Ta gra jest zabugowana i naprawdę wymaga sporego samozaparcia, żeby ją dokończyć. Autorzy gry nie wpadli na pomyśł, że ktoś może zrobić coś w innej kolejności niż oni chcieli i gracz jest załatwiony. Porada: nie przeszukujcie biurka zanim nie zatempereujecie ołówka, odwrotna kolejnośc zablokuje ołówek i nic się z tym nie zrobi.

I never thought I would write a negative review for a HOG published by Artifex Mundi, considering that I am a huge fan of their games, and that the game was created by Brave Giant, which is a decent HOG developer. Yet, Noir Chronicles: City of Crime bothered me on so many levels, that I feel the need to warn people about it and suggest that they might want to double check this title before deciding to purchase it.

Let me start by pointing out that the asking price of $15 is horrendously high, judging by the fact that the game takes around 3h to complete, without skipping any mini-games / HOG scenes and includes the extra chapter featured in the Collector’s Edition. There are so many other titles that are worth your $15, with a much higher replay value (Noir Chronicles: City of Crime has none at all) and even at its highest discount of 50% it’s still a pretty bad buy.

Second of all, the characters are poorly designed (the artwork is also not that great) and the story is mediocre at most. Noir Chronicles: City of Crime centers on figuring out the murderer of Barbara Le Purr - a controversial diva who previously had various love affairs, one of them being the character you play - the private investigator Alfred Fox. One would expect that such a femme fatale is depicted as an extremely good-looking lady, yet Barbara is an unattractive middle-aged woman, which looks more like a scary teacher rather than a seductress. Despite touching some of the basic film noir characteristics (corrupted policeman, black and white story panels, first person narration, sexual motivation for the murder), the plot remains dull, unexciting.

There are only 3-4 locations available at a time and those can’t be visited after you progress to the next stage, therefore if you aim to gather all collectibles, you need to use your one-time chance of picking them up while exploring a location for the first time. Probably pretty much the only thing I liked about the game, there is an indicator on every location that tells you if you already picked up the collectible from the current scene.

We have the same type of puzzles that we encounter in pretty much all other Artifex Mundi HOGs, but what bothered me in Noir Chronicles: City of Crime is that some of the puzzles repeat even 2-3 times, especially one that is pretty tedious to solve, requiring you to rearrange a bunch of knots so that the thread lines don’t intersect with each other. It’s not like there aren’t other puzzles available out there, therefore the decision of repeating the same one beats me.

The HOG scenes are nicely made, but there’s a huge issue with one of the achievements related to them and this issue hasn’t been fixed so far (at the moment of writing this review, the game was launched on Steam 16 months ago). The achievement requires you to solve a HOG scene without misclicking; however, combining items in a hidden object scene wrongly counts as “misclicking”, even if it’s mandatory to do so in order to solve the scene. When I played the game, I kept being careful to not misclick and ended up being frustrated that the achievement doesn’t trigger despite my constant efforts. Turns out that there are only 2 scenes in the whole game that don’t contain combinable items, therefore the chance of getting the achievement without knowing this beforehand is pretty low.

Overall, Noir Chronicles: City of Crime counts for me as the worst Artifex Mundi I’ve ever played: exaggerated price, buggy achievements, bland story, unattractive character design. And let’s just not talk about the moment when I had to rub a spoon against the wall so that I can transform it into a screwdriver. It’s utterly clownish.

More reviews on the Lilly's Corner Curator page

Gry HOPA to zawsze te same rozwiązania, ale zagadki czy łamigłówki były na tyle zróżnicowane, że nie odczuwało się monotonii. Do tego wiele z nich ma bardzo ładną grafikę 2D. Jednak nie Noir Chronicles. Nie dość, że graficznie jest przeciętna, tak animacje czy postacie (te paskudne mordy) są zwyczajnie brzydkie. Z kolei zagadki bazują na tych samych rozwiązaniach i tych samych przedmiotach. Twórcy stworzyli tę grę jakby po najmniejszej linii oporu. Jak lubię sobie relaksująco poklikać i szukać przedmiotów, tak tutaj za bardzo odczuwałem powtarzalność i wkradała się monotonia.

