The Last Case of Benedict Fox Reviews

The Last Case of Benedict Fox is a metroidvania that tries to do something a bit more, with heavy emphasis on story and puzzles. Following a main case, in addition to various sidequests gave an extra push to push forward. The setting was very interesting to me, and visuals together with audio made a very compelling world to explore. Puzzles are used a lot, and usually, you need to find various items in the world before you can come back and attempt to solve them. Some more difficult than others, but there is also an Accessibility option that can auto solve them if you don't want to deal with the solving part. Combat is ok, gets much better after upgrades, but still, I would say that its the least interesting thing from the game. No difficulty spikes. Achievement wise, it's straight forward, with a point of no return that renders some missable. But there is a clear warning for that, and there is time before the end to wrap the remaining achievements. Last, I played the Definitive Edition mainly on Steam Deck, and I cannot say I recommended it. Even though no crashes, there were many graphical issues (background elements not rendering), many performance dips, and I couldn't play it on a stable 45FPS (a mix of Low with a few Medium settings). I ended up streaming it from PC to the Deck, and that was a much more enjoyable experience.

Love the vibe, the artstyle, the story seems interesting. However, the performance is seriously shoddy and there are broken animations, making the experience janky and unpleasant. Example - character turn animations are completely missing in the latest version. Combat is also quite unwieldy and clunky. Might give it another chance, but the first impression is very disappointing, which is a huge shame, cause I've been looking forward to a lovecraftian metroidvania

Fun game. Has a unique feel and artstyle. Enjoyed both story and puzzles. Things that seemed difficult were only so cause you didnt have all the equipment or upgrades you needed yet. Game throws you in and doesnt tell you what to do, what you need, or how to use things which I really like. Figuring things out on your own feels great. The conundrum device with all the number cifers were a lot easier after a few puzzles. At times the frame rate dips. Didnt find a solution for this other than restarting the game but it didnt bother me much. Played through it in 2 days. Would probably play it again.

It's a bit clunky gameplay-wise, but the story and the environments are pretty cool.

This games has a serious problem of memory leak. After 01-02 hours of gameplay there is an annoying framedrop. It doesn't make it unplayable but it could be a no deal for some players. I'm going to be a little bias because I love cosmic horror and all related to HP Lovecraft, so this game hit me in my heart. I kinda love it. Is indeed a metroidvania more oriented to exploration (and yes, you are going to explore a lot). There is a considerable lack of enemies. Is like the devs wanted to give you enough time to appreciate the beautiful backgrounds. This game has an excelent art direction, perhaps is one of the most beautiful sidescrollers I've ever played. The puzzles are not hard. They bring a fair challenge even for those that doesn't like puzzles. THe combat is clunky and hard at the beginning but once you have some skills and weapon upgrade you will dance around enemies. And you can pretty much ignore enemies if you want. Is good, give it a try if the frame drop problem is not a deal breaker for you.

it released back in April 2023 and the reviews complained about animation jankiness, stuttering and minor combat gameplay issue etc.. i played it on July 2025 nothing were FIX! the combat system especially parry system frustrating me, but eventually i moved on, the real deal that broke me was constant stuttering issue, the more i play the more i feel dizzy! I thought 2D gameplay wasn't demanding game, another un-optimize mess.

Terrible. Just terrible. Optimization is bad as frames just keep dropping and cannot keep consistent framerate. Environmental design is great but the level design is horrendous. The gameplay direction is so bad, you are constantly not knowing what to do next in the game, and I had the map assist ON. Like how is that possible? IT's a metroidvania but they don't tell you when you get a new ability ready to unlock or unlocked and that caused me to go around and around trying to find where to go next. The upgrading mechanic is also TERRIBLE. You cannot upgrade unless you kill enemies and enemies give you currency ONCE. NO FARMING. NO RESOURCE GATHERING. I guess it's a blessing in disguise especially when the combat feels extremely stiff and just odd. The ragdoll physics make no sense as an enemy can cause you to fly super far and possibly off the platform. This happens so much in the later half of the game, especially when you cannot see them past your camera and they snipe you from miles away. The sound mixing is also extremely TERRIBLE. Voice tracks are always playing on top of one another and music is not noticeable. Whenever you go to the lady who gives you upgrades, Benedict always makes a load groaning/moaning sound, dreamybull would have competition. There are also no sound effects in the cutscenes which makes every one of them fall flat. Last TERRIBLE thing about this game, is the story. It's so hard to keep track of what is going on in the story because they layer in so much quests and details in the shitty collectibles you have to gather, and this feeling of being lost is amplified when the game doesn't even tell you where to go next. The only good thing about this game is the art direction. 2/10 - Hotaku

