Unsolved Crimes Review

Detective games have long been a staple of the graphic adventure genre, from Black Dahlia and Ripper to Gabriel Knight and Sherlock Holmes. Most of those games tend to focus on a broad storyline and lots of character interaction. Unsolved Crimes is a little different. It consists of a series of very specific crimes with very tight crime scenes. Your job as a rookie detective is to root out evidence and use logic to solve the crimes.

The flow of the game is as follows: You see a murky cut scene involving a new murder. Then you are given the case, presented with the bare facts and a few suspects. You then scour the crime scene looking for evidence, study the files on the suspects and begin cracking the case. Progress on each case is done in the form of a series of “queries” that require you to analyze the information you have gathered.

Those who like their games to be very challenging may be disappointed with Unsolved Crimes as the cases are pretty simple to solve. However, the difficulty level does ramp up gently as you progress through the game. Some of the challenges, like working out sightlines in a city park to corroborate or discredit witness testimony, are satisfying and fun.

To mix things up, there’s a sort of meta-case that kicks in about a third of the way through the game. It involves a kidnapping and successfully serves to add some variety to the game play.

The graphics are very basic at best. Movement through the 3D environments is a bit awkward, but at least gives you the flexibility to be able to examine the murder scenes with the thoroughness necessary for success.

The game suffers just a bit from a questionable localization: Though the game is clearly set in the US, the translation is clearly by someone who’s familiarity with English is British, rather than American.

All in all, I was surprised by how enjoyable Unsolved Crimes was to play. While I want to be careful not to oversell this modest game, the fact is that it can be a fun little package of murder to carry around with you.

This review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link back to Just Adventure.