The Darkest Files

As a big fan of detective/whodunnit games, I liked it! Pros: - the design/art style is really nice - the protagonist Esther Katz is intriguing - the cases are interesting - the twist at the end was great - as a German, the historic aspect of this game is amazing and I really really appreciate it being brought to an international audience in this way! Cons: - although the twist at the end was unexpected and well-written, I was dumbfounded when it merely led to a non-interactive epilogue? why not leave it as a cliffhanger for more cases in the future? this would've been much better in terms of keeping the tension and excitement for players imo. - Fritz Bauer's case commentary after the trial was annoying, I couldn't speed it up or skip it unfortunately - while I loved how challenging it could be at times, I sometimes didn't really understand why one document was correct for an interrogation and another wasn't when they contained the exact same information. - making one mistake during an interrogation or choosing to continue with the core interrogation questions meant that you couldn't interact with certain objects to gather more information, which was annoying. also the clicking on 90+ case-irrelevant objects in the second case got tiring very fast. - the court sequence wasn't super enticing either; one mistake and you've lost that hypothesis, impacting the entire outcome. - the voice acting was a bit hit or miss - would've loved German voice acting to play in German front to back Still, I would recommend it as a dark, cozy and fun detective-esque game along the lines of The Roottrees are Dead or Best Served Cold or Seance of Blake Manor (my fave story wise!).

Normally I play adventure games, at times fantasy games or puzzle for entertainment, relaxing or for a challenge - this wonderful game is based on real events. So, I was not sure, if it would be for me, but I'm glad I decided to play and act as a prosecutor for justice. It was a ride through my country's black past, in which terrible crimes happened. For 2 of such, the player can seek justice in the Darkest Files. But don't think, we would just look into files .. no, we look at documents, but question witnesses as well. Those are made very nicely as sort of a walk through their memories... we accompany events, their look on them and what they claim to have done and said... After questioning, collecting of documents etc, we prepare and in court, we win the battle for the victiims A great game, highly recommended ! Don't miss it.

Very good and well done, just wished it was longer