Unsolved Crimes (DS)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.0 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Carolyn Petit
• Reviewed on: 10/15/2008
• Released on: 09/30/2008
• Originally published on GameSpot: Unsolved Crimes (DS) Review

Of all the real-world careers around which to build an adventure game, none seems more logical than that of a police detective. Rational, engaging puzzles are crucial to any enjoyable adventure, so the act of piecing together clues and solving crimes ought to be a perfect fit for the genre. Yet while many have tried, scant few games have managed to take the concept of detective work and turn it into something compelling. Unsolved Crimes for the DS is the latest such attempt, and while it's a competent effort, most gumshoes will wish that these criminal webs were a little more challenging to untangle.

It's 1976, and you're a rookie detective with the NYPD's homicide division. Unsolved Crimes models itself after cop shows of the era, establishing its style nicely with a cool title sequence that makes use of appropriately dated video footage of the Big Apple and some quintessentially '70s theme music. As the unnamed, unseen detective, you're partnered up with the young but experienced Marcy Blake, working cases with her and following orders from the gruff but likable Captain Abbot. The murders you investigate range from neat and tidy poisonings to truly grisly axe murders. Your investigations also take you to a good variety of crime scenes, including a small suburban home, a city park, and a fleabag motel.

Each case starts with a briefing in which Abbot fills you in on the known details of the murder. Then, he sends you and Marcy off to the crime scene to get to the bottom of things. You're given a few pieces of preliminary evidence, as well as a list of suspects and snippets of testimony concerning their alibis or important details they may have witnessed. As you examine the crime scene--viewing it from a first-person perspective and tapping on details that you want to examine--you'll discover things that let you slowly deduce the facts behind the murder. The cases themselves are quite engaging. Just slowly piecing things together to reveal the bigger picture--who did it, how, and why--is rewarding for anyone who enjoys a mystery. But the game doesn't make the most of the material with which it has to work. Although the cases get increasingly complex as you progress, the gameplay doesn't.

More often than not, you deduce the facts of the crime by answering simple multiple-choice questions. After coming across a particular detail at the crime scene or in your evidence collection, Marcy asks you to point out an inconsistency in someone's testimony, for instance, or identify the way evidence supports a certain theory of how the murder was committed. Then, you're presented with four possible answers. Being observant and attentive to the particulars of the case is helpful, but frequently, even if you haven't been paying much attention, it's easy to eliminate one or two of the choices because they're just plain goofy. If you guess incorrectly one too many times, you'll be unceremoniously kicked off the force, but this doesn't matter much. You can always pick up again from that point, so it's entirely possible to just fumble your way through much of an investigation. The game's take on detective work is a lot less engaging than it might have been because of the simplicity of this gameplay contrivance.

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