Criminal Expert

Genre: Graphic Adventure / FMV Game

Players: 1

.

Review:

Criminal Expert, released on Nintendo Switch in 2022 and ported to PC in 2023, is a game that combines Graphic Adventure and FMV Game elements to have players work to solve a mystery involving a woman found covered in cuts and bruises, walking in the woods near a remote road, at least initially unable to communicate. Players take the role of a police detective who must try to uncover the details behind why the woman came to be in this state, and who (if anyone) is responsible.

Players access information and decide what course of action to take from their office, where they can check pertinent documents, look at evidence, use the computer to access a police database (and also play the requisite game of Klondike Solitaire that is mandated to be on every videogame simulation of a computer desktop), call various parties to gather information, and interrogate witnesses.

The voice calls are delivered via Polish-language (I think?) voiceovers with subtitles played over comic book-style portraits, and the interrogations are delivered mostly via brief FMV clips (also Polish language, with pretty decent acting). Every now and then these interrogations will just be via text over a portrait, which seems oddly inconsistent.

So, fairly interesting premise for a mystery, good acting… what could go wrong here? Well, start with a pretty abysmal localization that often makes it difficult to understand what characters are talking about or even what menu options do. At certain points, players are required to play a minigame to progress, but often with these it’s not clear exactly what you’re supposed to be doing or how to go about doing it. One game involving finding a link between three pieces of evidence at the victim’s house makes no sense, because the game doesn’t explain exactly how you’re supposed to find a link between the multitude of things you can investigate in the house.

Making things worse, this game is deliberately unforgiving, refusing to allow players to undo a mistake, or even keep multiple save files to try different options. And all of this is contained within a game with a ticking three-hour clock, which not only counts down in real-time, but also reduces as a result of in-game events. And while players will sometimes have new options highlighted, there are other times where it’s unclear just what you’re supposed to do at all, and the game isn’t about to tell you.

If the gameplay were done properly here, Criminal Expert could have been a solid detective game. Unfortunately, a combination of terrible localization and extremely unforgiving game design makes this a game that even the most eager gumshoes will probably find too frustrating to want to try to decipher.

tl;dr – Criminal Expert is a game that combines Graphic Adventure and FMV Game elements to have players solve a mystery involving a woman found walking near a remote road. While elements of this game are quite good, everything is ruined by a combination of a terrible localization, unclear goals, and unforgiving game design that often makes it unclear just what you’re supposed to be doing. Despite its good qualities, this is a mystery you’ll want to skip.

Grade: D+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Talissa, Eli Goodman, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}