You really wouldn't think this would work as well as it does. Taipei-type tile puzzle, but as you solve it you get randomly-generated "clues" to logic out who done it. One time a guy was murdered by three women who were each missing a leg, acting together.

The minigames are optional (they give more clues) but they're fun; there's a memory game, Fake Tetris and some kind of speed thing that isn't particularly difficult. Still, it's a lot of terrible ideas that, all put together, make a really good, compelling whole. Way better for that Mahjongg itch than most of the ones with over-the-top pseudo-Asian themes.

It's a game of Majhong and I've been really into the game since I played it years ago on my Gameboy. But here, contrary to many other games, tiles are used to collect clues about a crime, the suspects, etc.. The scenarii are always different and like the game Criminal Cases on Facebook, with these clues, it's up to you to arrest the right people.

The soundtrack is good, the gameplay is good, the graphics are decent and the game is right balanced. But why do you sense that I will bring a problem?

Well, you have minigames with it. A sort of Dr. Mario clone to check DNA, a pursuit, interrogations that are matching pairs... And it's these minigames that are a weak link:
- The Dr. Mario clone is controlled by the arrows and not the mouse. I had an hard time to adjust.
- The pursuit, while easy, is at least bugged. One tile stayed, I saw the suspect's car pass through the police one and disappear of my screen on the left while the police kept going to the right. I had to stop the pursuit because I was kinda stuck in limbo

And I still didn't understand the paper tile. I never saw anything going with the press for example. However, the clues are really hepful: you can clear people from a crime easily, even when you have 4 perpetrators (the hair color or the blood type are what you're searching the most). My only downside in that matter is the fact that weight and height aren't in my metric system, which means that I can't say if the suspect is of "average, short, light" etc.. So, unless you're familiar with both systems, you can kiss goodbye to these clues.

I'm enjoying it so far. However, given the fact that the game is nearly reaching the 10 years old mark, keep in mind that maybe, you'll have a problem to play this game (in other words, resolution).

Oh and it works under Windows 8.1 :).

I can't even remember how I ended up with this game, but I just tried it out, and I'm impressed. It's nothing flashy, but it's solid. As you solve Mahjongg boards (with non-traditional tiles), some tiles give you clues toward solving a mystery. Your goal is to make a Carmen Sandiego/Guess Who-style identification of the suspect(s) based on identifying details and obtained clues.

I enjoy Mahjongg, and I enjoyed this. It's a fun game, with straightforward puzzle gameplay and tutorials to gradually introduce you to your crime-solving tools.

MI:US is a cross between Mahjongg solitaire and "clue".

I wish it was back in the 90s, when 800x600 was a good resolution for a 14" monitor. I would have loved this game then. As it stands now, I have the choice of either "too small" (windowed on my 24" monitor), eye-bleedingly filtered/ pixelated at a full-screen resolution, or reducing my desktop to 1360x768 and playing windowed. The use of rendered background images instead of photographs or 2D art is also very 90s.

It's a good game, but unfortunately, unplayable for me.

Since some people in the reviews mentioned not being able to run the game, I thought that I should mention that the game ran without any trouble on my Windows 10 PC. The game was what I was hoping it would be, for the most part. The only slight ding I would put on its report card is that the vocal track of police officers on the radio you hear while playing the game is on a pretty short loop (considering how long it takes to play enough games to reach the top rank). I am getting my Steam sale money's worth on this one.

Why can't a game ever bring up 'TRUE CRIME'? Why does it always have to be fictional? I don't get it. Do developers fear lawsuits? Are they not aware how big the 'True Crime' business industry already is? All they have to do is go down to a book store and read. Alas the closest I have played so far to 'True Crime' is 'L.A Noire' and they took a whole range of liberties with that one believe me.

Mah-jong Investigations is developed by a company which disbanded in 2009 http://www.mobygames.com/company/zemnott-inc . The game is somewhat similar to 'Criminal Case' found on Facebook but take out the Hidden Object Games and replace them with Mah-jong solitaire and instead of watching the case play out entirely itself, here you have to do some very babyish deductive work.

For those that don't know this is 'Mah-jong solitaire' (mah-jong itself is a completely different game) its a puzzle game based on finding the same tile strategy. The goal is to match open pairs of identical tiles and remove them from the board, exposing the tiles under them for play. The game is finished when all pairs of tiles have been removed from the board or when there are no exposed pairs remaining.

