We love all sorts of games. Sometimes it is hard to cover a game in our traditional review style that’s why we have tidbit-style reviews. These shorter reviews cover games that deserve attention too but simply don’t fit our good, mixed, and bad template. In addition, they get a monthly summary article to give them even more reader attention!
The Last Case of John Morley | 70%
Publisher: Jandusoft
Developer: Indigo Studios – Interactive Stories
You begin The Last Case of John Morley in the woods, fleeing from something in the dark, with just a few lanterns along the way to illuminate your path. After some running, you come across a cabin, and when you try to enter it, you’re jump-scared! It turns out it was just a nightmare. After waking up in a hospital, thanks to an accident on your last case, you grab your things, get back to your office, and very quickly get a new case from a woman who wants you to dig up who killed her daughter 20 years ago. She offers a generous 30,000 pounds if you accept the case, plus another 30,000 pounds for when you catch the killer, so of course, a broke detective like yourself would accept it.
Visually speaking, the graphics were sometimes decent, but at other times they were blurry, took a while to load, or, on rare occasions, lacked sufficient geometry. The gameplay is very simple, as you only walk/run around, interact with objects, do simple puzzles, and talk with people at the very beginning. The soundtrack had that classic noir detective tone to it, and it was a very nice complement to the game. The sound effects were pretty creepy at times, making it feel almost like a horror game. The voice acting was overall good and helped give the game a good tone, but the nurse from the beginning of the game made me question whether AI was used or not, as she felt a bit too perfect and somewhat blunt.
I did have some technical difficulties, such as the already mentioned graphical issues, but I also had an instance where I jumped through an open window to get into an asylum, and the game struggled with the loading of the inside in real time. Also, when it finished loading, the window wasn’t open anymore, and I couldn’t see anything outside. There was no tutorial at any point, meaning you could finish the game without knowing that you could check for all the clues you’ve gathered throughout your journey with the I key. There were also some instances where the subtitles didn’t read exactly what was said. Finally, the other issue I had with this game was that it used AI for some pictures/paintings, and it is quite clear when it was used, as it has that unmistakable AI look.
In short, The Last Case of John Morley is a short narrative-driven adventure game with a gripping story. It only took me 3 hours to finish it, but it was captivating, and I believe these developers can do a lot better in the future. I hope they won’t be using AI to achieve that.
Hi there, I’m Gabriel Colombo (Hence my reviewer name), I live in Brazil and I’ve been gaming since I was around 5 years old. Xbox became my main platform on the Xbox 360 era, before that I had played a bit on PC, Polystation (basically a skinned SNES), PlayStation 1 and 2. I really enjoy to experience immersive worlds, but I also enjoy playing silly games to have a laugh or just have fun.
