Case Solved: The London Files

As of right now I can't recommend this game, as much as I'd like to. I really enjoyed the puzzle core mechanic. I had never heard of "Einstein's riddle" before and this was an excellent introduction to it. It's unfortunate that a few answers are obvious by context and not by logic (yeah, the musician did music stuff with their instrument, seems about right), but it's not a big deal. And the vibe is chill, the art looks good and the music is really nice and fitting. The main reason for my negative review is that the majority of the game is locked away behind codes that you have to go and find yourself; As the store page says, some are even "beyond the game itself". I'm not really a fan of paying $10 for a game with 3 main cases solved in maybe 1.5 hour, and then having to go on a code hunt to be able to play the rest of it. Yes, I read the store page before buying, but I assumed the main cases would be significantly longer and/or trickier - was expecting at least x2 the playtime - as well as all of the codes being easier to find. Then I'd have been fine with all of this. There is also seemingly an error with a clue in one of the main cases, where all of the keywords are in the same category, making it impossible to use - you have to guess what goes in the last spots to be able to finish the case. There's posts about this on the forums, but apparently the devs doesn't consider it a bug and doesn't prioritise fixing it, which is... odd. Again, I enjoy the core mechanic of the game and how it looks and sounds. But I don't like paying for a full game and then not having easy access to said full game. If you don't mind the main cases being short and simple, *and* then having to find the rest of the content yourself, then it's going to be worth its price. The secret cases offer plenty of extra playtime, especially since many of them are harder than the actual main cases. If you expect the main cases to offer a significant amount of playtime and/or effort, *and* also want to be able to easily access most of the game as you buy it, then right now, this is not going to be a hit with you.

It's fun, but it's way too short for a game for this price.

한국어 번역 잘 안 되어 있음 어떻게든 이해가 가능하긴 한데 하면서 점점 짜증이 남 이 게임은 증거를 직접 모으는 것도 아니고 현장을 돌아다니면서 추리하는 것도 아니고 주어진 선택지에서 추리하는 건데 번역이 이따위니까 하기가 싫어짐

I was already a little disappointed in this game from the start when I realized how much of a disconnect there is between the investigative and deductive sections - you go around talking to the different characters, click on the objects they point out in the scene, and then you get clues for the logic puzzle that are often completely unrelated to whatever you investigated to find them. Still, I was enjoying the logic puzzles themselves, even if the poor translation made it difficult to understand exactly [i]what[/i] I was deducing at times, so I kept on with it. Unfortunately, my breaking point came at Case 3 Stage 4, at which point the game becomes full-on impossible to beat as intended. In the original release of the game, one of the clues was written in such a way that it was mechanically impossible to fulfil, requiring multiple mutually-exclusive options from the same category to be assigned to the same person. I made a discussion post informing the dev of the issue, and to their credit they did replace the clue with an actually possible one in a recent patch... except it still didn't help, because the puzzle is [i]still unsolvable[/i] with the information the game gives you. As always, I hate leaving negative reviews on smaller indie games, but I feel like the bare minimum expectation for any puzzle game is that the puzzles should be, you know, [i]possible to solve,[/] especially when the literal first sentence of your sales blurb is "A Game of Pure Deduction".

I've always liked einstein's riddle (aka the zebra puzzle). I've solved a bunch of them over the years, on paper, in apps, and this is the first time I've seen the idea presented this well. Instead of staring at a plain grid, the puzzles are dressed up as detective cases, and it fits the theme perfectly. If you have no idea what an Einstein puzzle is, this is a good chance to find out. It's a much friendlier way in than the classic version. If you already know and like this kind of puzzle, you'll feel at home here.

Mixed feelings on this one. The actual cases/story content were enjoyable, but they're bookended by 42 fairly tedious logic puzzles. It's also missing a basic feature you'd expect from any grid-based logic puzzle: the ability to mark off false deductions as well as true ones, not just confirm what's correct.

Enjoying the 'Einstein Riddle' core mechanic at the heart of the game. It's a puzzler through and through, with the detective setting on top. If you like logical challenges, this might scratch the itch.