Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and today I will be talking about a fantastic adventure
game I recently played called The Darkside Detective. It’s been awhile since I’ve done
an adventure game review and I must say, it felt good to sit down and play an adventure game in
the first place - even though I’ve evolved my channel a lot over the last few years,
I still have a great fondness for these and I am ecstatic to tell you about this one in particular.
It was developed by Spooky Doorway, a company name that really speaks to my heart, in 2017;
and honestly I cannot believe this game had been out for five years before I played it,
shame on me. In fact I was very pleased to see that the sequel had already been
released last year, so now I am extra excited to play that after I finish up this review.
A lot of people ask me for suggestions on a good starter adventure game, like
an easy entry into the genre, and to be honest,
that’s always a hard question for me because I don’t know what specifics people are looking for,
but I would say The Darkside Detective would be a good option. It’s an inventory object game,
and yes I did squee when I found out we have an inventory, where you play a Detective named
Frankie McQueen. McQueen is part of the Darkside Division in the city of Twin Lakes, which handles
cases in the Darkside, a parallel universe. With your doofy sidekick, Officer Dooley, you go
already solving cases that deal with the occult, the paranormal, GREMLINS - goddamn they are cute.
This is not a mystery game, at least not in terms of mechanics. To me, mystery games definitely have
you solve crimes in a more methodical way; as an example, in Contradiction you interrogate people,
collect clues, and then use your notes to figure out who is lying. Another good example comes from
LA Noir, which similarly relies on you collecting evidence and using it while you interrogate
people. The Darkside Detective does a fantastic job making you feel like you are doing detective
work, but I would still call it a classic adventure game in the comedy genre. Speaking of,
this game is hilarious. I think writing a comedy game is extremely hard and I don’t think there are
many that really fit that genre, aside from the majority of LucasArts games, maybe a few Sierra
titles as well, but there aren’t many that are just pure comedy, hitting every note with clever
dialogue trees. Let’s be honest, adventure games can be boring, and if your dialogue trees aren’t
entertaining, if you can’t write something that people won’t get fatigued from reading,
they are going to click through it. Even I do that when things get a little long winded,
it happens - but this game does a great job of making me want to read everything on the screen,
and click on everything that might have a description. It’s hard enough to write
descriptions at all without F. Scott Fitzgeralding it up by describing every part of the room you’re
in, let alone writing something funny. I was VERY impressed by the game’s sharp wit and
terse descriptions, making it easy to read while getting a chuckle. I think we’ve definitely seen
an interest in games like this in the last decade - it reminded me of Thimbleweed Park
and Unavowed as well, and trust me, that is a compliment because I also loved those titles.
It probably goes without saying but the art style is charming as well - very nostalgic looking
while still having modern animations, colorful, and just full of personality, even though the
majority of the characters don’t even have facial expressions. Adding to this is the music - it’s
gorgeous. If I had to compare it to something else, I’d say it has a similar tone to the music
in Gabriel Knight, Sins of the Father. Here’s a small sample from a track I really enjoyed.
There isn’t voice acting, which I was pleased with. I do like giving the characters their own
personalities and voices, and speaking off, I’ll give you a sneak peak at my
incredible voice acting talents. It’s very special, and I think you’re gonna love it.
“An… invisible person…”
“Welcome Sir, it’s our - that is to say, me and I’s - pleasure to welcome you to COSTUME shop.”
“So that is the name. Your broken sign wasn’t very clear.”
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, my old fella said. And if it IS broken,
maybe don’t fix it anyway, he’d add. Very practical man, he was.”
Thank you, thank you. And now I will voice a couple of nerds. Ahem.
“We’re one-hundred percent of Twin Lakes’ Cryptozoology club.”
“We’re always on the hunt for lake monsters, sewer gators, krakens and, around winter, yetis.
“People don’t know this, but there’s a lot of strange things happening in Twin Lakes.”
Thank you, thank you, I am very hireable for your next adventure game.
The most novel thing about this game is it is such a love letter to all things related to
mystery and sci fi - it takes some pretty obvious notes from Twin Peaks - including our coffee
loving protagonist who looks like Dale Cooper, the homage in the town’s name, Twin Lakes, and just…
SO MUCH more. There’s also references to The X-Files, to other classic adventure games,
to famous authors of fantasy and sci fi. I went through an entire case that reminded me of The
Ghostbusters. I can’t even really sit here and name every reference and I assume you wouldn’t
want me to, because it’s always so pleasant to find them on your own. It’s not too blatant
either - it’s just familiar. Well, I mean… maybe this is a little overt. I hate this hacker crap!
The puzzles are on the easy side, I didn’t get stuck during my playthrough, but even though
they aren’t the most challenging puzzles I’ve ever seen, they are still satisfying to solve.
Some people might find them too simple, but this really is meant to be a more laid back experience;
I don’t subscribe to the idea that every adventure game has to have similar levels of difficulty,
and there are going to be people new to the genre who might not find this game as easy as
someone who grew up with say, Sierra games. Personally, I liked the puzzles just fine,
they felt organic and made sense to the settings and the story, and that matters more to me than
difficulty. But look… look. I’m going to need to dock points for the slider puzzle
and the lights out puzzle. I have at LEAST a dozen people who signed my “stop putting
slider puzzles” in adventure games petition and goddamnit we’re gonna make it happen.
The game actually starts out off pretty easy; the first case is called Malice in Wonderland, and
yes all of the cases are puns, and your mission is to find a little girl who went missing. It’s
definitely the shortest case but it’s a lovely introduction that teaches you how to play and who
the characters are. It hooked me immediately. And when I finished the game, BONUS content popped up.
I finished the game in about 4 hours before I played the extra cases, I am anticipating a 6
and a half hour run based on that. Honestly, I’m not sure I have any nitpicks. Not that I
have to have any, gushing about something until I bore people to death is a pastime of mine,
but I did expect to have at least one simple criticism. It doesn’t have my beloved save slots,
which I ALWAYS want in a game, but I suppose I can forgive it since you can replay the cases
separately once you finish them. I just really love having a million save slots that I never use;
I get attached to old game mechanics and I don’t like it when things change. We fear change.
I 100% recommend this game to anyone, but those who like things like Twin Peaks, the X-Files,
and Classic Adventure games will especially appreciate it. It’s great for an evening with a
damn fine cup of coffee and a slice of cherry pie. I hope you enjoyed my review and if you played it
or plan on playing it, let me know what you think in the comments. Until next time, happy sleuthing…
Hey everyone, thanks for watching my video about The Darkside Detective, I can’t wait
to play the sequel. If you want more gaming content from me, I have PLENTY on this channel,
but first I want to give a big shout out to my patrons, who enable my coffee addiction
by funding it every month. Thanks! If you want to support me and my channel,
please consider joining, and if not, comments help my self esteem. Especially good ones.
If you wanna see more from me, I have a few recommendations! On the left I have a
review of another indie adventure game called Jenny LeClue, a title I also greatly enjoyed,
and on the right I have a video from my flagship series called That Time on Murder,
She Wrote. If you wana watch Angela Lansbury chew the scenary,
I got you covered. Thanks again and as always, I will see you in the next one.