Card Detective

• DEVELOPER: MuccyGames
• PUBLISHER: MuccyGames
• PLATFORMS: PC
• GENRE: Card-battler
• RELEASE DATE: December 15, 2023
• STARTING PRICE: 3.99€
• REVIEWED VERSION: PC

Card Detective is a card-battler and deck-building game in which you take on the role of journalist and detective Hazel Gong, who initially reports on the practice exercise at an abandoned building site, but accidentally stumbles upon a mysterious dead body. In addition to containing detective elements through which we will occasionally get to know the plot of the entire game, the same story is told in the form of a comic, or manhwa. You will play Card Detective for three to five hours, it contains very interesting card mechanics, and the graphics are even more attractive.

I have to admit that the story was intriguing, it kept me going until the end and it was full of plots and intrigues. Each part of reading the comic will not take long, the appearance of the characters and the colors are generally very good and what pleasantly surprised me was that the characters show emotions. The graphics and presentation of the whole game are impressive, and if you are not a fan of card-battler games, then the story will certainly attract you. Apart from the very well thought out graphics and comics, the gameplay may not be at the required level, although the concept is very interesting. Unfortunately, you will be able to progress through the game relatively easily or quickly using certain tactics or strategies, that is, "cheesing" through it.

Gameplay

Card Detective is a game that has a lot to offer, but the developers seem to have run out of ambition to make something bigger. The tutorial is unnecessarily complicated, so much text and new words, and in the end it turns out that you won't need half of it. At its core, the game contains several types of cards; yellow cards (quick cards like drawing new ones or gaining action points), deception cards and strategies that are actually questions. There are also "enemy" behavioral cards that you may or may not have to destroy, and they also have special effects that can make your life miserable, for example, to prevent the effect of your card.

Each card in the game has its own special features, but they are all used in the same way; you will either deal damage or try to get clues. In order to win, you need to find all the answers to get the correct statement. Since this is an interview game, the moves are made as the amount of patience of the interlocutor, and if it reaches zero, you start from the beginning. So that the gameplay mechanics do not seem too complicated, I will try to simplify everything.

Opponents place statement cards and corresponding deception cards on the left and right. We get the statements by breaking all the deceptions or by analyzing the clues. You can view the cards on the left by clicking. When the deception is questioned, it reveals the symbols from the protected statement. The number of statements on the right indicates how many hidden symbols to analyze.

When you destroy the left side of the journal (each card deals a certain amount of damage) X and O symbols are revealed which technically represent the right side. Also, the cards on the left side have their own health and when you completely complete that side, the right side is automatically completed. The symbols that appear indicate true (0) and false (X) statements. When I say they represent the left side, I mean that their positions can help you decipher the mentioned information.

In the end, it's worth blindly playing only the right side, because there's no point in wasting your cards on destroying squares that have 25 health and the game can confuse you with its symbols. In addition, it is important to emphasize that every card in the game has an X and O symbol or a combination of X X, O O and mixed to solve statements. This all sounds complicated, but once you start playing it will make sense.

Cheating through the game

Now comes the part where I reveal to you how to cheat the game. Each of your actions consumes action points (you always start with four), and since each card has three copies, you should only take those that spend two action points, and you take cards that allow you to draw new ones or gain action points. Very simple, you focus only on the right side and whatever will be, will be. Besides being able to do this a few times, you'll also get through the game very quickly. No unnecessary fretting or wondering what move I should make. In my opinion, because of this, the whole game loses its meaning.

What is certainly commendable is the ingenuity and appearance of the cards. It's impressive that there are two types of gameplay, but technically one is more profitable than the other. Plus, it's fun to combine different cards (you can have a maximum of 16 cards in a deck) and experiment with different ways of playing. There are even a lot of cards that you unlock by solving side missions and main missions. I recommend going through all the missions, as that's the only way to unlock all the cards while playing.

What could have been better?

The main menu where you choose which mission you want to solve is so unintuitive, poor and static. To return to a particular mission, you must click on the report menu and then find the one you want to return to by clicking on the character. The game didn't show us that anywhere, I discovered this quite by accident. The game also doesn't introduce you to the fact that you have to save the game in order to continue from where you left off. There is still no option to skip any scenes; if by any chance you lose, you will have to repeat all dialogues and clips of the comic in order to continue.

One very annoying feature is asking questions when you use cards during gameplay. Apart from the fact that this dialogue is repeated with each character (sometimes it doesn't make sense), that is, the questions and answers are always the same, you can neither skip it, nor speed it up, nor change it in the options. If only there was a separate section in the options just for gameplay so we could customize our play style. In general, some cards need balancing, especially enemy behavioral or deception cards, because some you simply cannot destroy or it is almost impossible to do so.

In order to possibly enjoy reading the comic, i.e. so that you don't have to keep clicking, the developers gave us the option of automatic reading, where parts of the comic appear in certain sequences. However, it all goes very fast and you don't have time to read absolutely anything and in the end it's more worth it to manually click everything.

Finally, the price of this game is €3.99 and it is absolutely worth playing and trying out this interesting and short title. Developers just need to dare, expand their horizons, and something unique can be created from this game. I would like to see a free mode, where you can play against anyone at any time. I wouldn't want this to be just about the comics and the story, because I was personally very intrigued by the approach to the game itself and the way it is played.

Review copy provided by the publisher