A new adventure of the Detective franchise will take players to investigate very closely an urban legend that may be very real.
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The Catalan studio K148, in collaboration with Jandusoft, presents a new installment of its narrative investigation saga, Detective, which includes a story where fantasy and reality are often difficult to discern and in many other cases, they are one and the same. The previous franchise took players to work on different types of cases in Detective: scene, crime, Detective: Crime Scene Investigator, Detective: The Minerva case, and Detective: The Motel.
The story features Iker Carmona, a police officer who decides to stop at a motel in the middle of his investigation into the disappearance of people in the area. The poor public servant’s rest is short-lived, as the next day the accommodation is completely isolated from the surroundings with a thick fog, phones don’t work, and neither do any of the vehicles on site. If this weren’t enough, an unusual storm is also announced, which seems to be anything but calm.
With the promptness that characterizes public servants in general (note the sarcasm), Iker takes on the investigation of the events, which will lead the player to talk to the guests and obtain different clues about what may be happening. Unfortunately, time is of the essence, as the guests start to die in a terrifying manner, and solving the mystery becomes a race against the clock.
In this way, a local legend begins to take shape, which states that a mysterious storm appears in this place every 100 years and claims many lives for five days, a situation that can happen again at any moment.
- With paper and pencil in hand (something the game itself recommends at the beginning), I invite you to join me in this analysis to unravel all the mysteries of this new installment of the franchise. You might discover a new passion.
Technical Aspect
Sound is a key piece of the game’s atmosphere and one of the most notable aspects of the production. A soundtrack accompanies each section of the title and changes rhythm to adapt to what’s happening on screen.
The sound effects fulfill their purpose without standing out too much. The dialogue voices, only available in English, don’t sound very natural, although this might not be due to the interpretation but rather the script itself, which I’ll discuss later.
In terms of graphics, the title opts for an aesthetic more akin to the Xbox 360 era than the present day, but given the limited scenarios and first-person camera, it’s not an aspect that can be criticized, especially considering the development budget is far from that of a AAA game.
The game is localized in menus and subtitles in Spanish in its Iberian variant with good results, although it would have been nice to include voices in our language or a Latin American variant.
Gameplay
The mechanics in this section are simple; the title shouldn’t be ashamed of being called a “walking simulator” since all you have to do is talk to different people and interact with some objects to get certain results.
The notebook is essential for the investigation, but it’s completed automatically as each day passes in the game, so the manual detective work is left to a secondary or even tertiary plane, in my humble opinion.
The narrative is the main attraction of the game, and I think it passes, although not with a high grade. The dialogues are very extensive (fortunately, they can be accelerated) but in multiple instances, they feel forced or completely lacking in naturalness, which in a production that relies so much on its narrative is a significant weakness.
The most interesting aspect of the investigative side is perhaps talking to the guests who are also trapped and evaluating their actions and statements according to their personalities, which will become more or less likable to the player as they get to know them.
A notable aspect is the atmosphere the title creates when a creature that will serve as the main antagonist appears, which can even scare the player more than once, and I think this contributes to the horror aspect the production seeks in more than one occasion. I found it interesting that the game doesn’t overuse the famous “jump scares” and instead focuses on building tension at a good pace as the days pass in the adventure.
Towards the end of the game, there are some interesting puzzles that I think would have greatly benefited the game during the main adventure, such as one where the objective was to find hidden buttons to reach a hidden storage room.
Duration
One of the weakest points of Detective: Rainy Night is the short amount of content hours. The game can be completed in just 3 hours, which, in my opinion, makes it more similar to a DLC of a larger production than a game in itself.
Conclusion
To understand and recommend the game, it’s essential to establish a division. If you enjoy narrative adventures with horror and mystery elements, Detective Rainy Night might have all the elements you’re looking for. However, those who seek an experience where investigation and ingenuity are the main focus will feel disappointed with the title, although there are other options.
The atmosphere is well-created, some characters are really endearing, and I think the title shows glimpses of great potential that it doesn’t quite execute at any point, although this doesn’t mean it’s a bad game, just that it passes without major praise.
Translator and video game localiser with a passion for retro titles and simulators. He has never let go of a controller since he was given an Atari 2600. He collaborates with different developers in the localisation of their titles into Spanish through Camelot Translations.
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