Ocena: 3 / 10

+++ easy 100 % Steam Achievements (with Guides/ Thx 4 Help/ Work)

+++ Five Trading Cards (perfect Number)

+ good Quality HOG

- a little bit to short if you rush through with Hints Help

Good for Achievement Hunters, Trading Card Collectors, HOG Fans, Artifex Lovers

Buy it with 50 % Discount or support Developer/ Publisher

Thx 4 reading. Hope you enjoy. Happy Gaming GL HF <3

A mediocre game from Brave Giant. I found many flaws in this game and mainly the character's design and animations. As much as I loved the locations artwork, I couldn't get past the character design of the main character and the woman he is in love with! The story is a murder mystery case where Barbara, the woman who is 'everyone's lover' was killed and this detective who is in love with her want to 'avenge' her death.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1629511422

Voice overs doesn't suit the characters, and the music sounds like two tracks looping. I liked the HO scenes and puzzles, they were well made. Once again, the artwork of the locations are the best in this game, if it wasn't for it I'd have stopped playing the game midway as it got pretty boring.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1634847506

The map is interactive but pretty useless as they'll move you from a set of locations of four areas to another once you finish picking up the items you needed, so the collectibles achievement is missable as you can't revisit the places you've been in before once you move away from them.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1629509959

Pros:
+Beautiful locations design.
+Well drawn hidden objects scenes.
+Variety of puzzles.
+Fast traveling map.
+Collectibles.
+Steam achievements.

Cons:
-Short game.
-Bad voice overs.
-Mediocre story.
-Bad character's design.
-Limited soundtracks.

I set this game on recommended only because it wasn't 'too bad' It is playable but boring compared to the other HOGs around. Get it with a huge discount or a bundle.

𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑐𝘩𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑎'𝑠 𝐶𝘩𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒

Noir Chronicles: City of Crime is another great, but very casual Hidden Object game from publisher Artifex Mundi.

Please keep in mind i got the game in a bundle for cheap price so my recommendation based on the price i paid for it and mainly thats the source why i recommend it as the game is entertaining and nearly bug free (one achievement isnt working as intended and bit harder to get). I definetly not recommend the game for steam full price and not even on current historical lowest sale price (9eur) as i find that a bit too expensive for a 3-4hours long game (bonus chapter included).

The game is enjoyable and unusual, as in this game now you dont chase any supernatural power just a simple gang boss.

Our protagonist is a private detective who got an emergency call from a girl he was dating back before. As we arrive a bit too late to the scene we find Barbara already dead so our investigation and revenge mission will start.

The game offers lot of various puzzles, hidden object scenes. None of them hard so the game is pretty casual. Only 1-3 areas active at the same time so its very easy to figure out what actions are required to progress on the story. If you like hard hidden object games then, just like all newer AM games, this game definetly isnt for you.

The visuals, the areas and the scenes are all well drawn/animated, so the game has the Artifex Mundi standard.

Hey, iam an achievement hunter!

Most of hidden object games are easy to perfect to 100% achievements. This isnt the exception. It takes about 3-4hours to finish game to 100%. Only 1 playthrough enough (on any difficulty) but there are missable achievements, like need to loot up collectibles and the usual deals: dont use hints during hidden object scenes and dont skip minigames. Sneaky Hand achievement, which require you to finish a hidden object scene without missclicks is a bit bugged as additional actions counted as missclick so its doable only on scenes where all objects visible at the beginning already. One of such hidden object scene can be found at the very beginning of the bonus chapter.

This review was created for Average Achievement Hunter curator

Follow my curator if you like to see achievement related informations (completion time, difficulty to get all achievements) on store page of the games.

https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30168383-Average-Achievement-Hunter/

The curator group dont mark any game as recommended so it shows useful information about achievements on the store page of the games without influencing the main store page of steam with recommendations + all games sorted to lists based on expected completion times. No point not to follow!:-)

Noir Chronicles: City of Crime is a Hidden Object Adventure developed by Brave Giant LTD.


As a talented inspector, you think you're in control of your city's criminal scene. But when suddenly your ex-girlfriend Barbara calls you, completely upset, you know that something is wrong. You need to find out more about the mysterious stalker. It doesn't take long for you to realize that your town's underworld is a lot darker than you thought... Investigate as Inspector Gingertail in a dark Hidden-Object mystery! As we are used to, we solve various hidden objects and puzzles in our adventure.


+ captivating crime story
+ partly challenging puzzles
+ solid graphic style
+ good sound
+ beautiful backgrounds
+ multiple levels of difficulty
+ Notebook
+ Help function
+ trading cards and achievements


- short playing time of 2-3 hours


Noir Chronicles: City of Crime convinces with a captivating crime story, which offers you exciting puzzles. Clear purchase recommendation for fans of this genre.



Noir Chronicles: City of Crime ist ein Wimmelbild-Abenteuer, welches von Brave Giant LTD entwickelt wurde.


Als talentierter Inspektor denkst du, dass du die Verbrecherszene deiner Stadt im Griff hast. Doch als plötzlich deine Exfreundin Barbara völlig aufgelöst bei dir anruft, weißt du, dass etwas nicht stimmt. Du musst mehr über den mysteriösen Stalker herausfinden. Es dauert nicht lange bis du merkst, dass die Unterwelt deiner Stadt noch viel düsterer ist als gedacht... Ermittle als Inspektor Gingertail in einem dunklen Wimmelbild-Krimi! Wie wir es gewohnt sind lösen wir verschiedene Wimmelbilder und Rätsel in unserem Abenteuer.


