The Darkside Detective

[Kroms]

Has anyone played these games?

 

They're point and click adventure games. Pretty goofy. Actually quite funny. There's no malice to them, just a lot of happiness hormones. The original was balm for my soul; the sequel's been great on the afternoons I play it when I'm down. You play as a detective of the paranormal in Twin Lakes City. The cases are called things like "Malice in Wonderland".

 

 

I think everyone here would like them. They've got the LucasArts+ approach of no dead-ends and no dying.

Edited July 25, 2023 by Kroms

[sparklecloud]

I have them in my backlog and keep meaning to get round to them.  They do look fun.

[ThunderPeel2001]

On 7/25/2023 at 1:54 PM, sparklecloud said:

I have them in my backlog and keep meaning to get round to them.  They do look fun.

 

Same.

 

I recently played The Return of the Obra Dinn and The Case of the Golden Idol. Both feature similar puzzle-solving gameplay (but very different interfaces). Probably both enjoyable for puzzle/story fans. Also I finally got around to playing Unpacking -- the game that beat Psychonauts 2 for best story. I have to say I was impressed and I can see why it won, although it's EXTREMELY short: 3 hours total gameplay.

 

I know this unrelated to The Darkside Detective, but I thought it might be nice to have a thread to discuss adjacent games.

Edited July 28, 2023 by ThunderPeel2001

[sparklecloud]

Return of the Obra Dinn really freaked me out!  I'm glad I played it but I found it a bit intense and creepy.

[Romão]

Return of the Obra Dinn is one of the greatest games I have ever played. I wish I could forget all about it so I could experience it for the first time again. But nonetheless, I still had a tremendous time replaying it a couple of years later.

 

Cannot recommend it enough 

[Lagomorph01]

I've seen this game in a Nintendo Direct somewhere, and wanted to make a mental note of it, but after that I forgot all about it. Thanks for reminding me, I might check this out if I ever finish Zelda.

[Benny]

Both Darkside detective games are great. Kroms recommended them to me ages ago and I've since completed them both. 

[Lagomorph01]

Since you’re all so positive I’ve bought them and preloaded them on Switch. I’m kinda done with Zelda at the moment, so I’ll probably start playing this weekend.

I’m looking forward to it. Thanks!

[Lagomorph01]

Just finished the first one! I think it's a very funny pick up and play adventure game!

It could've used a bit more polish though. The loading times (at least on Switch) are way too long for such a graphically simple game, and every time you load all your dialogue choices are reset. Even worse, every time you reset the game, the cursor speed goes back to default (read: way too slow). This wouldn't be a problem on Switch if it didn't start having frame hiccups after you put your console in sleep mode. Gameplay wise it could've used a bit more clearity on what you were supposed to do. I didn't have to resort to a walkthrough though, so it's not a very big deal.

 

Having said that, the cases are smart and have a good length, the interactions (especially between Detective McQueen and Officer Dooley) are hilarious and it has some nice little winks to the ye olde LucasArts catalogue, without overly relying on it. I'm gonna let this sink in a bit and then come back for the sequel.

[ThunderPeel2001]

On 7/28/2023 at 10:27 PM, Romão said:

Return of the Obra Dinn is one of the greatest games I have ever played. I wish I could forget all about it so I could experience it for the first time again. But nonetheless, I still had a tremendous time replaying it a couple of years later.

 

Cannot recommend it enough 

 

If you haven't played it, the Case of the Golden Idol is supremely enjoyable and has similar inductive reasoning puzzles. 

[Kroms]

On 8/24/2023 at 10:56 AM, Lagomorph01 said:

The loading times (at least on Switch) are way too long for such a graphically simple game, and every time you load all your dialogue choices are reset. Even worse, every time you reset the game, the cursor speed goes back to default (read: way too slow). This wouldn't be a problem on Switch if it didn't start having frame hiccups after you put your console in sleep mode

That's too bad. On PC, you get that (amusing) loading screens for a few seconds, and I don't remember the rest of it. But I'm glad you enjoyed the game.