Case Files: Behind Closed Doors

This game was really fun. It was very cozy and straight-forward. It was pretty linear and that doesn't have to be a bad thing. It really was a good police detective mystery. There were over 2 dozen video clips to watch and the acting was excellent. There was some evidence to review and reports to mull over. Overall I really enjoyed it and hope they make more like this. Maybe add in a few more pieces of evidence. Maybe add a few more locations and let the player explore the rooms and collect photos and evidence. Tie in details within the photos to make it more relevant to the story. Lastly the couple of times we got stuck, some kind of gradual hint system would've been nice. Really hoping they make more like this!!

I liked the first game. But this one is actually much better! I love these games but I am also usually always wrong with my deductions. :p Not here, though. But not because it's too easy. It was just the right amount of "gut feeling" and evidence.
The actors and actresses were doing a great job and made it sound really believable.

It's like Her Story and Contradiction had a glorious baby. Very much enjoying it so far!

A fun mystery filled with plot points that keep you engaged with the story and great acting performances all the way. Will definitely recommend this one, just know that the story takes around three hours to complete, a bit more if you decide to check all the alternative scenes by making different decisions throughout the story.
Excited for more mysteries to solve with Detective Ruiz!

Love those FMV type of games,the Cold cases style is great. Acting is acceptable,but not great. My Only critic is there,Everyone seems SOOO cold even when they are facing evidence of them lying.It needed more emotional response from actor,but beside that,loved it very much.
Would buy again,no question asked.
#BringMeSomeMore

I wish I could give this game a neutral review. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. First of all, the actors (all of them,) were phenomenal. They were believable, showed the right amount of emotion at the right time, even sloppy, when the situation called for it. Plot spoilers ahead, but I will spoiler tag anyway- First of all, I feel like the writing could have been better. There were a massive amount of underutilized elements and items. One of the suspects was a debt collector and there were playing cards and alcohol found in the living room. The victim called a cab the night before he was killed.
There were both sleeping pills and alcohol found in his system. Now, I know that not all real cases use all of the evidence, but it felt like there was some grand conspiracy here that could have been woven, only to reveal the true killer at the end was happenstance. Also, I think it's an extremely stupid idea to think someone is dangerous and willingly choose to go into their house just to steal their gun. That part of the plot seemed deliberately stupid, but it could have been explained with the killer's naivete. TL:DR - Great game for 1 night, good building of tension, didn't release too much information at one time and well-paced. Overall, not worth the full price. Somewhat worth it for 50% off.

TLDR: A good detective game that promotes thinking through evidence at the cost of a huge lack of engaging gameplay mechanics.
PROS:
✅Good GUI presentation
✅Well done detective experience
CONS:
➖Not enough gameplay mechanics
➖Brute force method though puzzles
➖Some questionable acting
➖Some questions are based on simple belief without evidence
Content (Game world/Narrative/Length) –
Game World: Case Files: Behind Closed Doors (CFBCD) has a very simplistic game world, as the entirety of the game takes place in a single room at what I assume is a police station. Inside this room you conduct an investigation based on live-action scenes of actors portraying a group of 4 characters suspected of murder.
Narrative: The narrative revolves around solving the murder of Daniel. You have four suspects each with motives and opportunity to commit murder. You must sit through hours of interviews and read files to come to a conclusion of who you think committed the murder.
For the most part, CFBCD is a visual novel with strong detective undertones. While it is clear that the devs used a police correspondent to help plan the process/setup/evidence of the game, I have to wonder if there were time constraints that cut out certain parts of the investigation. For example, Daniel took a ride share home the night he was murdered and a part of the investigation was about if there were other people there with him during the murder. All of this questioning could have been avoided if they just interviewed the ride share driver.
Another problem with CFBCD is the metagaming aspect. There are numerous times during the questioning where you could make decisions based on the rules of the game being a game. For example, using the above scenario where one of the suspects said Daniel brought random people home with him and one of them could have murdered him, you can assume immediately this is incorrect because you only have a choice between these 4 characters and no one else.
Overall, I felt the narrative for CFBCD was good, but not great. Still, CFBCD has the setting and tools that makes it a unique detective game.
Length: This is a pretty short game, I beat it in slightly under 4 hours.
Gameplay (Mechanics/Difficulty) –
Mechanics: There are no meaningful mechanics to be found in CFBCD. Literally the entire gameplay consists of watching a live-action video that's between 4-10 minutes, then answering a question. You have about 15ish questions to answer using a combination of the footage you just watched, along with files like the police report and phone text history.
Difficulty: I would say some of the choices are actually fairly difficult. For transparency, I got 3 of the 6 character assessments correct. I think much of the difficulty comes from the choices being based on intangible evidence, meaning the game is literally asking you if you believe what they say while also not providing enough resources for you to ascertain their belief.
Of course, maybe I’m an idiot, but I poured over all the files I could think of and watched relevant clips and was still unable to determine if the characters were lying or not.
Graphics (Quality/Performance) –
Quality: Aside from most of the game being told through live-action clips, what remains is good. The room you're in is well done and detailed looking, but honestly that’s really it. There’s not a lot of interactivity other than the few things related directly to the gameplay.
More So than graphical fidelity, I have to give kudos to the UI - It reminds me of Deep Rock Galactic how much of the interactivity takes place on in-game monitor buttons. There is no HUD, all of the UI is seamlessly integrated with what you are able to interact with.
Performance: No issues with performance and I noticed no bugs.
i9-13900KF | RTX 4090 | 64GB RAM | 1440p @ 240hz | installed on SSD
Audio (Sound Effects/Music) –
Sound Effects: The vast majority of the sound effects are live-action, and done well enough. The actors tended to be either hit or miss. It just didn’t feel organic. How the discussions took place reminded me of a video game how only one person was allowed to ever talk at a time.
Music: I didn’t notice any music.
Replay Factor (Longevity) –
Not much since it's a mystery game and there is always a single culprit. There are missable achievements, but that’s it.
Final Verdict –
I would say that CFBCD is an okay visual novel. The detective and mystery aspects are top notch but you have to be okay with just sitting there watching FMVs. I would say of the almost 4 hours of my playtime, 2.5-3 hours was just sitting there watching clips. When the game asks you to use your brain, the choices you make shift between easily verifiable with evidence versus having to make a gut decision.
Despite these negative parts, I still think that CFBCD was a good experience and one that kept me entertained to the end.
Recommend?
Yes
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