Crime O'Clock

‘Crime O’Clock’ is a hybrid of hidden object game and visual novel. The hidden object game portion was well made and challenging. It tasks players to search for and track people and objects in a moment in time that consists of 10 scenes or “ticks”. When the 10 ticks are viewed in order, they tell stories of the many individual characters. In this regard, ‘Crime O’Clock’ truly stands out among its peers in the genre. Yet, the visual novel part drags the game down. As in many VNs, players have neither agency in deciding how the story would progress, nor freedom to solve the presented problems in other ways. I expected the game to free the shackles of the tutorial after the first case or two. Instead, it kept telling me what to do for the entire game! I couldn’t even explore different ticks at my own pace or choosing in the main campaign. The game becomes annoying quickly with the unnecessarily convoluted plot, an overly wordy in-game companion, repetitive and boring minigames, as well as transition animations that last a second or two too long. Pretty much all non-hidden-object elements of ‘Crime O’Clock’ is a crime on game design. Thankfully, there is the Fulcrum Stories game mode. In this “optional” mode, players can explore the 10 ticks in the five ages (Atlantean, Lost, Steam, Information, and Aeon) at their own pace, searching for individuals who are parodies of well-known characters in pop culture. Upon finding a character across the 10 ticks, the game will recap his/her story during that moment in time. THIS is what ‘Crime O’Clock’ should be! I’m generously awarding ‘Crime O’Clock’ 3 out of 5 stars because of the challenging hidden object gameplay, the highly detailed and thoroughly conceived stories of the many individual characters, and the Fulcrum Stories mode. In spite of its glaring flaws, it’s still worth checking out when it goes on sale.

I had a blast playing Crime O'Clock, though the game lacks a bit of small features, but it's not gamebreaking. I really loved playing this game, the music score was great, the graphics cute and cozy and the small references to like Star Gate, Aladin and Rick & Morty was a nice touch.. But!! It would have been a nice feature, if the AI in the game was voiced, considering how much interactions you as a character have with it. Throughout the game there are small TIMED mini-games, and it doesn't provide any tips / hints what the end goal is, meaning you'll fail them at first try, as you frustratingly are sitting and clicking the mouse-button trying to figure it out. At certain times you'll identify a villain, and you get presented a picture, THOUGH when you then need to find the person, there's no way to look up the mug-shot and the game is constructed in such a way that a lot of the characters look-a-like it can be tough finding the subtle variations.. :( And there is no achievements in this VERSION, BUT WHY? When Steam has it?! :( :( But if you like a chilled "Find Waldo / hidden object" game it's a blast..

I'm not easily entertained, but this game does it for me. Its a really cool concept, and I think they pull it off well! Also, the easter eggs in all the different levels are so much fun to find! 10/10

Interesting Where is waldo like game that tasks you to find paradoxes in several time periods as a detective in a time police. Each time period has 10 intervals in which it can be viewed. The art style is really cute and the decision to have everything in black and white lineart style, and have your "notes" during the case appear in colour on the map is really clever. There is a lot happening in each interval and you can see a lot of clever and funny pop references. Now the game is not without issues - often it expects you to find someone without showing you how they look, just telling you a name, or tells you to look in a specific place while using in game terminology that was never explained to you (eg. look in the tower of leasure or in the runner district). Also the minigames you encounter from time to time are not explained - which would not be an issue if they were not timed as well. It may take sb less used to puzzles several attempts to figure out what to do in each one. Additionally during what can be called "bossbattles" the gamne expects you to play an association game, but for the life of me I cannot figure the logic behind the last sets of associations, again would have been great if it was explained. The most frustrating are the side tasks - a "freemode" where there is no case, but you are tasked with following several individals in a time period throughout all 10 intervals. They are intoduced at the beginning of the game, however the game doesn't tell you that to complete all 10 intervals of one or two characters you need an ability you will get later in the game which is frustrating. There is also no reaction from the game when you finish all characters - you have to quit the stage to continue and it makes it seem as if you forgot something. The long animations showing you all intervals of the given character after you finish them all are also getting old pretty fast. All in all a good game, but needs polishing espectially in the optional mode.