Night Call Reviews
Great for a single play-through, but no incentive to replay.
Night Call is interesting in ways most games aren't. It's a game that humanizes people that usually get mockery. It's so good at this that it overshadows the serial killer stuff. It can lose its steam thanks to some repetitive gameplay, but its shorter length prevents it from dragging on. Its design choices will turn away action-oriented players, but it's a pleasant surprise if you want more compassion in your crime fiction.
As a concept, Night Call is fantastic; a narrative noir where you play as a cab driver on the dark streets of Paris is something that many people will want to pick up and give a try – and they definitely should. But I’m not sure how many people will be able to really stick with it and master it. As intriguing as its cases are, after you’ve played a few they all blend together, making it even harder to figure out what you’re meant to be doing. Give Night Call a try if you’re looking for a challenging narrative game about crime and investigation. But if you’re wanting an easy-going mystery, you won’t find it here.
Night Call is an intriguing ride through Paris full of intriguing tales and conversations. Too bad its detective elements aren't as compelling.
Still, the end result is a relaxing, intriguing and sleek murder mystery tale that's certainly worth enjoying once. It's not overly long if you play on normal, nor is it particularly replayable, but finding out who the killer is definitely scratches an investigative itch.
I think the game would've been better if it really was just about driving around Paris getting to know these people who are living out their everyday lives. The mystery-solving is half baked, and the fact that you can't carry the stories of your passengers forward into future cases just makes me wish the mystery wasn't there at all. I really did love the conversations I had with the game's diverse cast, but in the end I was just left frustrated that I wouldn't be able to see them through to their end without slogging through a lot of stuff I'd already seen.
Night Call tries to combine adventure and simulation genres to present something completely new, but it fails and the result is a dull game which usually forgets its main story. Still, it is possible to find some interesting moments in listening to passengers and their life story, but it comes with the price of standing poor gameplay and annoying bugs.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Fun narrative experience charms you with its mysterious atmosphere & characters with their conversations to figure out who's the killer, other than that you might get bored due to its gameplay elements & conversations repetitiveness.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
It's an interesting concept with nice stories, but execution is poor and game experience isn't as strong.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Night Call's focus on story-telling and engaging atmosphere pays off as the developers mix in wonderful music and top quality animations to create one of the most unique experiences in recent memory.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Games that hang their hats on their narratives more than "play" in a traditional sense are an interesting lot...
Night Call has few mechanics, but intriguing stories. In addition to the investigative premise itself, what really delights are the dozens of different people we deal with in Paris nights. These narratives are great and make the journey worthwhile. But, let's face it: for a game this is a big problem. Still, who wouldn't want to hear conversations in a taxi in a tense and mysterious world?
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
My biggest hope is that someone picks up this game and becomes just a bit more respectful and tolerant of people, or groups, that they may not have understood before. I honestly think that this is the kind of game that can do that. And who doesn’t want a world where discrimination is no more, right? I’d recommend this game to ANYONE who likes good storytelling, and compelling characters. It isn’t all doom-and-gloom either, there are a butt-load of fun, kooky, fantasy characters as well that are a blast to learn about (I’m looking at you robot-assistant and lady-from-the-future-where-the-world’s-population-has-been-ravaged-by-a-disease… SO TOPICAL AMIRITE?!) Anyway, as we should all know by now Raw Fury is amazing, they make amazing games happen. Night Call is no exception to the rule.
It is not often that I get excited about a game. Not that wrapped up, clock-watching excitement. Yet that is precisely what I felt from the moment I saw the trailer for Night Call. It had something about it that intrigued me. I had to play this game.
Night Call presents an incredible graphic adventure in each of its aspects. Each character you meet has a personality, a way of speaking and a deep story. Dialogues is its main mechanics, and they work very well, with multiple answer options and conversation delays. Being your objective to solve a case and find the culprit, this game makes you feel like a true investigator, while you subsist in your day to day with your taxi. For this, this game also has some simple but great time, money and gas management mechanics that enrich the experience.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Night Call is an original take on the narrative-driven investigation genre, playing almost like a visual novel with lots of choices. Also, no two playthroughs will be the same thanks to the abundance of passengers which you can interact with and the evidence you’ll collect to help you come to your final conclusion. Despite my issues with the case board (mainly revolving around how confusing, unintuitive, and not very user-friendly it is), I still thoroughly enjoyed talking to the passengers, learning more about the case, investigating the suspects, and coming to my own conclusions around who I think is the serial killer. This is a game which makes you think without giving you the answer on a plate – certainly a recommendation from me for the passenger interactions alone!
Night Call is a pure visual novel, although in principle it may seem like another kind of game. The conversations that we will have with our clients will be very familiar to us as they are topics that we see on a daily basis, very well narrated and almost taken from a good book of the detective genre. The big catch is that it is not translated into Spanish and has a rather complex English vocabulary, which makes it unsuitable for anyone as you can miss out on quite a few details.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
This one’s pretty niche. If you need action and accomplishment, give it a pass. If you like atmosphere, dialogue trees, and sometimes running into cats that tip well, you will enjoy.
Night Call's redeeming value is its noir atmosphere. But that game can really become repetitive after a while.
Review in Greek | Read full review
Night Call feels like solving a puzzle without having seen the picture on the packaging. It therefore works best when you drive through the wet streets of Paris, throw yourself into the conversations and just let the case come to you. It turns out to be a dark secret who the killer is after all. One thing's for sure: the killer himself is the least interesting narrative element in the game.
Review in German | Read full review