How to play the game?

[Jammet]

I got this, over on GOG, but I still hope it's alright to ask here? Bought this last year, and since then I've been attempting to get a foot in, but I'm just not getting "it", whatever "it" is. I marvel at the look, the world, how interactive everything is, but I completely fail to work any case whatsoever.

Starting with knowledge I don't have and had to search on the Internet for answers for, like what my own pin codes for my safe and computer are. There's just so much that you're supposed to figure out, and I can't.

For example the *entire* year I had no clue how to even get to the address of any murder. I just stumbled upon the correct addresses via mouse-overing every single building's rooms, one by one. And I hated it. Turns out there is a SEARCH for this in the map screen that doesn't look like a search. The way it's graphically represented it just never caught my eye "Oh, look, this is where you can just type in any address and it'll find it for you!". I figured that out via Internet search, too. In other words, I didn't figure it out.

And that's the tip of the iceberg. In essence, this is quickly becoming a game that I only play by looking things up on the Internet. It's *terrible*. That's now a way to have fun for me.

Now for the actual cases: The game reacts way too quickly to anything I do. Before I have even understood that I'm trespassing, there's already a guy or two pummeling me down or shooting a gun at me.

Trying to navigate air vents to get from a place to another place is a complete gamble.

I have *never* gotten to a crime scene to actually find more than a body, and a bunch of finger prints with nothing else left to do other than just getting their address book to see who their friends are. So it's a massive goose chase, am I really supposed to visit all of them?

And once I'm actually there, nobody - and I mean nobody - will actually tell me anything, answer any of my questions, say anything interesting or relevant, and few give me their fingerprints. Am I supposed to illegally search everyone's homes or something?

Add to that the "whiteboard" like mechanic that could have been so fun, where it not a completely cluttered mess because you get afraid of losing any of the notes or items on that. By the time I talked to the third person, half the block is already on my suspect list or something.

And I don't have the patience for this kind of thing. I don't need everything to be a straightshooter, but for once I'd like to actually just have a simple case that I can solve. Currently everything feels like a massive conspiracy, and as the detective, I have no ways of legally doing anything at all, so the master criminal in each case is actually supposed to be ME of all people.

The tutorial is only helpful showing me a few bits and pieces, the way everything is designed to be super cumbersome, I fight the controls, the menus, and my own front door more than tackling any case. I am going to give up for good soon.

[funewchie]

Some of it is just practice.

A big help will be knowing the cause of death, and in what manner they were left.

If the body is in a ritual circle of blood, then you're dealing with a cultist, who will have left a note on the scene that says something like "Let's play a game" followed by some scrambled letters (for example, "D.ELFOW").
The note will have the killer's prints, the first letter will be the initial of the killer's first name, and the rest is the killer's last name scrambled. (In my example, it turns out to be "Diana Wolfe").
You use the prints, and the phone book to figure out the killer's name.

---

If the victim's cause of death was poison, look for a syringe. The killer's prints will be on that.
Then visit pharmacies or the black market, and look at sales ledgers to see names that purchased poison and syringes. Check their prints, and you'll find your killer.
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If the victim was killed by a rifle round, then you're dealing with a sniper. There will be almost no evidence at the scene, apart from a noticeable bullet hole in the wall or floor (if the floor, it's likely a rooftop sniper).
You might be able to draw a line from the bullet hole, through the victim's location, through a broken window, and follow the line to a room or roof, which can narrow down where the sniper fired from.

I haven't had a rooftop sniper yet, so I'm not sure how that works.
But for a regular sniper, that invisible line will lead to their apartment window, allowing you drastically narrow it down to a couple rooms.
Once you enter their apartment, you can look for a murder note (something like "I'll make them all pay" or "They'll see", something like that), and look for a murder weapon or rifle rounds.
(In my case, I also handcuffed the guy after finding that note, and talked to him asking "I'm arresting you for murder" and the guy confessed. But that's not a guarantee, it's random if they will confess)
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If the victim was killed by a pistol, then you'll want to look for prints. Assume that two people live in the apartment, so look for three sets near the body.

You'll want to check stores and the black market weapon store for their sales ledgers to see recent purchases of pistols. That'll help narrow down the search.

And so on.
----

So, a lot of your methods will depend on the type of murder, and the type of weapon.

[Energy Melons]

It's entirely likely this type of game just isn't for you. And I truly don't mean that in a "get gud" sense at all. This game requires an extraordinary amount of patience, attention to detail, and the willingness to try a lot of things that will either fail, get you in trouble, or lead absolutely nowhere.

You ask if you need to illegally search everyone's homes? Hard no, but soft yes. It will massively speed up your investigation. Playing 100% above board will mean you are always at a disadvantage, simply because you have no jurisdiction. You are a private contractor with no rights above an average citizen. But the law enforcement is extremely lazy and forgetful in this world, so most of your crimes won't stick longer than a few minutes - even less if you weren't witnessed committing them.

It's perfectly okay to have tried the game and find that it's too hard or weird or clunky to enjoy. It is all of those things, without a doubt. For some people, the joy of sleuthing surpasses the jank. For others? There's L.A. Noire. Go check it out. That game's actually a lot of fun, too.

[Energy Melons]

(Accidental double post)

[Rollin88z]

my house is decked out
I rob people all day
i smash peoples faces with bottles all day
i legally cant possess a gun because of the things I've been caught doing

so you can imagine how stoked I was when I discovered you can do most of that in this game

You don't have to be a detective.
Don't follow the rules.

I call this game Home Invasion Simulator because no other game has fulfilled my intense urge dynamic npcs that react to you breaking into their house, smashing bottle on their faces, tieing them up and stabbing them repeatedly while you rob their homes.


you want to play the game and get money the normal way? fine go ahead
i don't, I steal. I steal so much stuff that it physically disgusts me.

And you can too.