Current review, after finishing the game and unlocking about 98% of the content:

This game has a lot of potential, but unfortunately in its current state, I can not recommend this title. It has multiple game breaking issues (I personally ran into), dozens of players have reported losing hours of progress because of the fickle save system. The controls are not at all smooth or responsive. Even playing the game on easy combat, with immortality, it's still a frustrating slog. The devs even programmed incorrect answers to a few of the puzzles, that they have said will be "patched". That's all well and good, but maybe they should hire a QA team, before pushing a buggy broken mess like this to the public?

Speaking of puzzles, if you dislike them, stay far far away from this game. They may have an option to "auto-solve puzzles" for people who do not like them. But even then you need to track down all of the various items and clues required to auto-solve. There are multiple upgrades and items that the game gives absolutely no explanation for. The list of complaints I have is much longer than this, but you get the point. Also, this game is getting touted as Lovecraftian all over the place, but the only thing about it that is Lovecraftian is that it is set in the 1920s and deals with the occult. But there are zero references to any of Lovecraft's mythos at all. That last point is more of an aside, and less of a complaint. I considered flipping my negative review (see the original review below), but after seeing the ending credits and witnessing what might be the most anticlimactic end to a game I've seen in years, I still think this game is not worth your money at this time. Save those duckets and maybe check this out in 6 months when the devs finally patch out all of the Bulls**t. It's really too bad, because "Lovecarftian Metroidvania Detective Game", sounds fantastic on paper. Not so much in execution.

Old Review:
I love all of these glowing reviews from people who don't even have 5 hours in the game. Seriously, get farther in and your going to change your opinions! Wait till you run into what is quite possibly the worst timed/chase boss sequence in the history of gaming. Not because its too hard, but because the solution to complete it is totally inconsistent. The incoming debris that is hindering your progress can be destroyed, or maybe it can't. It all depends on how the game is feeling at that moment. It's a nightmare of a boss. I was loving this game. Even playing it like a complete ♥♥♥♥♥ on EASY/IMMORTALITY does not help at all with this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boss. Good luck! I was actually REALLY enjoying this game. But this encounter has just completely ruined the game for me.

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~ I am a former Quality Assurance Lead Tester, with over 20 years in the industry and nearly 40 years of PC and Console gaming experience. ~ Video Games are my lifeblood and I hope my reviews provide potential buyers with ample information to help them make a decision regarding their purchases.

This is a reluctant not recommended in it's current state, BUT with a few patches I would probably change that. It pains me because this game is absolutely stunning visually, and has a very large map, but the gameplay mechanics and rampant bugs just keep reminding you that this game needed more time in the oven and better testing.

This metroidvania has the worst double jump mechanic I have ever seen in any game in the genre to the point where it's borderline game ruining. I don't even understand why we are reinventing such a simple mechanic that was solved over 25 years ago with Symphony of the Night. You jump, then you jump again, anywhere! It's just that easy. Yet somehow the collective minds must have had to do some deep brainstorming to come up with such a terrible variation of something that should be so simple.

In this game, you can only double jump in certain sanctioned places and times. Nothing breaks the natural flow of the game like having to file for a permit for the devs to be allowed to jump. Ledge you can't reach? OK, maybe we will let you double jump here, but not all the time. What about those monsters camping a ledge next to you? Sorry bro, your double jump permit has been revoked for this. This gets more funny by the fact that you can unlock a triple jump that works even less. Maybe instead of making players ask for permission to double jump unless it's raining on a Tuesday at lunch time, you just take the ball and chain off and make it like every metroidvania ever made because it worked. It's like they made a decision to make the gameplay deliberately feel bad and clunky, and with how beautiful the game is, I can only liken it to having a high-end sports car then keying the side of it.

Aside from this, the game has no immunity frames when you take damage. Nothing says fun like being stun-locked and juggled to death by 2 enemies because you are not in control of your character. Again, this is something that was solved decades ago and somehow it didn't occur to anyone who tested this game that this makes combat feel infuriating. At least you double jump over enemies...oh wait.

The UI is also needlessly cumbersome. Again, most other games solved this decades ago by just letting the player press UP to interact with something, but as a KB+M player, an interaction wheel pops up at the bottom making me press 3? Save points / portals also require you to press extra buttons to heal, and another one to bank your currency, both of which should obviously be automatic. It's great when you jump through a warp to another area then die in 1 hit because you forgot to tell the save point to heal you. Under what circumstance would I not want to be healed and have my currency saved? This not only makes the UI feel bloated, but adds extra frustration to the player. The game also requires you to press a button to "confirm" that a loading screen is done loading? Just adding these UI hurdles for the player to jump over for no reason makes the game feel clunky so often.

