Crime O'Clock

Crime O'Clock offers a great time-traveling detective experience and shows what skilled developers can achieve while re-inventing a classic mechanic. All its five era locations are attractive, packed with interesting characters, tons of details, and some truly weird ideas. The black and white look and the colorful case touches complement each other well. The point-and-click gameplay is simple to understand, and there’s a solid hint system that will ensure fans never get frustrated when they simply cannot locate someone or something. Some of the mini-games do get repetitive. Crime O'Clock is an excellent game, relaxing, respectful of the player’s time, and stunning in its attention to detail.

Crime O'Clock is undoubtedly a highly successful game that provides approximately ten hours of relaxation and entertainment. It engages players with well-established mechanics blended with novel elements that make its formula more distinctive. It will certainly appeal to fans of hidden object games and those seeking a relaxing and well-crafted experience, accompanied by a compelling narrative aspect.

Ultimately, Crime o' Clock is a title that works, fulfills and entertains. Furthermore, the excellent artistic direction, full of homages and pop culture references, greatly enhances the experience and is already worth the price of admission alone. You will never feel the risk of running into possible mishaps during the investigations, but if you are looking for a relaxing and carefree point and click, which can keep you company in these sultry summer days with a mystery that unfolds over the centuries, this could be the right game.

Despite being far from challenging, Crime O'Clock is an enjoyable game that captivates the player with its intriguing storytelling and a top-notch art direction.

Crime O’Clock’s unique spin on the hidden objects game genre is worthy of note and should be praised for its creativity; unfortunately, it delivery gets in the way of an otherwise mechanically fascinating experience. The first couple of levels will interest hidden objects fans, but the last few will lose them entirely. Had Crime O’Clock allowed its story to unfold naturally and ramp the difficulty up gradually, giving players the freedom to explore these full and vibrant worlds on their own, I suspect Crime O’Clock would have received higher marks. Alas, Crime O’Clock instead serves as a reminder that a great concept can be bogged down by itself if not allowed to flourish properly.

Crime O’Clock feels like wasted potential. As a hidden object game, it has the foundations of something decent, with its lively scenes and impressive worldbuilding offering up just enough pixel-clicking for fans of the genre to get a few cheap thrills out of it. But instead of leaning any further into its time-bending angle and becoming a truly impressive puzzler, it’s happy to sit and throw a few naff minigames at you, hoping it’s enough to distract from the severe lack of any actual substance.

At the very least, I appreciated the creativity on display – the final level really hammered home the fact that the devs had a vision for the story of Crime o’ Clock that directly incorporated the unique format they chose to use, rather than offering a haphazard story applied to the gameplay after the fact. The whole thing feels a bit messy, but there’s a unique vision within it that might be brought to light with a bit of careful pruning… but I suppose we’ll never know.