Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division

“By chapter 5 of the 'war crime' story, I understood the end goal, but not the process of getting there.”

“By mission 8 or so, I felt like clues obtained just by constructing an SQL query were easier to find than those requiring reading in-game wikis, hacking, and browsing the in-game internet, especially since many of those clues are hidden in unexpected places.”

“Players seeking fast-paced gameplay or cinematic storytelling may struggle to connect with its slower, more deliberate approach.”

“The retro aesthetics combined with the MSPaint art style and the use of royalty-free music give the game a shabby feeling; it feels cozy and human, reminiscent of old edutainment games, but the worn quality may not appeal to everyone.”

“The art style, humor, and 2010s hypnospace style mechanics might grate instead of gratify, creating an overall feeling that this game was made for a younger audience compared to other detective games.”

“The retro aesthetic and classic Windows UI style contribute to a 'parody - not too seriously' vibe, but some players might find these graphics less polished or overly simplistic.”

“I would say to give this game a solid 8, it would need to change the mechanic for a different punishment that isn't me turning the game off and deciding never to touch it again (which includes letting me skip the dialogue to get to that point) and improving the hints to make it clearer what you're supposed to be doing, including combining the information from the hints so if you don't hit one of the options, then you don't lose information you didn't know you lost from only choosing one.”

“Back to why I wish it was longer: I have no SQL experience, so even through chapters 7 and 8, where the game starts trusting you with the mechanics, progress was slow because I kept flipping back to the manual.”

“Players seeking fast-paced gameplay or cinematic storytelling may struggle to connect with its slower, more deliberate approach.”

“The music is nothing to be amazed by, although it fits quite nicely with the overall theme of the game.”

“The retro aesthetics combined with the MSPaint art style and the use of royalty-free music give the game a shabby feeling but in a really cozy and human way; it reminds me of old edutainment games that I played a long time ago.”

“It's not full SQL support—this is tailor-made for in-game experience, so some advanced stuff isn't supported and I have to retrain my brain to the basic ways of doing things (not all of those failures are me doing it on purpose, even at my level!); but as someone who edits hundreds of tables a day against my will, this is a wonderful, charming experience, and the kind of experience you can only get on PC (although, I could easily see this being so charming as a phone application as well). Also, you really do feel like a true detective—everything from the noir detective music to the way you wake up the sleeping officer on the login screen oozes charm.”

“That's too 'social-grindy' and not enough SQL-investigating to my taste; for you, however, this might even be a plus.”

“Makes writing complex queries very tedious.”

“With how long the animations last, it's a little tedious to click through all the text boxes until you get to the one you need to see, and there are some puzzles/queries that don't have any hints for them (e.g., for the last case, there are hints for every step leading up to the final query, but no hints for the final query itself, which was the part I needed the most help with).”