There are also certain instances where my controls would just stop working, forcing me to restart the game. In several instances I spawned through the floor in the hub area, and in one end game story segment forced me to restart a lengthy sequence from the start. During the final boss, my block move would not work at all on phase 1, but magically on phase 2 against the literal same exact attacks. This leads me to think the game was rushed out the door as the later areas of the game were prone to more bugs.

It's a shame because the game really is a stunning achievement visually, and the map is gorgeous in the surreal environments. My hat's off to whoever designed the visuals for this game, it's best in genre perhaps with maybe FIST being the only other modern metroidvania that pulls this off. But the worst double jump in history, clunky combat, annoying UI, and bugs just keep piling on constantly to pull you back from what should be a top tier metroidvania. These things should be fixable with patches, if you are reading this and on the fence, check to see if patches have been released on the game's main page. Right now though, this game needs more time to cook

For those who are thrown off by the "mediocre" reviews, most of these reviews were posted when the game was just released and at its buggy state. As of writing this review, it's been almost 4 months since release and I have (patiently) waited for devs to implement patches along the way. I had beaten this game with 100% completion -- and I can tell you I had an ABSOLUTE blast! From the fantastic art style, intriguing lore and story, satisfying puzzles and even the combat system (which may be polarizing, but I personally feel is varied enough to fit each person's play style), this game is definitely worth trying out -- especially if you love the Metroidvania genre, this is one you can't miss. And for any reason your game is still buggy at your end, I would suggest 2 things:

1) Wait it out like I did for additional patches
2) Make sure to have backups of your save files

Congrats to the Last Case of Benedict Fox team on the MASSIVE improvement and for crafting such a lovely Lovecraftian game. Keep 'em coming!

This is a shame, little hitches when transitioning between rooms, unusually long load times, animations don't quite link together smoothly so interactions feel a bit jerky, fps feels capped so movement doesn't feel fluid, a few strange choices in controls make combat feel off, the games setting is a mystery but gives little explanation to whats going on or why you're there at all, limited aspect ratio support (that according to their PR mod on steam will get updated sometime in the future).
Sadly It feels like another game that should have came out in early access and had a bit of player feedback and polishing before being fully released. Can't recommend a game that in the first 15 minutes of play has me feeling like I'm playing a late build beta.
It's not a stinker and you can tell there's been a lot of work put in so far but again, can't recommend something that's a full release but feels like early access and even though it's cheap, I'm paying to test it.

I only played 4 hours right now but I have to give it a positive review because all the people who play it for 0.1 hour and are complaining about the non existing rebind function kill this game. Yes the controlls aren't the best but the game is fun and I really like the puzzles and setting. I think the devs really gave their heart blood for this game.
For my PC it runs perfectly well on the best settings in 4k without stutter. There are some short loading screens but only for seconds.
The combat could really be better and nobody wants to dodge with right stick but all in all it is ok.
Please don't listen to all the guys who refund after playing for 15 min. Give it a try or wait a little until the first patches came out.

This game is beautifully made and only after 6 hours was I able to put it down. I thorougly enjoyed the gameplay, the story, the setting, even despite some frustrating moments during boss fights and puzzles.
Now, I have to say, I'm not the greatest puzzle solver and seeing how there are no guides to this game yet, I had to really rub my brain folds together hard, to solve some of them, but so far I've always managed in the end and it was an extremly rewarding feeling!
I cannot believe so many huge weenies have played this game for like- 20 minutes and then quit and refunded it because the dodge is mapped a little weird?? I QUICKLY got used to it and it's not even needed that much because the combat is not that hard once you get the rythmn down, it's so genuinley a non issue. So that's a real shame.
There are a few moments where the controls feel a bit clunky and unfair but I'm more than willing to look beyond that because I genuinely enjoy this game so much.
I'm excited to continue soon and I hope people give this game a chance because it really deserves it.

I wishlisted the last case of Benedict Fox as soon as I saw the trailer. The stylized choice of graphics and the themes covered in his story caught my attention.

