3.5 stars but since that's not allowed, I actually feel like having to round down for once. Great story, but you could just watch a Let's Play! Like, cool concept and all. If this was an even shorter thing, as like a demo or something for an more open-world-ish type of thing with an overarching story, i'd buy that. but as a standalone? I cant really recommend it to most people. Play it for the story but expect that you don't have to think about anything gameplay-wise. Don't get me wrong, i love the atmosphere and story. I do not mind more of walking-sim with a bit of gameplay. I like story focused games. But they should be marketed as such. I've read reviews, that the game would be holding my hand regarding "investigations": okay fine, sure. It's supposed to be just a little relaxing fun after work, i can live with that. But: the "gameplay" could have been not there at all. It would be a better "game", well, story experience. This game does not "hold your hand", it let's you watch how it moves your hand. Crime-scene exploration and connecting clues? nah, every damn little thing has an indicator and tells you which tool to use (why bother even with tutorial pop-ups and an "mechanic" to select each tool when right-clicking at the highlighted point does the exact same thing?) Addiotionally, you need to do things in the exact order the game wants you to do or you could get stuck. I love the setting, i find the story intriguing and it's actually well done regarding the different endings and framing of performing the same actions but reaching different conclusions. Just... It's not a game. It's a movie but instead of watching it and choosing the direction things are gonna go, you have to basically make the movie yourself following a script (not in a good way). I enjoy the shorter run-time (first playthrough was like 6hrs; i did a second to see the "good" (intended?) ending and mostly because of unskippile cutscenes that took 3-ish hrs).
I love this game. Go play it!