I see a lot of people complain about stuttering and frame drops, which did happen to me once - but I turned the graphics down a little and it was a non issue - didn't happen again - and I was streaming the game in discord. I do have a decent PC, but I don't see where the issue is with this one. People also seem to complain about the animations and combat being janky, to that - My experience was this: This game starts out feeling a bit clunky and slow with the controls, but by the end of the game, you'll have plenty of abilities and upgrades to feel more fluid and powerful as the protagonist. Not to mention, you get used to the timing of your own attacks and learn the visual and auditory cues that are needed to be effective against the mobs. Lots of gamer logic is needed to not only solve some puzzles but navigate the map as well as some combat scenarios. You cant just button mash and win, you need to know at least a few ability combos to not get stomped into the ground. I think this game may be especially difficult for someone who is new to "gamer logic" and doesn't plan to use reasoning, clues, etc. to uncover stuff. This IS a puzzle game! There are a lot of codes, cyphers, and riddles! I did note that the subtitles seemed to be messed up a little at the end and omit quite a bit of what the characters were saying inputting a in their place - odd. The game art, in my opinion, was such an interesting choice! I love the environments. They are colored vividly and they are so surreal its just beautiful, I killed myself quite a few times looking at the pretty scenery instead of what I was doing. The character models seem strange, almost like they don't fit or belong in the scene - which strangely enough, worked brilliantly with the overall aesthetic and concept, being Lovecraftian. There was only 1 puzzle we had to look up between my partner and myself to complete this at 100% - and checking how many tarot cards we were supposed to have in total. Everything will make you think - but by no means is anything to challenging to figure out on your own, In my opinion.

stuttery mess could have no enemies or particles anywhere, would drop to 20 fps levels are too zoomed it. looks nice but gets cluttered fast. enemies shoot from offscreen puzzle was bugged for me, looked online, had the right solution. still wouldn't take it. had enough when the game takes away your power-up/equipment for the third time and "trial and error" the next segment/boss battle. why? there are better metroidvania, story is ok, but it never picks up steam since every cutscene is spaced out in the world. go play something else.

I gave The Last Case of Benedict Fox a shot, thinking I was about to dive into a dark, moody Metroidvania with some cool detective vibes and a twist of Lovecraft. And for the first hour or two, I was kinda into it! The atmosphere is great, the art style is the one thing this game absolutely nails. It feels like stepping into a gothic watercolor painting with tentacles hiding in the shadows. But then... the game actually starts. And that’s when the frustration kicks in. The map is a mess. I don’t mean confusing in a fun, “ooh let me figure this out” kind of way. I mean confusing in a “where the hell do I go and why does every door need some item I’ve never even heard of” kind of way. I spent most of my time wandering around, backtracking, hoping to stumble into progress. Spoiler: I didn’t. The combat is clunky and not fun. The exploration isn’t rewarding. The progression is tied more to collecting currency and fighting random enemies than solving puzzles or finding cool new areas. The story... is there. I think. It’s trying to be deep and mysterious, but it ends up feeling kind of jumbled. Between the vague voice acting and the scattered clues, I had a hard time piecing it all together. And after a while, I didn’t really care enough to try. TL;DR: The Last Case of Benedict Fox has style and cool puzzle ideas, but it’s held back by frustrating level design, bad combat, and an identity crisis. Not the worst game I’ve played, but not one I’ll be finishing either. 4/10