I was having ideas how a good detective game could be realized and was having a hard time imagining it. Most games present MC as a smart guy and player is left with finding clues for him, the rest is usually solved automatically. Your game on the other hand offers liberty to investigate and join dots on your own. of It is one of a kind game, one that is pretty difficult to prepare and already showing a lot of effort put to it. All of the investigation topics can be asked to everyone and it can be challenging on its own to prepare answers in spirit to the character. I was also lost with investigation options, clicking through case files, open investigations and inventory, it is a little confusing. Now I might be in minority but I like it, it feels like a small puzzle to find all options and ways to interact with the game.
I solved one puzzle out of four on the museum grounds, I hope there's no way to find out about who was the culprit and the witness without entering museum. I did manage to set the correct order of events, but I couldn't find a way to indicate whether victim was on her own volition in the park. It was the last missing piece for the second case file. Also the gardener is innocent, right? I guess Strauss could help me out figuring that but he's not in the demo? One more thing - even though I found flower petals in the apartment and in the park, and I spoke about it with the wife, the compendium didn't let me look for a rapid aging page. I remember couple of pages unlocking in previous demo (and I'm sorry for never submitting my comment for that). I never entered that storage room either, please tell me it's impossible.
I like the wife character, I'm guessing she's the quirky and playful one that is always looking for the supernatural explanations and is a contrast for the down-to-earth investigation partner. Amount of work is already impressive - character models, cars, the whole museum, 2D notebooks and case files graphics, it's all great and personally reminds me of Gabriel Knight 3 - mostly due to never beating it while also presenting a lot of different hurdles and options to tackle puzzles, and how the game looks.
What would I change - the dialog, I think it would look better to keep it aligned to the left all the time, text showing grom the middle and expanding both ways is pretty lame. Running should be much faster, sometimes I wanted to go to the opposite part of the level to check something and faster movement in that situation shouldn't be immersion-breaking. I don't know if you want to let the player figure out on his own that the trunk of the car can be opened. I feel like that information should already be given in a dialog somewhere as I feel that investigating your own car shouldn't be a part of the puzzle.
Overall, its amazing and probably gonna be the definitive way to feel like a detective. Supernatural elements mixed with eastern-european alternative history make it truly unique and intriguing. I'm looking forward to play it!