We have all played or seen crime-solving games like the famous Disco Elysium or L.A. Noire, which has made millions by catering to the fans of mystery, murder, and puzzles, but when it comes 1to being unique, they are not! Almost all of these crime-solving games have the same gameplay mechanics or format or some other iterations of the same kind of story, which is interesting but not unique.
Now if you are an FPS player and love grinding in CSGO or Valorant, then you also know how important sound is to a gamer; you cannot be a good player if you can’t hear enemy footsteps and determine their position concerning you. This has been known for over a decade, but apart from the FPS genre, no other major genre has adapted to gameplay that will require you to have good hearing capability.
So in came a studio somewhat known for its indie games and unique storytelling style, the NExT Studios with Unheard, back in 2019. A crime-solving detective game whose main gameplay relies on your ability to hear, retain information, and deduce, which was a great game-changing idea in itself. This is where the problem comes in; if it was so game-changing, then why have the majority of the genre fans haven’t heard about the game or its release? If it was a failure, why is there a new sequel named Unheard: Voices of Crime?
To answer these questions, we have to dive into this review and figure out what we think about the franchise and the new game available on Steam. So if you love playing a detective or are a fan of crime mysteries, read our article and comment on it at the bottom of the page.
- Release Date: 23 March 2023
- Creator/Developer: NExT Studios
- Platform: Microsoft Windows, macOS
- Ratings: 10/10 (Steam)
- Genre: Role-playing games, Simulation Video Games, Indie game
- Publisher: 505 Games, NExT Studios
- Price: $9.99
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Unheard’s: Gameplay and Story Details
This game puts a unique spin on solving mysteries at a crime scene, almost like an interactive radio drama. Unheard: Voice of Crime is a 2023 game developed by next studios and published by 505 Games. You play a detective, testing a new way of conducting investigations. Once he looks at a floor plan on a tablet, he starts hearing voices coming from the picture, and they’re not just random voices; they’re the voices of people involved in past crime scenes.
Your goal in each case is to figure out who is who and answer questions by the end of the recording, like who stole a painting or which character had drugs, so you can listen to the whole thing while rewinding or fast-forwarding as necessary you’re not just limited to one area too, you can move your character to any spot on the floor plan.
Unheard audio is proximity-based, so other people’s voices will increase, fade or change direction depending on where you’re standing. Interestingly, none of the other characters in this game have models, so audio visualizers represent them, and they’re unnamed as well, so you have to find out who they are and tag them by listening to conversations and then playing it on your phone, sort of like Detroit Become Human but in audio.
Sometimes it’s as obvious as their name being announced as soon as they enter a room; other times, you’ll have to listen to other characters talk about themselves. While each recording in the game is quite short, it takes a little more than that to understand their stories fully, you can spend an entire recording just listening to two people talking, but then you would have to go to someone else in another room and listen to their side to understand the entire picture, well it’s 101 detective work basically like any Sherlock Holmes story.
The game has a total of 4 hours of main story gameplay, which makes it a short game to begin with, and that means the Devs have to put enough quality content in that much space to make it appealing, but they fail to do it.
The problem with this game is it’s not fulfilling in the end, the whole listening to just audio files and playing the entire game require the audio quality, actors, and dialogue to be fascinating to the ears, but it’s not, and that’s the main reason many have not finished this game or liked it overall which carves the path to the story-driven mystery like Life Is Strange or Last Of Us.
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Our Verdict
The game has good quality audio and spatial awareness, but it’s not used to its full potential like other RPG or sound-based games, which is disappointing for me. The voice actors have good voices, but the dialogues are poorly written at moments and acted out like an NPC, which affects the experience a lot, as listening is the main job here. Hiring someone like Morgan Freeman or Christopher Judge from God of War to do a five-minute audio won’t hurt.
The game has many tools that you can use to solve the case, hear the recording, and keep notes of what happened simultaneously, which really impressed me and makes the game easier to play and is a good quality-of-life update from the predecessor.
Despite having many fundamental flaws that keep new players from playing, the game is worth a shot if you are a crime genre fan, and for almost $10, it is reasonable for the pocket and indie genre. We also think that the main reason the game went under the nose of many gamers is that the marketing team didn’t promote the game properly. At OtakuKart, give the game a solid 3.5/5 for being interesting, unique, and ambitious.
Furthermore, we love it when games do things. Differently, they don’t need to be a masterpiece; at the very least, they tend to be entertaining and memorable. So, if you like solving crimes that aren’t too complicated and want to experience a playable radio drama, you might like Unheard: Voices Of Crime.
Our Rating: ⭐ (3.5/5).
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