Game Reviews

Another Case Solved

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iOS
| Another Case Solved
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Another Case Solved
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iOS
| Another Case Solved

The job of a private eye is one of puzzle-solving. The playing pieces might be people, motives, and locations, but they all need slotting together in a logical fashion.

Another Case Solved goes one step further by asking you to solve a series of cases by solving abstract puzzles.

First clue

At the outset of the game, you find yourself in a kind of alternate-reality prohibition-era America. Instead of booze, the naughty stuff here is sugary treats.

It's all played for laughs, of course. But the tongue-in-cheek setup, accompanied by its 2D cartoon art style, might have you expecting some kind of unified point-and-click adventure.

What you actually get is a series of extremely casual puzzle mini-games, all loosely bound together with the language of a private eye: evidence, clues, and witnesses.

Following a lead

The main way to solve cases is through a basic match-three puzzler. You must link multiple adjacent icons according to what's required for the case, but in a strictly limited number of moves.

As a little gauge shows your customisable sleuth walking between witnesses, you might need to connect ten walking symbols, or 15 magnifying glasses, in order to meet the requirements for progression.

The clues you gather here contribute towards the next phase, which might be a stripped-back game of Guess Who, or a map game that requires a similarly straightforward process of elimination based on spoon-fed clues.

Trail gone cold

None of these mini-games is particularly enthralling. Worse still, the numerous ins and outs of these tasks, and the somewhat forced way in which they link together, means that the whole game comes across as a little convoluted.

It appears to be an attempt to inject the illusion of depth and of investigative endeavour into what actually amounts to an incredibly shallow game.

This is well-illustrated in the way you often have to rely on various types of tools to complete the main puzzle stages. These drastically change the grid in your favour, by reshuffling the pack or completely swapping it out for a new one.

These tools need to be bought with the game's currency - which is readily earned - but it just shows up the lack of nuance in the gameplay. Especially when a complete grid replacement provides you with precisely what you need, as often seems to be the case.

Another Case Solved is pleasant enough to play and well-presented, but it seems to be doing a lot of legwork without putting forward a convincing case.

Another Case Solved

A convoluted selection of puzzle mini-games with lots of surface variety, but not a lot of substance beneath
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.