BROK the InvestiGator Reviews

It was a really clever idea to add some fighting mechanics to an adventure game, as it helps to break things up considerably. This mash up is top notch, from its mechanics for combining clues into theories, to the ability to unlock hints in game with hidden items, to its many branching story lines. It's pretty much entirely well received for a good reason.

A good game with a good story, and apparently, a lot of replayability. This game, based on some stats that are given to you after the game, seems to have several possible endings. I would say this game is worth the buy, I'd still recommend buying it on sale, just to save some money and since Steam has sales so often.

tl;dr it has issues but its very good imo 8/10 I honestly think the game isn't as excellent as I feel it is, but Brok (the character and the game) make such a charming first impression its hard not to get sucked in. The game is an interesting marriage between old school point-and-clicks and beat 'em up, and where at first I found this combo weird, by the end I think it's overall an amazing combination, since it allows for a lot of exploration and approaching problems from different sides, something the devs were clearly aware of. Although, I do feel like, with there being a "quick battle" section and the upcoming brawl DLC, the creators were clearly a bit more invested in the beat 'em up schtick, but since the game can be (mostly) played without fighting and "relaxed" mode allows to skip fighting, its clear there is still choice as to which aspect of the gameplay you're more willing to engage in. Like I stated before, the game makes a strong first impression, charming art, great voice cast, memorable characters and a general sense of freedom in a pretty linear game is what sucked me in. SPOILERS BELOW The writing is mostly pretty solid. The game is split into 6 chapters, across 3 days, and each day's mysteries and side-quests work in a vacuum. But the overall story tries to deal with the ideas of poverty, classism, trauma, parenting, racism, technology, etc. and... time travel... Some work overall, relationship between Brok and Graf is really well written, thanks to us being able to see both perspectives, some ideas are mostly back a backdrop, like the Squealers being an analogy for racial innequality... you also beat them up a lot, but always out of necessity so... I guess its fine. I think most themes are mostly there to show that even in a "science run utopia" there is plenty of place for innequality, which I believe is the main point of Brok. However, despite Brok's point of a character being a beacon of hope in a bleak world, the final chapter focuses on time travel shenanigans, which I still have no idea as to why or how, and the story tries to pin everything on a crazy robot... and by everything I mean murders we learn about in the last hour, and not all the other inequalities we saw people living outisde the city suffer. This leads to the endings which I find... weird. The canon ending is that "Brok time travels and fixes everything (at least we hope so)" which is weird and very anti-climatic, sure the time machine was teased, but it was never the vocal point of the story. Some endings are bleak, like "X person died so everyone is sad", but the one I found the most enjoyable is the one where Brok and Graf decide to fight together for the better life of the people in the slums, since it makes the point of the game be about hope for a better tomorrow. Except that ending doesn't expose who the main antagonist is, and he is basically on the loose. Also, in every ending except the "canon" one, Shay disappears due to time travel thingy... yea... With all that being said, Brok is still an interesting and enjoyable experience. It might not make any bold statements, but in the age where AI will soon basicaly overtake the world, its important to at least consider its dangers and look at one person's view on how such a world might look Minor issues: -Bugs (nothing game breaking, but I had at least 3-4 major ones that required me reload the area) -Time mechanics (This might just be me, but since your phone shows you time for messages, I thought the game ran with an in-game clock, except it doesn't, time only progresses at the end of a chapter, except for 2 sections, one of which doesn't even tell you its timed) -The murder in the lab is equally as stupid, as genius and confusing it is. Not a critism, just an observation (fully love it, just very farfetched) ALSO I WOULD DIE FOR DR. MINK

A game I would highly recommend. If you love classic style point and clicks then this game is for you. And even if you haven’t played any point and clicks I’d still recommend it. The story is crazy sometimes. There’s a ton of choices when it comes to influencing the story. What’s also impressive is that it’s not influencing the story by just boring menu options. You can influence the story just by playing differently. For example you can use violence to solve your problems sometimes or you can work harder for the true ending and try to use your wits instead. And the fact this game has like 12 endings makes it even crazier. All and all. Just get this game. Especially for £8 (as of now for the current deal) it’s a steal.

I've purchased this game on a different console first and I got instantly hooked! The voice acting are perfect for all of the characters, the fighting and puzzle gameplay is genius, and this game has the most lovable bear (little bias)! Definitely highly recommend giving this game a try! Charming characters and problem solving is gonna make you think thoroughly or brawn to the end. (P.S. I replay this game so much I started developing speedrun strats, I really love this game!)

[b]Steam deck performance (LCD, -50mV, SteamOS, default Proton):[/b] stable 60fps on native resolution and default settings, drains around 10-11w, no performance issues. UI and text are perfectly legible. Did hang up once during a transition somewhere mid-game, fixed by restarting the game, think that was just a random hiccup unrelated to deck. Combining an "old era" style point&click adventure with a beat 'em up may sound absolutely ridiculous, but it works out fairly well. Overall a fun experience to dive into and explore through, on the surface it appears to be more of a straightforward and strictly linear game, but surprisingly has depth to it with consequences to actions, definitely something you'd want to play through more than once to see different outcomes. Puzzles are present, can solve stuff normally like your usual LucasArts-like adventure, but can also just punch a lot of things, taking brute forcing to a new level.

I was a tester on the previous game by Fabrice Breton, which was a pure point-and-click adventure game, but I was hesitant to buy this one because of the "Beat 'em up" tag. Well, I can tell that I was totally wrong in my suspicions: "BROK the InvestiGator" is a great adventure game, indeed! The "action" part is actually quite fun and not difficult at all, so I ended up not skipping any of the battles. The game is even much better than "Demetrios": the setting is quite unique, the story is interesting, and the characters are appealing. My biggest complaint is about the gameplay design in relation to the endings: I completed the game in 8 hours while trying to do my best at the exams - and, well, I got a less favorable ending with the whole chapter 6 gone missing! That does not make much sense. The game welcomes you to replay a solid part of it - but it is a story-based adventure game, after all, so it is not so interesting to replay it again and again trying to reach other of the eleven endings.... Not the best decision, I'd say. Sitll, it is a very nice game that could well be recommended!