Today we bring you a particular title that is unlike almost anything out there. The little developer COW gave birth to a game that mix things as different as graphic adventure, RPG and beat’em up. Does that sound impossible to you? Well, keep reading this review of BROK the InvestiGator on Xbox Series S, despite it being an Xbox One game with no next-gen enhancements.
History, a dystopian setting
The game tells us the story of Brok, private detective and former boxer. We are in the not too distant future with a slight cyberpunk touch in which you live with robots. Pollution has already ravaged the Earth and only a lucky few live inside a protective dome. The protagonists of the game have the distinction of being animals and not humans. Brok lives with Graff, the son of his wife who died in a tragic accident that marked and obsessed our protagonist. Brok has to fight daily with debts and bills but soon he will discover something very big in this corrupt world which seriously threatens the future.
BROK the InvestiGator: Film noir, science fiction and humor in a video game
The story is lifted in the purest story style of a film noir detective story, with internal reflections of the character and some stereotypical characters of this type of cinema. It’s a curious mix since it’s generally a rather adult genre, combined with some childish looking drawings. Despite this, make no mistake, the content, dialogues and reflections are intended for adults, and the game is not recommended for children.
At the same time the science fiction and dystopian future component is seen in some recurring themes: the humanity of certain robots, the privileges and the possibility of living better and longer for some… BUnder the childish aspect of the game hides a thematically more than interesting dystopia. At the same time it leaves us samples of humoreven some hidden in the dubbing of the texts in Spanish.
cartoon graphics
The game has a beautiful and colorful cartoon-style graphics look. With curiosity, the characters’ faces and expressions often manage to convey more emotion than cutscenes from other games with a realistic tone and a much bigger budget. It is true that there are only 5-6 types of expressions, but these are the most convincing. A really impeccable drawing and animation job was done, giving us the impression of playing an animated series.
BROK the Investigator: mixing genres
The game is a mixture of genres that seem almost incompatible: graphic adventure, platforms or beat’em up. The graphical adventure component follows in the wake of some of the latest Xbox releases in this genre: Saint Kotar or the nice one The little acre. That is to say that it is not about the graphic adventures of yesteryear, complex and in which it was necessary to trace pixel by pixel. In this case, there is a button that will bring up on screen all the objects that you can interact with in some way. Even clicking on the crosspiece, moving between them. This greatly facilitates the work and is an anti-frustration element.
The interaction or combination of objects is really easy and fast with a very simple and visual menu. They must navigate locations by talking to other non-playable characters, finding and matching clues, investigating scenarios in the environment, and solving puzzles using thinking skills or using their minds of action.
Besides we will have to question the suspects. We can use the clues found with them, or even join them and thus ask questions to discover the culprits.
Go to Action mode it would suffice to press the Y button. Here Brok becomes a fighter in the purest style of the pixelated classics. We will be able to make combinations of blows, dodge, run… giving the game a very nice twist. Here is also the RPG component, with a tree of improvements, as we raise our level. Very basic, yes, but it keeps adding integers to the title. We can improve their health points, their attack power or improve the special attack. Also note that at the easiest level, it is even possible to skip the fights.
great dubbing
The dubbing and the voices, although in English, have been particularly well done.. The voices are very varied and with many nuances, and some with effects, to take them away from the human tone, immersing you even more in this “living comic”. Although there is no Spanish or Latin dubbing, the texts have been translatedeven with some localisms that will make you smile.
In this sense, note that a few sentences, very few, remain in English. Fortunately, in the ones we have detected, this will not affect those of you who do not understand Shakespeare’s language since they were unimportant answers to the adventure.
The music goes unnoticed, but it accompanies the action well, being more relevant and animated during the fights.
conclusion
BROK the Investigator is a quite a pioneering game with an unusual mix of genres. Curiously, these antagonistic genres got married better than well. All this translates into a colorful, fun and different game that will surprise you.
It is for all this that from Xbox Area we recommend that you get this title which has a more than acceptable starting price considering the approximate duration of 10 hours that we will have before us.
BROK the Investigator
Pro.
- Very good mix of genres
- Good story and setting
- Funny
Contra.
- Some texts have not been translated
I exterminate aliens. gamer and movie buff
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