Dahlia View

Conway is a game that from the store page seemed fantastic. A Mystery where you play as a retired detective trying to solve a kidnapping. Tons of footage showing your view of the town through a camera lens as you observe everything from your window. I can say without a doubt that those sections advertised are fantastic, they sadly make up maybe 20 minutes of an 8 hour playtime. The rest is an absolute mess and it's genuinely upsetting because everything is so close to being good. GOG Limits me to 2000 characters so let me just get these two things out of the way. The audio and visual design of the game is quite good. No major complaints here. Now for the bad. This game is a story driven investigation and neither the story nor the investigation is compelling. By the middle of the first chapter it'll be hard to feel anything positive towards the protagonist, Robert Conway. His decision making is frustrating at the best of times, infuriating at the worst. Never did I once feel like I was playing a competent detective. He'll enter empty rooms yelling "CHARLOTTE" when he's supposed to be undercover, he'll tamper with crime scenes and invade peoples privacy on hunches that are so farfetched that I actually feel second hand embarrassment when people catch him in the act. All the potential suspects of a literal kidnapping were more enjoyable and relatable than our hero. The other terrible thing is searching areas. Items are hidden everywhere and at times it's 15-20 minutes of checking every area in tiny rooms just to find what you need to progress. Random quick time events and lockpicking sections are so poorly done it boggles the mind. Even suspect interviews are just "Click all the questions". Everything is a mess when you're not just observing through a camera. Add in many little bugs and the experience just feels poor at best. Conway could have been good but it just ends up being a game with so much potential just squandered by poor writing and gameplay mechanics.