Written by Colm Sheridan

What is BROK the InvestiGator?

Brok, a former boxer and private detective, lives with Graff, his late wife’s son. Despite being unable to solve the mystery behind her death, recent events may reveal an even more tragic outcome that could be linked to their own existence.

The narrative is the driving force behind this action and investigation game. In order to solve the mysteries, you will need both intellect and strength.

As humans are replaced by animals in a “light cyberpunk” future, some citizens live under protective domes to escape air pollution while others struggle to make ends meet outside.

Will you be able to face their own destiny and survive the threats of this corrupted world?

Controls

At its core it’s a point and click you move the cursor around with the right thumb stick or you can select left and right on the D-pad to jump to certain items of interest. Also holding down the X button will highlight all points of interest in your surroundings.  To change to fighting mode you press the Y button. In fight mode you select X to punch, B to shield and A to jump. Combining A and X will give you additional moves. You can also set your fight difficulty at the start of the game.

This game is puzzling in many ways.

There are many challenging puzzles in the game that require detective work to solve. It doesn’t matter what difficulty level you choose; the puzzles remain the same. There are, however, some puzzles that are too challenging because of how they are structured. Fortunately, not all of them are like this and some can be quite fun to solve. But the ones that are difficult can be frustrating because it isn’t clear what you need to do.

To help you solve the puzzles, there are collectible ads you can find in cursor mode that act as hint tokens. However, their hints aren’t always helpful. You get two per puzzle: one that acts as a hint and another that blatantly tells you the answer. It would have been better if there were three hints instead to ease into the answer if you really need that final hint. The game even hides three hint ads per room, giving you a surplus if you’re really stuck. Good luck beating this game without any hints.

Graphics and Sound.

Gameplay is enhanced even further by the amazing art and sound in the game. They are inspired by old ’90s cartoons, which can be seen in the design of everything. With even the tiniest of details, the graphics far exceeded my expectations. In addition to accurate lip-syncing, the reflections in the game work, and the landscapes are beautifully designed. These things kept me hooked on the game.

The game enhances concepts from its genre. For instance, instead of the typical crouch animation to eat food in beat ’em up games, an animation plays if the food is in your inventory. This introduces an element of strategy for the player since getting hit during the animation could cause you to drop the food and leave yourself exposed.

Gameplay

There are six chapters in the game. In chapter two you can change between Brok and Graf by selecting the View Button. When you first start the game, you will learn tutorials on how to use items as well as understanding how to switch between the two gameplay modes, such as Adventure Mode and Action Mode. You go around places talking to other non-playable characters, finding, and combining clues, investigating scenarios around the environment and solve puzzles by either using thinking skills or by using your wits. While exploring around, you can either move around and examine or search for things around when in Adventure Mode. In each area there are three

You must also interrogate suspects with the clues and hints you have found and put them together and ask questions to find culprits. When playing in Action Mode, players can jump, and attack enemies or objects like in beat ’em up games. You must also be in Action Mode to bypass traps and avoid hazards by either jumping or running fast. When enemies and bosses come around, players will then be switched into the Action Mode phrase, and you must then battle against them (the fight scenes can be skipped if the game is being played on easy mode). When you are defeated, players earn experience points. When enough is earned, you level up their strength like in role-playing games and you can choose one of three statuses to upgrade such as either health points, attack power or upgrade your special attack to take less time to cool down after use. You also have access to an inventory where weapons and items can be used in combat, for puzzle-solving or for supportive aid.

After completing the game for the first time, a new menu opens which summarizes all the major actions the player had taken and what the consequences were. This includes how it affected relationships and whether it affected another event later.

Summary

I was impressed with this point and click beat em up. Humour wasn’t my cup of tea, but it worked. Brok as a character is very optimistic even though he was down on his luck. Controls worked seamlessly.

Developed and published by: COWCAT

Genres: Classic adventure with beat’em up and RPG elements.

File size: 2.7GB

Achievements: 30

How long to beat:  Main story: 15½ Hours

Code supplied for review purposes by COWCAT.

Playing on Xbox Series X

Review by: Colm Sheridan.