Marlon’s Mystery: The darkside of crime

I try to cut indie developers some slack when it comes to imperfections, so when I realized within the first five seconds that the English translation was going to be.... Rough... I didn't much mind as long as I could understand what the sentence was supposed to have been (and I could). What I was less forgiving of was running into a game-breaking bug that locks you out of progressing in the first fifteen minutes, then going to the steam forums and seeing that the most recent thread on the forums is from December 2023 and involves the poster and several other people encountering the exact same bug. In short, the game is currently in a broken, unplayable state past a certain point and given that it was last updated almost a year ago, that doesn't seem likely to change. And so I can't recommend it.

the game is glitchy, and the plot isn't good enough for me to try to put up with it. some items in inventory can't be added to investigation board

It's not a bad game, but there are bugs. The 'send to the board' doesn't quite work often like the scissor part. I think the achievements are not working. It is also not a long game.

Pros -Nice art-style - Interesting characters and dialog - Story was engaging enough - Auto-save Cons - The whole game is static, no animations - There is no hover over icon for hot-spots, just have to click on everything - The navigation between locations and even scenes within the same location is through a kind of book which gets a bit tedious. When moving to a different location a map would have been much nicer presentation but regardless if I'm in location I should be able to click on a door (for example) to go to the next scene. - Un-skippable credits I could forgive all of the cons except there is one more issue with this game in that main mechanic of combining clues is completely broken requiring you to exit back to the main menu several times during the game. I'm actually surprised I was able to stick with the game to the end. For a game with such little game-play (mostly a visual novel) having the one interactive element broken is unforgivable.

Marlon's Mystery is a cute little adventure game/visual novel hybrid from a small dev company named "Made in Mavis." It looks to be their first game, and after having played through the full two hours or so, I can say I'm mostly happy with what is here. There are a few localization errors (where English is still in Spanish or the grammar/verbiage is slightly off), and occasionally sending items to the Deduction Board doesn't work (especially when in your office), but overall this a a cute, short detective story that is a great "Baby's First Point and Click." The puzzles aren't very hard and they mostly involve connecting items on the Deduction Board, but the story is an interesting one. What's left unsaid between a lot of these characters is very interesting as well. There is some reading between the lines regarding personal interaction, but it also means that younger gamers will have a slightly different experience than adult ones. In all, for ten dollars, this is worth picking up to support a new, small dev team. It feels like we'll be seeing more from these characters is this one is successful and I'm more than happy to check out what else Made In Mavis has planned in the future. Good luck!

[h1] El quid de la cuestión [/h1] [b]Marlon's Mystery[/b] es un relato lineal e interactivo de corte detectivesco que [b]invita a una agradable y ligera sesión de juego / lectura[/b]. Todo empieza cuando Abby Marlon recibe una carta solicitando sus servicios para investigar un asesinato [spoiler]que involucra a un miembro de la familia Taylor[/spoiler]. Ella y su fiel ayudante Jared guiarán al jugador por distintas localizaciones, dialogando con los diferentes implicados en busca de información y objetos clave que le permitan deducir el siguiente paso en la historia. [hr][/hr] [h1]Una mirada con lupa[/h1] A nivel artístico nos encontramos con unas diestras ilustraciones 2D al estilo cómic europeo, con paletas de colores y degradados suaves, que le sienta muy bien al título. [u]Ambientes, moda y personajes nos trasladan al siglo pasado[/u], aquí las pistas e indicios se anotan con papel y lápiz. Una [b]interfaz[/b] de estilo sencillo, a veces en exceso (para mi gusto), al que se le agradece que no interfiera en las pantallas principales y que es [b]de cómoda navegación cuando lo traemos a primer plano[/b]; hablo de la [i]Bolsa[/i], el [i]Mapa[/i], el [i]Tablero[/i] y las opciones de diálogo con los personajes. Me ha resultado especialmente llamativo [b]el apartado musical[/b], porque aunque escaso en número de temas, [b]acompaña muy convenientemente tanto en los momentos de lectura calmada como cuando se presentan los momentos de más tensión[/b]. Me he encontrado en alguna ocasión tarareando las melodías fuera del juego (por cierto, que es un [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2404470/Marlons_Mystery_The_darkside_of_crime__OST/]DLC[/url] gratis) ¿Es tu estilo de juego?, pues este es el punto en que debes saber a lo que vienes. Me explico: [i]si buscas un rato de lectura con selección de líneas de texto de los personajes, y unir una pista con otra[/i] (ya que, las deducciones siempre se hacen uniendo sólo 2 elementos), [b]estás en el sitio correcto[/b]. Si por el contrario buscas algo más profundo, con decisiones y deducciones complejas o distintos finales, deberás seguir indagando por otros lados, pues no están presentes aquí. [hr][/hr] [h1]El veredicto[/h1] Aunque no es un inconveniente, sino una decisión de diseño, personalmente [b]me hubiese gustado[/b] contar con diálogos alternativos y bifurcaciones de la historia, deducciones con varios elementos relacionados, pistas falsas... en definitiva [b]sentirme más como detective en primera persona, y menos como un medio para avanzar la trama[/b]. Sin duda, Marlon's Mystery es culpable de: 1. Hacerme pasar un buen rato leyendo una historia criminal, que sin mayores pretensiones, apetece desvelar y conocer a sus personajes. [b]Es una historia bonita de ver, de escuchar y de sentir[/b]. 2. Desear más historias como esta, pero que me dejen investigar en vez de tener que pulsar dónde y cuándo debo hacerlo.