Scene Investigators Review

With thanks to the folks at EQ Studios we’ve been looking through their crime investigation sim, Scene Investigators. As always here at PB we’re looking to answer your burning questions; Is Scene Investigators safe for kids and, ultimately, is it worth buying.

We’ve got our full video review just below or you can keep reading here for our extended written review. Both should (hopefully) tell you what you need to know, but get in touch if you do have any questions.

The Basics – What is Scene Investigators About?

Available on: PC (Steam)
Price: £20.99
Type: CSI Puzzle Sim
Download: 28.4GB

Scene Investigators sees players fill the shoes of a trainee looking to become a licensed investigator. The team at EQ Studios have looked to provide a challenging detective reasoning experience, which requires players to make connections between otherwise innocuous pieces of evidence.

To do this, you’ll navigate each area, looking for paperwork, diaries, notes and other vital clues. Importantly, the title stresses that not everything you can pick up is important, and equally, not everything you can’t pick up is unimportant. This means that while you may not be able to interact with an object, its position or other marks (such as lipstick stains) may help you narrow down your suspects.

Scene Investigators really does not hold your hand, and players are left to their own devices to find evidence in each scene. Players will have a number of questions which they need to answer for each scenario. To find the answers, EQ Studios have provided around 70% of the evidence to make your way there. The main challenge is for players to fill that remaining 30% with logical assumptions and deductive reasoning.

The title does lack things which players might expect within a crime investigation sim. We’re unable to take fingerprints to confirm ID, or look at things such as blood swabs, trace evidence or police databases to make links. In one case, for example, you’ll need to use reasoning and assumption to gauge whether a drink has been poisoned, rather than sampling and confirming this in the lab.

We are provided with a camera to log photos, as well as a notebook, but it does feel painfully limiting. There are numerous locked doors, and we are unable to open the vast majority of drawers and cupboards to perform our investigation. Unfortunately, the systems we do have just don’t work intuitively to note down assumptions or progress, something which other titles would do automatically.

With a fairly large 30% assumptions required to fill missing gaps, any detail could be relevant. School leaflets, lipstick stains and personal diaries will all help players to build their notes, and you’ll need to look carefully at interactable objects as well as scene decorations..

Is Scene Investigators Safe for Children?

Rating: Caution Advised.

Scene investigators is not currently rated by the ESRB or PEGI. While there is no live violence or danger, Scene Investigators obviously comes with blood, violence and some distressing themes. This includes sexual assault as well as child sex trafficking which may be disturbing for adults as well as unsuitable for children.

It’s also incredibly complex and one which is likely to go over the heads of younger players. With the grizzly nature of crime scenes, it’s one which were saying deserves notable caution before handing it on to any players under the age of 15 or so.

Is Scene Investigators Accessible?

Rating: Intense

This one does rely on close observation, without highlights or handholding of any sort. It does offer subtitles, and the opportunity to remap controls, but this is a little fiddly and hasn’t quite worked as intended for us.

Rotation of objects can also often be frustrating and take some time to get right. It does provide a read function which allows players to make more sense of the handwritten or hard to read notes, but that’s about it.

The Run Down – Our Five-Point Rating for Scene Investigators

Gameplay – 3: We were hoping for much more police-style investigatory work here, but most of the title is simply reading through documents and observing items within each location. There is no fingerprinting function, or the ability to look up information using police databases.

In addition, some questions (identifying victims by having to piece together who was in the house, rather than using ID or who was sitting in a certain chair) seem a little nonsensical and more aligned with a simple puzzle title, rather than crime solving itself. Overall, the 30% assumption requirement is certainly challenging players to think, but it definitely makes it less fun as a game.

Visuals – 3: some visuals here are fairly decent when you get close up, but things do feel a little dated, especially with jerky visuals in scenario introduction scenes. Up close and personal with interactable items, things look decent, but in the wider sense it could do with a bit of a polish. There are also visual bigs, such as items becoming stuck in inspection mode, and having to quit and restart your save in order to continue

Audio – 4: The soundtrack is fairly decent here, and considering the amount of time you’ll spend in each scene it manages not to get too repetitive. There is also voice acting, which is a nice if infrequent addition.

Narrative – 4: While the first test scenario provides background information on the crime, other scenes provide no detail on why we are here, or known current situations. In addition, after completing a scenario, there is no further detail provided on how situations played out, or what potential impact would be. However there is a narrative string through each scene, if players put two and two together, so there is a little to get invested in.

Replay – 2: With each scene being built as a bespoke investigation there’s not much reason to come back when you’ve completed the title. Players will get scores for each scenario, and it is possible to pass without completing the title to 100%. Getting your rank up provides a slight incentive for players, but it’s not a great deal to draw you back in.

The Verdict – Is Scene Investigators Worth It?

Pixel Bandits Horatio Craine Level for Scene Investigators is an average 6 / 10. While the title does hit what the studio intended, it doesn’t (for us) translate well into a game experience. When compared to other titles such as Shadows of Doubt or earlier CSI titles, it feels quite bare. The significant number of locked doors and unavailable drawers really reduce the immersion as a scene investigator.

Missing features such as the ability to log evidence, take fingerprints, swab surfaces or test substances really make the title feel more like an insurance investigation sim, rather than a crime investigation title.

There are bright spots here, though. While the title revolves mostly around paperwork, making connections and cracking the case definitely feels rewarding. We love that it doesn’t hold your hand, and that player will have to piece together information they find. Unfortunately compared to the amount of time spent trudging through notes, the satisfaction of making a connection is soon pushed into the background.

Ultimately, the requirement for roughly 30% of what we do benign an assumption is just a little too much. This is heightened by some of the required exam questions feeling completely out of place. Where people were located on an unrelated date, who was sitting in a certain location (one not relating to the victim, obviously) just seems nonsensical and again really takes us out of the immersive crime solving experience we were expecting.

Scene Investigators does challenge players, but while there are highlights this is probably one to wait for a sale for. If you’re after a walking sim with associated paperwork then it’s definitely one which you may enjoy, but if you are looking for a crime scene investigation sim, look elsewhere.

As ever, to provide this review and common-sense parent’s guide, we received a free copy of Scene Investigators from the folks at EQ Studios.