Nothing beats a good noir story, and it’s rare to find them in games these days. JanduSoft threw their fedora in the ring with an interesting tale, The Last Case of John Morley.
The Last Case of John Morley takes place in the mid 1940’s, where you take on the role of the title character, John Morley, Private Investigator. Morley just recovered from a long hospital stay after his last case nearly killed him. Needing funds quickly, luck had it that he was hired to solve a 20-year-old murder case, clear the names of the men convicted of it, and bring the true killer to justice.
Now, onto the game itself! I want to make a note that at the time of writing this, there’s a lighting glitch on the Xbox version of the game that I’ve experienced. I’ve contacted the devs to let them know, and they are working on it! The controls for the game are alright; the only issue I have with them is that there’s no tutorial, so I had to quickly learn what button does what.
Soundwise, I love the soundtrack! Jazzy-noir, put that shit in my veins! The voice acting is decent, overall sound design is decent as well. When it comes to the game’s art and graphics, as mentioned before, there was a lighting issue; the game’s levels are supposed to be darker. One thing that bothers me is the paintings on the walls in the game. A big part of the story is a character who’s an artist and paints disturbing paintings. The issue I have is that the paintings (and even posters) look to be AI.
Gameplay-wise, I enjoy the exploration aspect of the game. The puzzles are fun and not too complex. I like the moments when Morely has to reassemble a scene to reenact an event to get the bigger picture.
Overall, I enjoyed playing this one. It’s a nice start to the new year of game reviews. There are some issues with texts, some texture loading issues, the lighting glitch, and the possible use of AI art, but other than that, I actually kinda like The Last Case of John Morley. It may not be an earth-shattering mystery game, but it’s entertaining. It could have been a bit longer and possibly more complex. On my scale of 1-10, The Last Case of John Morley is a 7.5/10!
The Last Case of John Morley is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