This games biggest appeal is also its greatest flaw let me explain. You play as a detective whose ultimate goal is to raise yourself up 10 ranks in the 83rd precinct until you become a 'Deputy Commissioner'. Every time you’re presented with a case and a map with several locations of interest. Once you visit a location a mah-jong solitaire game is laid down and as you match up certain 'special tiles' they have a direct impact on your case and also offers you an extra mini game here and there.

Magnify Glass - Means often mundane information will be presented to you such as there was a country music cd found at the crime scene. Does this have any relevance to the case? No. So you just ignore it.

DNA Pattern - This tile means that some DNA evidence needs to be analysed and you can match up a person's DNA with the evidence found if you would like. It means that you have to play a Tetris style mini game using arrow keys which feels somewhat awkward and long especially if you are checking it out against the wrong person. DNA evidence may not be applicable against perp 1 but it could be applicable against perp 2 or the other half the dozen suspects standing in your queue of queries. So more often than not you will learn to ignore this option.

Police Car - Not sure if this tile is connected but eventually you have to play a minigame each case where the police car is trying to a catch a suspected culprit and you have to link up matching tiles flashed in a trail behind the speeding car or the car gets away. This is actually quite fun at first, but the further you rank up it starts to get ridiculous in speed and time requirements and you soon learn it has no real bearing to the ultimate outcome of your case so you just ignore and let the car just speed away.

Security Camera - Adds additional perpetrators of a crime to your case. Instead of just finding one guy you might now need to find 4. These tiles you can't ignore. The game will request you to find the perps whether you click on them or not.

Fingerprint - These tiles often reveal info more pertinent to your case such as 'perp 1 has blonde hair', problem is that you might have a dozen suspects in your line up with blonde hair, so more often than not you will just learn to ignore this.

Telephone - Not sure if this tile is linked up, but your forever answering the bleeding phone and having people tell you mundane info like 'Barry likes Westerns'. Seriously I'm in the middle of a police chase and someone has to phone up and tell me that. Can't I hire a secretary? Since people lie on the phone, you will learn to completely ignore this facet.

Interrogation - You can play a mini game on each suspect which requires you to play a memory match up game like you have 20 chance to find the pairs to 48 tiles. Basically ridiculously impossible odds and so you will learn to ignore this.

Alibi - Finally the only tile that has a definite bearing on your case. Each time you match up one of these it takes a suspect off your line up because they have revealed a iron clad alibi. Collect enough of these 4 mah-jong solitaire games should do it, you have enough people off your suspect list to work out who committed the crime.

The game with all its additional add-on is dressed up to look like it’s something more than just a mah-jong solitaire game which makes it appealing, but since all those add-ons really don't have a significant impact to your cases you’re really just left with the realization that just playing mah-jong solitaire is your best option if you want to quickly move through the ranks. After about 50 mah-jong solitaire games you start asking yourself will this ever end?

Hence the game’s greatest appeal it's mini games is also its greatest weakness since they have no true bearing and just begin to look like unnecessary clutter. The multiple perps behind this crime is Zemnott. You’re looking for a blonde haired person, a dark brown haired, a bald person, and one who wears glasses, most average build, one tall, and one short, most normal height. Ok now with that info go get them. Wait it seems the culprits made a getaway back in 2009 speeding furiously down the highway, angry customers who hate mah-jong solitaire should start pursuit. HOLD YOUR HORSES! This just in "BARRY LIKES WESTERNS!!!"


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Initially entertaining but begins to becomes a repetitive grind. I also encountered a bug that would cause me to lose the pursuit mini-game with one tile remaining. That's when I decided to uninstall the game. I don't recommend because there's simply not much to motivate me to keep going.

A mildly entertaining game, though I'd recommend to get it on a sale / bundle instead of full price.

Pros:
+ deductive gameplay
+ special tiles
+ interrogation minigame (memory puzzle)

Cons:
- the basic gameplay gets repetitive very quickly
- somewhat annoying background ambient sounds
- there are only a handful of case types, which repeat a lot

Absorbing mahjong title with a crime solving flavour.

Early levels seem absurdly simple, but later on it gets tense as you try and eliminate suspects before your time runs out.

Graphics are pretty awful but don't bother me. They are functional enough for my purposes

A neat twist on mahjongg. I play when I don't want to have to focus too much.