Epilogue: Night Call

Consultant. Psychologist. Counselor. Friend. These are just some of the roles played by a taxi driver on the night streets of Paris. Because of his special gift? To get people to Talk to, you in emotional moments, to absorb, to find truths. But we can elucidate a crime? We make it so the serial killer to catch, had caught us almost?

Detective hunt in the Noir style

Night Call is a narrative of crime game which is exclusively on text-based dialogues is based, and in a thrilling Noir-style is. In the shoes of a simple taxi driver, I fought my way through the rainy streets of Paris. Name or Background of the driver will be indicated in the game only by slight hints, but never really revealed. However, this is not necessary, because the task is not to talk about himself, but to elicit from the guests, your dark secrets.

Because of a brutal serial killer is in the streets of Paris on-the-go. The Protagonist of this came after an attack by the perpetrator, just with life. However, the memory of the night is a blur. This leads the police on our trail, and creates doubts about their own intentions. In order to prove our own innocence, we must find the real Killer. Seven nights stay before the own fate will end up behind bars. The police provides five Suspects, which need to be carefully scrutinised. To do this, we move freely in the big city, and always select between a plurality of possible passengers the Next.

For Night Call , three different Detective cases. Every night, there is a need to carry different passengers, and with time and a tank of fuel to get along. Depending on the mode and difficulty, it is easier of money, or longer distances with a little Tank. It is important always to weigh, such as the limited time at the Best to invest. Every night, I met the different characters. Of a quarrel the couple, and a cat with money, to Santa Claus – here everything really was. The colorful diversity of the characters is one of the greatest Strengths of Night Call. And some of the residents we meet several times, and they open more and more. With your own responses you can elicit from you the secrets, or they scare off or piss off.

What impressed me particularly is the whole atmosphere of the game. The Noir-style knows how to convince all along the line, all the characters have to get a private, loving model. Every Detail is drawn by hand and individually. The music, the design ideal, and the entire game is a smooth, almost film-acting-staging.

Built like a Puzzle – but without a template

Although the Setting of Night white to persuade Call absolutely and I’ve rarely seen such a captivating atmosphere in a Indie Game, there were some stones which lay in my way. It was quite a difficult game for me. I was a big Fan of the game idea, the Setting is immediately impressed from the first Start, and as a long-time Fan of narrative such as the Life is Strange series this should be a self-runner for me!

But… I was wrong. Because Night Call has a serious Problem: its lack of transparency. One tries in the game constantly hard, a Puzzle not assemble the template but once! To many visitors to the Taxis tell stories which have nothing to do with the actual murder case. The few notes that you collect in the seven nights that often have no connection, and you can’t skip. In four runs I have not found – sometimes even in Teamwork with my friend – not a single Time right off the bat the real killer, because it was due to the instructions not possible. Because, no, not the Person with ten matching, absolutely logical Point out is the serial killer – the former police, of course, was the chief on which only three very General instructions apply… Ahja. Okay. Well then.

The received notes are simply kept too General and opaque. So much So that they are even automatically assigned to the Suspect. So because of proper detective work! Guess it is true unfortunately. Because even these Compounds have not brought me any further at all. What the note brings to me, that the Killer is greater than 1.80 meters, if this applies to all of the five Suspects? How am I supposed to meet last night, a decision I only had to sit one of the five Suspects at all once in the Taxi? How to I find out what I’m supposed to concentrate? And especially: why should I collect so actually notices if it is felt eh nothing brings?

The game is often not quite where it want to go actually. I realized, at the latest, when out of nowhere the Ghost of a little boy started to go in my cab and stop by. Me asks, in a completely irrelevant streets, wandering and old tales to life. Yes, but at least then you doubt whether or not you actually your time here makes sense to invest.

Even if the atmosphere is convincing – missing the game with a goal in mind.

Technical error as an obstacle in the night-time wandering

Since Night Call offers as a story based game not a real, challenging Gameplay, it lives solely by the unique atmosphere in combination with the many text dialogues with the residents and visitors in Paris. Said dialogues have not been translated, however, the developers completely. Night Call offers in the “German” Version of a colorful mishmash of German dialogs and English Interface – but also phase completely French passages.

This has bothered me personally very much. I’m already at school with the French language, simple and warm. Accordingly, my knowledge here is quite limited. If then, however, important passages – such as, for example, the big Finale will be shown at the end of the seven nights where we accuse a Suspect of a murder – is completely in French, and you should here meet French decisions, the the players but the really big problems.

Otherwise, the game ran at most times relatively liquid, and remained only a complete hang, after I had dropped off a cat at the airport in Paris. Whether that was a Bug or a Feature, more I wanted to this time but was already behind the questions. As above addressed the spirit had already looked twice too much in my Taxi, and I showed me to my fate.

CONCLUSION

I really had high expectations for Night Call. The idea offered incredible Potential, but the actual implementation of that certain Something, a red thread, as well as a final touch I still miss. Night Call would be much felt – a story-based game, which emotional stories are told in-game, a detective, a game which lives through the unique atmosphere … and fails here, but something about the own ambitious goals. It would do the developers good to focus here on a particular feature, rather than seeking the Golden Grail of video games.

Because it is difficult to motivate, in spite of a graphical Conviction to solve a Puzzle whose template you know. When there is no sense in the conversations with the passengers to see what should be the core of the game. I very much hope that here, perhaps, in the course of time on Community Feedback is taken into consideration, and maybe something at the current Point, as well as to the Translation of the game is screwed. However, I can recommend to Fans of narrative Play, to throw, nevertheless, a brief look at Night Call to enjoy if only to the atmosphere created by the nightly Paris. Because maybe some of the other can gain from the stories of the passengers more, without a red thread and a direct target. To me, this was not achieved, unfortunately.

What Night Call? A narrative, text-based crime game in a Noir style. In the shoes of a taxi driver is a serial killer in the dark streets of Paris to track down.
Platforms: PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, XBOX One
Tested: on PC, Intel Core i7-2600K, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 1080
Developer / Publisher: Black muffin / Raw Fury / monkey moon SARL
Release: 17. July 2019
Link: Official Website