Chinatown Detective Agency Reviews
Those small - or big, depending upon your personal view - irritations aside, there's a lot to enjoy about Chinatown Detective Agency, and the story's just about worth the ride. Personally, I'm a little tired of the penchant for retro pixel art, but if you can make your peace with the other lightweight or frustrating mechanics, Chinatown Detective Agency introduces you to a memorable cast and takes you to some striking places. What a crime it is, then, that such a promising premise doesn't quite do enough with them.
Chinatown Detective Agency is a solid hardboiled detective adventure with a unique DIY approach to clue-solving-but it's most impressive as a cultural artefact.
Nonetheless, it’s impossible not to be charmed by Chinatown Detective Agency. Mei Ting, in particular, is exuberant and spirited (she particularly enjoys the promise of cash), and the motley crew of characters who accompany you in your detective work is far from atypical, as you work together to unravel conspiracies and convoluted schemes. The treacherous plot at the heart of the game, too, will probably take repeated playthroughs to uncover, given the several routes and choices you can pick throughout the game. For all of Chinatown Detective Agency’s imperfections, this is still a case I’d gladly take on, over and over again. Of course, with a web browser and notebook in hand.
Though the occasional bug or out-of-place mechanic bogs down the experience, Chinatown Detective Agency delivers a fulfilling investigator fantasy with real-world sleuthing.
General Interactive deserve applause for their unique approach to detective work in adventure games, but the central mechanic in Chinatown Detective Agency feels like it deserves to be in a more substantial game.
Chinatown Detective Agency is a stylish cyberpunk detective game with a wonderful cast, and it has a cool real-world aspect to puzzle solving. But it does feel a bit like doing homework sometimes.
Chinatown Detective Agency is made in the image of classic adventure games and never aspires beyond that. Meeting it on its own terms, it’s an adequate cybernoir mystery with a compelling lead and colorful scenery. If you’re not into that already, this game probably won’t tickle your fancy very much.
Chinatown Detective Agency is sometimes a little too clever for its own good, but it's well written and charming with it. If you can overlook the issues with the save system, it's well worth a look.
But it’s that homework element that will make or break the game for you. If you have a truly open mind, and you want to look up the source of some weird quote, you will learn a lot, experience a well-realized world, and put away some fictional bad guys. You’ll get to see moody lighting, hear some catchy bleeps, and have the satisfaction of a mystery well solved. This is a genre without a lot of greats, and Chinatown Detective Agency comes pretty close.
Chinatown Detective Agency is a superbly told story with memorable characters and incredibly engaging gameplay. The unique noir-style take on Carmen Sandiego presents a strong, admirable protagonist that strives to be the hero even in the darkest of times, while provoking the question of what heroism really means. The game's case-cracking gives the player a true feeling of accomplishment and justice-served, with the added bonus of learning about interesting new topics. The game's greatness makes the fact it cannot be finished even more disappointing - without the large bugs, Chinatown would be a nearly flawless game. However, under the assumption the development team is able to make the necessary changes to the game, Chinatown Detective Agency has the potential to become a great modern point-and-click adventures.
Chinatown Detective Agency does some things right, but where it fails, it falls hard.
Chinatown Detective Agency is a disappointing miss, that, with just a little more time in the oven, could so easily have been a compelling hit.
Chinatown Detective Agency’s main draw, the real-world investigation, is a great idea that worked very well for the most part. It will be interesting to see if it can survive the internet’s aggressive SEO algorithm, but I still think it’ll be a fun time for any mystery game fan. Unfortunately, multiple bugs and glitches that should have been caught before launch ruined a lot of my experience, along with a truly annoying inability to save mid-mission. The good news is, the developers have already been very active in fixing many issues with the game, so the grievances I have with the game may very well be temporary.
Chinatown Detective Agency has unique and interesting gameplay which is hampered by bizarre design choices and numerous bugs. Updates are coming though, which should hopefully realise the game's potential.
Chinatown Detective Agency is a detective noir point and click adventure inspired by Carmen Sandiego. It involves real world sleuthing that will take you out of the world in order to solve puzzles. It has great art and character designs. It also has good voice acting during most major cutscenes.
Chinatown Detective Agency is an engaging point-and-click adventure with gorgeous art direction that falls just a bit short.
I played CDA so you didn’t have to. Well, actually, I played CDA because I thought it would be great but it turned out to be one of the most disappointing things I’ve ever played. I have no interest in booting up a second and third playthrough to trudge through the mire of the other storylines and don’t recommend you trudge through even one of them. Play something else.
Chinatown Detective Agency is a high-quality game in the Adventure/RPG genre, and it's unlikely that we'll see a better game in this genre for a long time, especially on consoles.
Review in Persian | Read full review
It is a game that is completely unafraid of letting you make mistakes and wasting your time and money, and this ties flawlessly into its well thought out setting and very memorable characters who will regard Amira with the results of your effort. The pixel art that makes up environments is gorgeous and expressive, with the nighttime streets of Singapore being my personal favorite to just spend time looking at. While it is disappointing how common the minor UI and audio bugs are, this is nothing that can't be fixed with a few patches and does not take away from what is a mystery-solving experience that fans of this genre absolutely should not miss.
Chinatown Detective Agency is a title that anyone who loves taking on the role of a gumshoe in a futuristic, pixelated world will enjoy. With clues, ciphers, and other mysteries to solve, this title will make you use your brain and challenge you!