{"id":126145,"date":"2022-06-30T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-133510"},"modified":"2022-06-30T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:00:00","slug":"review-gamedec-a-gripping-gritty-cyberpunk-detective-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/06\/30\/review-gamedec-a-gripping-gritty-cyberpunk-detective-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Gamedec – A Gripping, Gritty Cyberpunk Detective Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Gamedec<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s interesting to consider how the role-playing genre has grown over the years, changing expectations around what somebody can expect from one. These days, an RPG usually consists of a relatively big fantasy or sci-fi world, a deep narrative, and a combat system heavily dependent on various numerical values. Gamedec<\/a>\u2014a new release from Polish developer Anshar Studios\u2014more or less hits those first two specifiers, but there\u2019s no combat or stat points to speak of here. For some, this lack of focus on gameplay may come across as a drawback, but we\u2019d encourage you to try it anyway. There\u2019s a fascinating world to participate in here if you have the right mindset.<\/p>\n

Gamedec places you in the role of the eponymous Gamedec\u2014a \u2018game detective\u2019\u2014who works various cases tracking down missing persons, solving murders, etc. These cases are all based on the work of Marcin Przyby\u0142ek, a Polish author who wrote a five-part collection of original short stories set in a technologically advanced universe. Each case has you jumping between Realium (the real world) and various digital games\u2014like a cute take on Harvest Moon<\/a>\u2014using a special chair that sends a person\u2019s mind into the game.<\/p>\n

\"Gamedec<\/figure>\n

Though character development is kept to a minimum, it\u2019s quite enjoyable to immerse yourself in the nuances of each story and take in the various larger-than-life personalities you come across. Beyond this, each case has plenty of interesting twists and turns as you get deeper into the investigation and start shaking the wrong trees. All this is wrapped up in a player-driven narrative\u2014the choices you make in your investigation influence its outcome, and there isn\u2019t really any way to \u2018lose\u2019, even if you consistently fail to put all the important pieces together.<\/p>\n

Those of you who enjoy short story anthologies (much like the source material this is based on) will find plenty to love here, then. Though a grander, overarching plot eventually comes into focus, each little narrative tackles fascinating topics like transhumanism in simple ways that leave each subplot feeling like it had something worthwhile to contribute to the experience as a whole. In a world where the lines between the real and the virtual are so blurred, there\u2019s a lot of room for telling interesting tales; Gamedec does a great job of fully taking advantage of its premise. It\u2019s nothing revolutionary, and there isn\u2019t anything here that\u2019ll really blow you away, but we found ourselves enchanted by many of these stories.<\/p>\n

\"Gamedec<\/figure>\n

One minor issue that we noticed here and there, is that sometimes it feels like the script hasn\u2019t been written with player-driven choices in mind. Perhaps an NPC responds with a statement that clearly wasn\u2019t meant for what your character just said, or maybe they talk of a character or event that you haven\u2019t discovered yet as if you have. Narrative logic hiccups like this don\u2019t necessarily ruin the experience, but they do occasionally take you out of it\u2014the script feels like it could use some tightening.<\/p>\n

Gameplay can be most likened to classic point-and-click adventure games<\/a>, as each case revolves around you talking to NPCs, examining the environment, and slowly building a list of clues and important insights that you then use to deduce what happened. Each case is broken up into a handful of segments where you\u2019re attempting to answer a central question, and there are usually a few potential answers you can choose from for each question. You can guess the answer at any point, but it\u2019s advisable that you take your time to collect as much information as possible to make an informed decision, as you can\u2019t take back your deduction once you\u2019ve locked it in\u2014the story then advances and goes to the next segment of the case.<\/p>\n

\"Gamedec<\/figure>\n

Within each part of a case, a lot of your success will depend on how effectively you can navigate a conversation to get the information you want out of witnesses. Not everyone likes the gamedec or is willing to be forthcoming about what they know, and this tension is represented in some conversations by a simple bar that fills up depending on the questions you ask and the answers you give to their<\/em> questions. If the person likes you enough, the bar will fill up one way and you may unlock a key piece of information or be given an easy way into a location you were attempting to infiltrate.<\/p>\n

