It fell pretty flat for me. The quality of the mysteries was never particularly high thanks to a combination of (1) the answers being painfully obvious and (2) relying on some extremely contrived and/or stupid actions to make them possible. The first case was probably the best in the game and even that wasn't especially good by the standards of other mystery games I've played.
Meanwhile the actual process of solving those mysteries really didn't add much. The strategy-esque segments were novel at first, but they didn't really contribute towards the mysteries themselves. All were pretty trivial to beat and only got easier as the game progressed. And the short length of each segment effectively means you're getting all of the relevant information about the case in the span of just a few minutes, further contributing to how easy the case it to solve.
The only real benefit to the strategy investigations is their aforementioned brevity. Rather than something like Ace Attorney or Danganronpa where investigating the crime is a huge part of the playtime, the short investigations let the game keep the pace moving at a very fast speed. The entire game only took me about 16 hours to complete. Cutting out the earliest portions (which are just introductions to the characters and setting) and the end (which is just summarizing all the earlier info to find the mastermind) there's only about 2 hours in between each murder. Which, as mentioned already, does severely limit their complexity but lets the game compensate for the lack of depth with quick pacing that helps keep the game refreshing.
The characters are a very mixed bag. There are a few pretty good ones, but the bulk of the cast are so one-note they make Danganronpa characters look deep by comparison. And while even the bad ones had their place, my interest in the characters was definitely propped up by a select few rather than the dynamics of the cast as a whole.
Really, Process of Elimination would suck if it were any longer. Very few things about it are particularly good and I doubt it will stick around in my mind for very long. But it escapes a lot of my ire by virtue of its brevity. The mysteries may not be great, but they're quick and simple. The characters might not be great, but they're easy to figure out and somewhat engaging to see. And while an extended length may have been able to fix these problems somewhat, what we have now is a game that feels more like a bite-sized mystery game. It might not be especially satisfying, but its easy to digest and offers enough to substance to keep your hunger for similar games at bay for a while.
I don't think I can recommend this game overall. But if you really are inclined to play it, I would suggest treating it more as a way to kill a weekend without needing to think about things too hard. It can probably fill that role well enough.
Meanwhile the actual process of solving those mysteries really didn't add much. The strategy-esque segments were novel at first, but they didn't really contribute towards the mysteries themselves. All were pretty trivial to beat and only got easier as the game progressed. And the short length of each segment effectively means you're getting all of the relevant information about the case in the span of just a few minutes, further contributing to how easy the case it to solve.
The only real benefit to the strategy investigations is their aforementioned brevity. Rather than something like Ace Attorney or Danganronpa where investigating the crime is a huge part of the playtime, the short investigations let the game keep the pace moving at a very fast speed. The entire game only took me about 16 hours to complete. Cutting out the earliest portions (which are just introductions to the characters and setting) and the end (which is just summarizing all the earlier info to find the mastermind) there's only about 2 hours in between each murder. Which, as mentioned already, does severely limit their complexity but lets the game compensate for the lack of depth with quick pacing that helps keep the game refreshing.
The characters are a very mixed bag. There are a few pretty good ones, but the bulk of the cast are so one-note they make Danganronpa characters look deep by comparison. And while even the bad ones had their place, my interest in the characters was definitely propped up by a select few rather than the dynamics of the cast as a whole.
Really, Process of Elimination would suck if it were any longer. Very few things about it are particularly good and I doubt it will stick around in my mind for very long. But it escapes a lot of my ire by virtue of its brevity. The mysteries may not be great, but they're quick and simple. The characters might not be great, but they're easy to figure out and somewhat engaging to see. And while an extended length may have been able to fix these problems somewhat, what we have now is a game that feels more like a bite-sized mystery game. It might not be especially satisfying, but its easy to digest and offers enough to substance to keep your hunger for similar games at bay for a while.
I don't think I can recommend this game overall. But if you really are inclined to play it, I would suggest treating it more as a way to kill a weekend without needing to think about things too hard. It can probably fill that role well enough.