A Case of Distrust

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

A Case of Disgust (not to be confused with Distrust, a different and unrelated game) is a Graphic Adventure that is mostly a text-based game that has you playing as a noir-style private investigator looking for clues in conversations and then using those clues to get to the bottom of a mystery.

With so much of the game’s focus being on the text, it had damn well better be good, and to its credit, this game’s writing is superb, with a dry wit cutting through everything, and the words doing a great job of building up the atmosphere. If you want a well-told period noir detective story, this game delivers in spades.

The presentation here is also excellent, with simple visuals in just a few colors depicting the characters and environment that does a great job of suggesting the overall feel of the situation without depriving you of some degree of imagination regarding the events unfolding. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s solid nonetheless.

The gameplay is, for the most part, also solid. There are enough topics and clues recorded in your notebook that you need to have some idea of what you’re doing and can’t simply brute force the game to make progress. Players must understand the players and the evidence, and realize when someone may have more to tell you if you confront them with the right information.

There are two main problems I have with the game. First, much of the “evidence gathering” requires moving a cursor around the screen and clicking on objects. The game thankfully highlights when an object is interactive, but it is nevertheless frustrating to have to search to see what you can interact with. And secondly, even though the game very much feels like a “choose your own adventure”-style story, your choices don’t seem to have much actual impact on the story beyond bringing you farther into it.

Still, as I said before, if you’re looking for a good noir-style detective story that has you trying to uncover the truth behind a mystery, A Case of Distrust does a solid job of delivering that experience. It’s not without its flaws, but for the most part it does exactly what it sets out to do.

tl;dr – A Case of Distrust is a Graphic Adventure that presents a stylish text-based detective mystery dripping with noir atmosphere with a stylish presentation. It’s not without its flaws, but if you’re looking for a good detective game, this one should fit the bill nicely.

Grade: B

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