+ fesselnde Krimi-Geschichte
+ teils anspruchsvolle Rätsel
+ solider Grafikstil
+ guter Sound
+ schöne Hintergründe
+ mehrere Schwierigkeitsgrade
+ Notizbuch
+ Hilfefunktion
+ Sammelkarten und Errungenschaften


- kurze Spielzeit von 2-3 Stunden


Noir Chronicles: City of Crime überzeugt durch eine fesselnde Krimi-Geschichte, welche dir spannende Rätsel bietet. Klare Kaufempfehlung für Fans dieses Genres.

Review brought to you by:

Developed by Brave Giant and Published by one of the most recognized publishers of the genre, Artifex Mundi, who has previously brought us major hit titles such as the Demon Hunter series, Queen's Quest series, and many others. Noir Chronicles: City of Crime was published back in 2018, and up till today remains with a Mixed score in Steam.

I’m always a huge fan of non-fantasy Hidden Object Games, and I’ve been following some of Brave Giant’s releases, so obviously this game had to be on my list. Nothing makes me more excited than a good Noir adventure with a murder mystery case, and alas, I wasn’t disappointed.

In Noir Chronicles: City of Crime we follow detective Fox, who fights crime with all his will and determination, but his latest case has caught him off guard. The victim is someone close to him, too close, and the repercussions will make him travel all over the city, in search of the culprit. Nothing is what it seems and the city holds too many alleyways, and some of them are deadly.

The main story for Noir Chronicles: City of Crime is not going to hold you in suspense, as it’s quite simple and somehow predictable. There are a couple of interesting events that I wasn’t expecting, especially in the Extra Bonus Episode. Other than that, expect a pleasant and casual storyline with a high dose of classic Detective themed adventures across the city.

Gameplay wise, Noir Chronicles: City of Crime is a very traditional game, featuring single hidden object scenes, one per each location. There are two variants for the scenes, one being the classic object gathering with the list of objects, and other with their shape instead of their name. If these scenes are not of interest to you, they can be changed into a mini-game.

While traversing the city in search for the truth, we’ll come across several puzzles and Mini-Games. These range from easy to medium difficulty, with most being very accessible challenges that shouldn’t give you any troubles at all. Object gathering and overall progression are perhaps the most simple and easiest aspect of the game.

In contrast to many other games, this detective thriller doesn’t allow much exploration at all. It’s not uncommon, and I have seen it happen before, where games allow players to traverse between one or two areas each time, making all the previous areas unavailable. Obviously this makes the game considerably easier since there isn’t any backtracking to finding items.

It is perhaps one of the most criticized aspects of Noir Chronicles: City of Crime, although I personally don’t mind much. It’s supposed to be a tale of rushing through the city, one location after the other, always in pursuit, permanently remaining in the shadows of doubts. But it’s also understandable that fans desired a much more in-depth exploration, especially since there is an in-game map, which is pretty much useless, except as a curiosity item to track your steps.

Visually, it’s what you’d expect from Brave Giant’s catalog, with a wide variety of interesting locations, with exquisite detail and setting. Character art is a strange mix between realistic photography, fused with a digital touch. This is the first time I have seen something like this, but it doesn't look that bad, perhaps not the best option but definitely interesting.

The game features original 1080p Cutscene videos and artwork, which looks pretty good in Hidden Object Sequences, with vivid scenarios to easily pick up and identify each object. Most of these are real photos of objects placed into the game, with some rework done to them obviously, so you know the quality is going to be good.

The Steam edition, although it’s not specified, is actually the Collector’s Edition, featuring a Bonus Episode, the In-Game Soundtrack, Wallpapers, and Concept Art. From the original edition published on BigFish, only the Main Menu changed, as for everything else remains including achievements and special collectibles.

The Bonus Episode is available after completing the main story, which portrays one of the darkest periods in the life of Detective Fox. It’s not directly associated with the main narrative branch, and works more like an in-depth perspective over Fox’s early life.

With around 3 or 4 gameplay hours, Noir Chronicles: City of Crime is a really good Hidden Object Game with a fantastic detective vibe. Although the main story isn’t a strong point, it still manages to deliver a fun, casual experience, thanks to its easy puzzles and beautiful design. Perfect if you want a relaxing and enjoyable, simple Noir thriller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVE_KNFAAYs

'Noir Chronicles: City of Crime' is a typical HOG/Adventure game.

Game have nice atmosphere, an interesting story about love and murder and really good graphics.

I really enjoyed it :)