This is both A Quick Look at Inspector Waffles (Goloso Games) and a rant about point-and-clicks in general.
A brief history: Eons ago, I thought I would really like point-and-clicks. Why? Because I like detective/murder stories/mysteries. I tried a bunch of the Wadjet Eye Games (Lauren Blackwell series), and my god, were they an exercise in frustration. So much pixel hunting. So much nonsensical “logic”. I had to make connections that made no sense in my mind, and within minutes, I was poring over a walkthrough to see whatI needed to do.
I am not gonig to mince words. I had way too high expectations for the games, and I hated every one I played. I don’t think I’ve finished any of them. Not the classic ones and not any of the newer ones. In fact, one of the ‘newer’ ones I tried was Unavowed, also by Wadjet Eye Games. I was unbelievably excited about it because it looked amazing, and it seemed like it had an interesting story. Unfortunately, it had the same nonsense as the earlier games, and I didn’t finish it.
Another was Kathy Rain: A Detective is Born (Clifftop Games). It was set in the ’90s with a motorcycle-riding, cigarette-smoking, hard-bitten female protagonist (the titular Kathy Rain). And even though I had to use a walkthrough to do several of the puzzles, I was really engaged with the story. I actually finished this one, and I was so let down by the third act.
I’m not going to reveal what happneed, but I could not have been more disappointed. The devs carefully built up a taut mystery with several strong characters, only to cop out in the end. I finished the game, really wishing they had gone done a different path. I remember hoping that they would do better in their second game. However, sadly, even though they had planned on doing a trilogy, they stopped with one game because it did not do well at all.
This is all backstory for my A Quick Look at this game. I didn’t realize it was a point-and-click. I bought it ages ago on sale because it had a cat as a detective. That was it–the whole reason.
As is my wont, I forgot about it for years. Now, I’m on an animal detective kick, and I decided to try this one out. It has that crunchy pixel look (meaning you can’t really tell what anything is because they are too blocky to discern). It’s fine. It’s not my preferred graphic style, but it’s not unpleasing to my eyes, either.
The game immediately irritated me, though. Why? Because the systems to interact with things and talk with other characters are clunky. I was looking for the controls, but could not find any. My heart sank when I realized that it was a point-and-click. And that you have to go through the same dialogue every time you want to talk to a character. What I mean is that if you want to ask a suspect about an item, you have to go through the tree in which that item would fit first. I could not figure it out until I looked it up, messed around, and something clicked in my brain.
Let’s say I want to talk to Millie about a love letter found in the house of the murdered cat. I can’t just show her the love letter. I have to choose the category, “Love affair?” and then click on the letter. If I then go out of that system and want to ask her something else within that category, I have to click on ‘Love affair?” again and suffer through whatever dialogue was first said.
There is a hint system, but it’s laborious as well. I have to call my mom (who had been a famous detective in her time) and then listen to her blather at me for several lines before finally, painfully, she will give me a vague hint.
Do not waste my time. I know this is part of the genre, but it’s one that needs to be updated. If you’re making me listen to the same inane dialgogue time and time again, I’m not going to be pleased. Let. Me. Fucking. Skip the dialogue after I’ve heard it once. This is my plea for all genres–don’t make me have to sit through the dialogue more than once. Especially when it’s meaningless.
It’s funny. The Duck Detecive games have a similar feel to them. Hard-bitten addicted detective who is so weary and done with life. Broke, battered, and down on his luck. And yet, I’m struggling to feel engaged with this game whereas I was immedately charmed by the Duck Detective. I wouldn’t say that the only reason is because they’re different genres, but it certainly helped.
I have to add that there was a bit of pixel hunting in The Duck Detective games that I didn’t like, but it was very brief and very minor.
To be fair, there is not intense pixel hunting in this game–yet. I am only in chapter two, but I am already sighing heavily in frustration. I have looked up a walkthrough several times beacuse I am not willing to fumble around for the convoluted solutions to weird puzzles. I just am not. I’ll give you one example. I needed cinnamon. How did I get it? I had to find a pickle on the floor in a building and pick it up. I had to bring it down to the hot dog vendor, to whom I had already talked extensively, and then listen to him bemoan about how he needed a special ingredient for his special dog.
By the way, I doubt I would even get this dialogue if I hadn’t talked to him already and hadn’t gotten the pickle. Or I would have, but I would have to go find the pickle. I have to say, this isn’t even the most ridiculous quest I had to do, but I wanted to present it because it would have been so easy to miss any of the steps that led me here.
And why did I need the cinnamon? So I could make a cinammon coffee. In order to get the ability to do that, I had to trade an antique dealer something she could sell. What was that? I had a love letter in my possession. It was a recent one, though, so I had to make it look old. How did I do that? I had to dip it in coffee and then ask a resident in an apartment (long story) to use her hair dryer to dry it.
What? I mean. Ugh. I have to say that I did figure out the coffee part, but I could not figure out the how to dry it part. Yes, I looked it up, and I felt no remorse in dongi so.
I think this is about as well done as a game in this genre can be, but I’m not feeling it. I doubt I’ll finish the game, but I may give it another hour or so. Or not. I feel like I’m lightly banging my head against the table the entire time I’m playing. There is a charm to it, but that is quickly outweighed by all the trappings of the genre. I’ll report back if I continue to play it.