We appreciated this slight focus on performance in interrogations, as it forces you to be mindful of how you\u2019re engaging with each NPC as you put yourself in their shoes and give them the answers they want to hear. More importantly, it gives conversations actual stakes when you aren\u2019t just brute forcing the dialogue trees\u2014it\u2019s very possible to say the wrong<\/em> thing and have that person permanently closed off to you. This may mean you\u2019ll be out any potential clues or insights they may have offered, and though you can still make your deduction without them, you never know what information may have influenced your decision.<\/p>\n

To help give you a slight sense of progression and to boost your odds of successfully extracting information, there\u2019s a whole \u2018job\u2019 system that works to expand your character\u2019s repertoire. Your character can be things like an influencer, a hacker, or a thief, and each one corresponds with exclusive dialogue choices in conversations that help you coast through easier. For example, you can either go through a long conversation with someone to hopefully convince them to give you the code for a safe, or you can use the \u201cSleeves\u201d (Thief) dialogue option on the safe to just break into it yourself.<\/p>\n

\"Gamedec<\/figure>\n

The jobs are all connected to each other via a tree and you unlock new ones by spending color-coded personality points that you earn in conversation. A forceful response to a neutral question, for example, will probably net you a red point, while a more wholesome one bags you a green point. Each job costs a certain amount of points to unlock, but the flip side is that the jobs are additive. You could feasibly unlock the whole tree if you\u2019re strategic in how you harvest points\u2014thus benefitting from all<\/em> the dialogue options that would grant you\u2014but in most cases you\u2019ll have to be a little more discerning as it\u2019s rather difficult to consistently predict which points you can net from dialogue choices.<\/p>\n

We appreciated this light take on a class system, as it imbues Gamedec with replayability for future runs while also giving you something to work towards beyond just chasing yet another examination or interrogation. Plus, the variety offered by the additional dialogue options helps to make conversations simply more interesting, as your character is usually stepping into a slightly different persona when they assume the role of a specific job.<\/p>\n

We do think it needs to be said that Gamedec isn\u2019t a \u2018fun\u2019 game in the same way that many other games are. From a raw, moment-to-moment gameplay perspective, you\u2019re basically just reading lengthy walls of text and then walking a few steps over to read more lengthy walls of text related to something else. Approaching this with the same mindset as one may a visual novel<\/a> is recommended, then; the stories themselves are compelling enough to be worth the effort, but just be aware that there\u2019s not much actual \u2018playing\u2019 taking place here. In many ways, it\u2019s more akin to a choose your own adventure novel than a standard RPG.<\/p>\n

\"Gamedec<\/figure>\n

Regarding presentation, we\u2019re happy to report that Gamedec does a great job of conveying the high-tech, low-life themes that are so central to the cyberpunk genre. Models may be simplistic and textures are relatively low-res, but each scene is meticulously detailed. Whether you\u2019re sifting through the bright apartment of a CEO in High City or scouring the grimy streets of a BDSM MMO, each environment nails its aesthetic and does a great job of immersing you in your character\u2019s struggles. We did unfortunately notice some graphical bugs here and there, such as models in the environment occasionally popping in and out of existence. Nothing game-breaking, but we would have appreciated a little more polish.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Gamedec is the kind of game that calls back to a much simpler kind of RPG. You won\u2019t find any creative combat systems or instances of killing god with the power of friendship here \u2014 this is much more akin to a point-and-click adventure game with loads of dialogue to get through. If you have a particular love of science fiction or cyberpunk in literary form, you\u2019ll find plenty to enjoy here; if you\u2019re into RPGs for crunching lots of numbers and fighting cool foes, you won\u2019t find much. If you think Gamedec sounds like your kind of thing, we\u2019d definitely suggest giving it a try. Aside from occasional graphical glitches and dialogue non sequiturs, Gamedec does a great job of achieving what it sets out to do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s interesting to consider how the role-playing genre has grown over the years, changing expectations around what somebody can expect from one. These days, an RPG usually consists of a relatively big fantasy or sci-fi world, a deep narrative, and a combat system heavily dependent on various numerical values. Gamedec\u2014a new release from Polish developer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}