I am a fan of indie games, I like supporting creators who have innovative ideas and the flavor of experimental that is no longer found in the triple A industry; but there are standards and I am sorry to write that The Last Case of Benedict Fox does not know about them.

Poor control makes me unable to trust Benedict; he just feels clumsy. I can't trust his jump, he feels heavy and artificial. Elemental actions like fighting minor enemies feel like a chore that constantly pulls me out of the gameplay, rather than pushing me to play more. Surely asking for the game to feel fluid and responsive like Hollow Knight shouldn't be asking too much, when I factor in quality VS price in both games.

I would really love to give it a recommendation and not join the cloud of bad reviews the game is getting, but I have being disappointed after I paid for a product.

I hope You guys fix it and stop taking bad practices from the triple A industry; if a game isn't ready to be played, it shouldn't be released. It is the last game that I buy without seeing reviews.

The more I play this game the more I fall in love with it (and I was addicted to League of Legends at the time of starting).
This game is more exploration, puzzle and mystery than hack and slash - think less Hades and Dead Cells and more Lovecrafitan detective (exploring the world, mentally keeping track of upgrades and places to go).

+ THE STORY is super engaging and very present throughout the game
+ the characters are gorgeously designed, have great personality and your personal demon is adorable
+ difficulty settings are very good! You can choose whether you want to feel lost in the world and explore on your own or whether the game should support you more, you can choose heavier or lighter combat
+ parry system is very forgiving (which is good given the problem with some awkward button bindings)
+ the graphics are as beautiful out in the world as in the first room
+ the animations are very smooth and flow to one another, specially after a few hours of the game you can comfortably platform
+ the voice acting is phenomenal
+ no notable glitches so far on PC
+ you can store your ink (i.e. souls) and doing that will not respawn all the enemies in the whole world

Don't get me wrong the game has its weak points:

Major problems:
- load times are long when you INITIALLY load the game, then they are just normal (for performance context: my PC is <1 year old, it has only 6 or 8GB cheapest GPU, and the game is stored on the SSD, I recommend installing it on the hard drive for faster loading) (also you will not die much, which means that you will not have to reload the map)
- the dodge button feels more like move button (this is the biggest problem of the game! Check patch notes everybody to see if they introduce remapping or at least place the dodge button on B instead of R-stick)
- one or two (late) points of the game were difficult not because the developers did anything wrong technically but because I have not thought to go back to one part of the map (there was no notable reason to go there or I missed it!), which resulted with some backtracking and some hours wasted on not being sure what to do next (but note that this is where the difficulty settings are great because you may get annoyed with the game but you WILL be able to finish it)

Minor problems:
- when you get upgrades, the description of the keybind is written in notes instead of being displayed at the time of purchase or in the inventory of your existing upgrades (this means that you have to remember what you just purchased to see it)
- you never know how much ink (i.e. souls) you have stored and whether you are ready for a new purchase
- the developers are aware that a puzzle or two are a bit unclear and they are going to patch that
- after dying, the respawn is directed to a teleport that is not necessarily the most recent one that you visited
- scrolling through the map is annoying due to lack of acceleration
- sometimes you will cross rooms and there is occlusion from the 3D crap in front of your character what makes combat OCCASIONALLY annoying


Design issues that are not going to be fixed and are my personal opinion:
- the map is a little too big towards the end of the game
- the fights are not difficult and the enemies feel scattered (BUT that puts mystery at the forefront! and after a few hours of gaming this becomes a very strong point)
- the enemies have quite little creativity for such a great story, I would love the developers to spend more time on designing the cosmic horrors
- I do not like the HUD, I think it reads poorly and it should not take 2 hours to understand what each element is

Overall, a solid experience, worth buying at full price! However, if any of the issues above would/did annoy you then, I would also look out for the patch notes.

After few hours I really like this game. I am an old player and it was so refreshing to finally see a game that requires to dive deeper into all clues and isn't straight forward with an answer. Can't wait to see what else awaits me in the promising story. Kudos to the dev team for all their effort. Cant wait for other projects

While i absolutely love the visuals and worldbuilding in this game, the gameplay hampers my enjoyment severely. The platforming feels clunky and unresponsive, the tentacle jump doesn't register consistently.
Combat feels like you're slapping everything with a paper towel, while you yourself get sent flying as a ragdoll and can get easily stunlocked if you're next to a wall, the dodge feels like it barely moves you out of harms way.

TLDR: It sadly just doesnt feel great to play