has a tendency to overnarrate everything that is happening. This could have been an awesome game if they'd just left it as simple levels with some minimal prompts to guide you to work out what happened. The game is starting to feel more like a chore at this point, but I've committed to finishing it now. I cannot recommend this game at full price. If you can pick it up for £1.67 like I did, then it may be worth the couple of hours of enjoyment you get. Edit: The Fulcrum stories are much closer to what I wish the main gameplay was like