Let's start with what is ok. The graphics and the sound.
That's it.
This has to be one of the worst story driven games I've played in a long time. My experience with it was on gamepass thankfully, if I had paid I might have had to hunt someone down.
There really isn't any detective work, the story ultimately ends up nowhere. It seems like the writer was fired somewhere in the middle of things and someone who had no idea what the game was actually about finished it.
I feel personally insulted for having my time wasted and I really hope the people responsible for the story never write so much as a paragraph ever again.
The look, the music, and the atmosphere are all great. The story is interesting and gritty. While parts could be considered a bit disjointed I just went along for the ride. With a couple exceptions, the gameplay is mostly just moving the story along linearly, but I like interactive, visually appealing stories so no problem there. It's definitely got some creative writing. Dialogue options give you a few personalities to adopt, but I discovered after starting a second playthrough that what you choose only sometimes elicits different NPC responses. Expanding on that could have increased replay value.
I got this game under the name Backbone as part of a bundle on Itch.io. It was a nice surprise and the perfect way to come across it. It's pretty short. I didn't expect it to end when it did and was kind of wondering if I missed something. For a few bucks I'd buy it on its own, but since I already own it I'll probably get the prequel if it gets a GOG release.
Oh and the dual language quick-switch is awesome, something I've never seen in a game before but wish was standard. Excellent feature for non-native speakers or people who like to use games to help learn another language.
People really love hating on this game. But I'm one of the few people who actually like it. I love it even, so much so that I've bought it three times so far on different digital stores.
Everyone talks about how the ending went off the rails.... but stories going absolutely nuts is just a staple of the point and click adventure genre at this point. I don't know why anyone is surprised. Another piece of criticism I see often is that the game becomes much more linear and story focused after the first act. And it's like... Okay. I play most games for their stories and I'd much rather have a bigger focus on the plot rather than some weird forced gameplay mechanics that do nothing but annoy everyone. Besides, it's also very possible that the devs had creative problems or other issues throughout development. It happens all the time in the gaming industry.
Either way, I love this game to bits and I'm happy I've been able to play through it 3 times so far.
I will only recommend this game to serious furries and film noir lovers those who intended to play a detective game could pass over. Like others‘ comments said, it nearly doesn't have any game play. It would be better to see it as an visual novel, but the problem is, its story doesn't have any branching like usual visual novels do, it's completely liner. Furthermore, the controllable dialog (It's almost the only thing you can control), is only making things worse, because you could not do anything to the plot, giving players a kind of frustration, a kind of feeling of being blackmailed, "I don't want to say this, but here's the only choice." So, It could be seen that they wanted to make a huge detective game, but they blew it. What a pity!
The art style is great, but not the most satisfying. Probably because there are too much elements and they are unable have a good grip of it, and outdoor scenes of Vancouver may be a little few.
I could see they have a great ambition in games. But this goal is too vast for a newly-founded independent game studio, for their lack of competence and experience. It‘s a pity. So next time, create something within their competence!
For those saying it's half done. I think it's not that severe, not all mysteries should be solved. Once you missed some people, they'll never come back. But there're some really need to explain.
Finally, It's nice of them that they're still keeping updating (partly because there are some bugs), I don't wish it will become a real detective game, just being a proper visual novel will do good.
我只会把这款游戏推荐给重度福瑞控和黑色电影爱好者，那些想玩侦探游戏的可以绕道了。就像其他人的评论说的那样，这游戏没什么游戏性，最好把它当成一个视觉小说来看。可是它还没有一般视觉小说有的剧情分支，故事是完全线性的。并且可供选择的对话（这几乎是游戏中你唯一能做的）只会让事情变更糟，因为你的选择完全影响不了剧情，还会给人一种挫败感，一种“被绑架”的感觉，“我不想这么说，可没别的可选”。所以他们是想做一个大型侦探游戏的，但是搞砸了。
艺术风格是很好，但是不能让人完全满意，原因可能是“要素过多”而没有办法把控，并且温哥华外景确实少了点。
可以看出他们做游戏的野心是很大的，但是对于一个新成立的独立游戏工作室来说这个目标未免太宏大了些。很遗憾，下次做个力所能及的游戏吧！
对于那些说是“半成品”的人，其实没那么糟。
最后，他们一直在更新（也因为有些bug），还是很良心的。我并不期望他们能做出一个真正的侦探游戏，做成一个视觉小说就就够了。
Amazing graphics. Great music. Not bad characters. It starts on a decently high-note, but it's all down hill from there.
The threats are projected but unworrying. There isn't a real puzzle to speak of. Your character is dedicated to getting the crap beaten out of him without resisting.
The first half is pretty good. Then there's the second half... They seem to entirely forget the "noir", the mystery, and the idea that maybe as a player, we should have something to do with the ending?
