This review contains spoilers
Jenny LeClue is an experienced kid detective, she solves kid like cases but wants something more like a real detective. Her mum is a college professor that teaches forensics and what-not, so she certainly has the training. Well at least she thinks she does.
But Arthurton is a perfect little sleepy town where nothing interesting really happens.
So when she goes looking for her mother in the college library and instead finds the Dean dead holding her ID pass, then things get a little interesting for our pint sized hero... is she going to get in over her head trying to clear her mum's name?
The game works like a cross between Oxenfree, Night in the Woods and one of the more recent Poirot games. You're navigating a 2.5d world and are able to run and jump (when the game allows it) and interact with some objects. Often the game will flip into investigation mode where you have to find important clues on a body or area. You'll then link these together to make a deduction and only by getting the correct deduction will you be able to move on.
There are puzzles as well, but given that the game points out objects you can interact with when you walk near them, most don't require to much to solve... often you can brute force through them. Some puzzles which involve switches and buttons and so on can require a bit more logic, but you're not going to be overextended here.
There's certainly more going on in the story than you'd expect at first glance and.... erm.. ok, spoilers maybe?
So it's revealed fairly early on that you're actually playing as the writer of the Jenny LeClue novels rather than as Jenny herself. This is book 34 or something and they're not selling as well as they used to, so the publisher wants a tone shift to make the books darker. But the author is fairly resistant.
This framing devices helps make the corny nature of the game a little bit easier to swallow and allows the narration to take the authors view of how things should be happening while Jenny has a different view of proceedings at times (sort of like The Stanley Parable).
The game leans heavily into an X-Files style conspiracy and that certainly helped the story be more than a child detective attempts to solve a murder.
The graphics are delightful... though there's a large section spent in caves which are less delightful and there's a nice sense of humour here. And the voice acting is very good throughout.
But the game gives you a big choice to make as the author and then rather than explain what the impact of that choice is says "to be continued".
Which I guess I'd be fine with if I knew this was episodic at the start, but I wanted resolution. And it kind of soured the experience. I mean yes, I'll probably play the part 2 when it comes out, but I'm a bit resentful about it.
But Arthurton is a perfect little sleepy town where nothing interesting really happens.
So when she goes looking for her mother in the college library and instead finds the Dean dead holding her ID pass, then things get a little interesting for our pint sized hero... is she going to get in over her head trying to clear her mum's name?
The game works like a cross between Oxenfree, Night in the Woods and one of the more recent Poirot games. You're navigating a 2.5d world and are able to run and jump (when the game allows it) and interact with some objects. Often the game will flip into investigation mode where you have to find important clues on a body or area. You'll then link these together to make a deduction and only by getting the correct deduction will you be able to move on.
There are puzzles as well, but given that the game points out objects you can interact with when you walk near them, most don't require to much to solve... often you can brute force through them. Some puzzles which involve switches and buttons and so on can require a bit more logic, but you're not going to be overextended here.
There's certainly more going on in the story than you'd expect at first glance and.... erm.. ok, spoilers maybe?
So it's revealed fairly early on that you're actually playing as the writer of the Jenny LeClue novels rather than as Jenny herself. This is book 34 or something and they're not selling as well as they used to, so the publisher wants a tone shift to make the books darker. But the author is fairly resistant.
This framing devices helps make the corny nature of the game a little bit easier to swallow and allows the narration to take the authors view of how things should be happening while Jenny has a different view of proceedings at times (sort of like The Stanley Parable).
The game leans heavily into an X-Files style conspiracy and that certainly helped the story be more than a child detective attempts to solve a murder.
The graphics are delightful... though there's a large section spent in caves which are less delightful and there's a nice sense of humour here. And the voice acting is very good throughout.
But the game gives you a big choice to make as the author and then rather than explain what the impact of that choice is says "to be continued".
Which I guess I'd be fine with if I knew this was episodic at the start, but I wanted resolution. And it kind of soured the experience. I mean yes, I'll probably play the part 2 when it comes out, but I'm a bit resentful about it.