Micro Mystery Investigator: Noir Edition
- TheAwakening
- Apr 12
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 24
Overview
Micro Mystery Investigator Noir Edition places you in a terminal with randomly generated files of cases to be resolved. A case contains the aforementioned title and a description of what happened, along with the list of suspects. You mustn’t do anything else but simply select who the suspect is by checking the hints and confirming alibis. All cases can be resolved very fast if you check the correct clues. Unfortunately there isn’t much to keep playing, and it gets repetitive real fast for a casual game.
Gameplay
The game has been built as a console command and thus can be played only by hitting numbers from 1 to 9 and pressing enter to confirm (or another keyword/word). You can change in the settings: The difficulty of a case (how many clues are in the case), the number of suspects, and the timer (setting 0 to have no timer) before the case is closed, the volume of the music and typing sound, and activate debug mode, which will always point out who the culprit is.
Starting a case generates from a library the following, from top to bottom:
The name of the case and a description of what happened.
The clues and hints. Everything that narrows down the events in detail. The suspects' names are highlighted.
The list of suspects shows their occupation, descriptions (hair and eye color, shoe size, and body build), and habits.
The clues that you have to look for are simple. They describe when a confirmed individual did something; up to two names can be involved. One discards a suspect by confirming their alibi. Other clues describe the perpetrator with one single description, either from a witness or a security camera. The entire case is generated randomly, and it only takes one second. Your only input is to select the number of the suspect who might be the culprit. Or you can discard the case altogether.
There is only one clue that points to who the culprit is, and the case is solved. While the other clues and hints provide suggestions or red herrings in order to increase variety and provide vague clues, it really doesn’t matter as long as you find the right clue. Once that is done, the case is closed with the right or wrong suspect, and you can move to the next. Stats show how many cases you won or lost. You can increase the number of clues by changing the difficulty and the number of suspects if you wish. I was able to solve cases from that moment on in less than a minute. Debug mode shows the game who the culprit is for testing purposes.
Bugs Found
Because the game runs in the CMD library, the screen flickers a lot on Windows 10 when on a case. A temporal solution is to click the field of imput to stop the flicker.
Audio & Graphics
The game is text-based only, which means there are no images, only a palette of colors that highlight the suspect list, for example. I do enjoy the sound of a classic typewriter, and the music really captures the ambience of working in a noir terminal.
Pros & Cons
Pros-
Fast-paced casual investigation game.
Easy to play, simple inputs required.
Cons-
Once you discover who is the culprit by looking at the right clue, it loses replay value in future cases.
Difficulty changes nothing but the number of clues.
The screen flickers a lot on Windows 10.
Rating: 4/10
