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Righteous Kill HD
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Graphics & Sound:
The graphics in Righteous Kill HD are okay. The cut scenes are pretty good, although they are static with dialogue telling the story. However, the hidden object scenes you will visit can be quite tricky, because some of the items are well hidden due to intentional discoloration, so they fade into the background. Still, since the same scenes and objects are reused over and over and over, you'll learn where all of the objects are and be able to find them by memory. This isn't a plus, though.
The voice-acting in Righteous Kill HD is pretty good. It's believable and works well, but you'll only hear it on rare occasion as the cut scenes play out. Sound effects can get a little aggravating though as they seem a little heavy, instead of simply echoing in the background. Sure, you can adjust the levels, but what I mean refers more to the fact that there are too many ambient sounds going on. If you are at a construction site, you'll hear hammering, sawing, etc., but typically also footsteps crunching on gravel, a spray can being shook up and other odd little noises. Depending on what scene you are currently at, you may hear some sounds that don't seem like they belong. There's also usually "cop drama" background music playing as well, which fits with the theme of the game. The only other thing I will note is the sound of bullets firing that occurs between each scene. It seems louder than the rest of the game, so if you are like me and have earphones in while playing, be prepared to have your ears blasted the first time the game boots up and switches menus. |
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Gameplay:
Righteous Kill HD places you in the shoes of Officer Dean, as she is assigned by Sgt. Vasquez to join a task force to catch vigilante killers in New York. The main target is a man named Terry Collins whose wife and daughter were killed in a robbery several years before. The man suspected of this crime has recently turned up dead and Collins is the prime suspect. To gather evidence to build your case, you'll go through numerous hidden object scenes on a map in order to get the one clue that will progress you in your investigation. You'll visit locations like the police department, the lab, the perp's apartment, a construction scene, etc. You can do the scenes in whatever order you want and each one will list the location and the number of items to be collected, usually around 15 per scene. Once you have completed visiting the different scenes on the map, you'll go to the station to work the evidence. You may be comparing two shots from security footage to spot the differences between them or you may be attempting to trap the perp's scrambled wireless signal with firewalls in a grid game. You may be piecing together a torn note containing critical data or you could be dusting for prints. In this mini-game, you have a limited supply of dusting powder, so you can't just dust willy-nilly all over the place. Of all of the mini-games, my favorite was trapping the wireless signal, simply because it was different than the standard.
What I didn't like was the fact that the same scenes and objects were used time and again, so it became a drudge to visit those scenes. Further, you'd have such asinine items on the list, in addition to that one pivotal piece. Baseball bats, canes and bells made regular appearances and, at first, I was hoping this would factor into the story. Maybe the killer was a disabled former athlete? But no such luck. I guess those items were just the easiest to hide.
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Difficulty:
There are no varying difficulty levels in Righteous Kill HD, but the game is not that hard. You are allowed to liberally tap to search for items and, although you will get a warning if you tap the same spot over and over and there's no item there, there doesn't seem to be anything more than that in the way of a penalty. Since the same scenes and items are recycled many times, you'll eventually get a good sense of where things are, but the scenes are pretty jumbled and filled with lots of ancillary junk. While I understand the need to trip up the player with extra things located around the scene, it was just a bit much. The Central Park scene looked like a community for the homeless. Although I haven't been there, so I can't say for sure, it certainly isn't typically depicted that way.
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Game Mechanics:
Righteous Kill HD uses basic tapping gestures to pick items up and to move items around such as in the mini-games. If you've played a hidden object game, you’ll know exactly what to do. I did have a problem with my taps being recognized the first time, or even the second and third, sometimes. That’s never a good thing in a hidden object game, especially one that uses obscured items, because you can click on an item that you are pretty sure is from your list and then it doesn't recognize your action. Later, when that's the last remaining item and you use your Hint button and it highlights the same item you clicked 5 minutes before, it's really frustrating.
The mini-games are fun and try to incorporate the forensic nature of the storyline by piecing together bits of evidence you gather, but the forensic feel gets washed away by all of the crazy stuff you have to collect in the hidden object scenes. However, having said that, there is one really cool detective work aspect that occurs only twice in the game, but it basically happens at the halfway point and the end. You are presented with a chalkboard with a few statements on it and arrows pointing to different conclusions. At the bottom of the screen are the key pieces of evidence you've collected. You must drag these to the end of each statement to draw the final conclusion which pinpoints your killer. It's a really nice touch and it made me feel as though I was participating in the case, at least as much as you can in a casual game.
If you need a little help finding an object, you can click on the UV Flashlight button, which is the Hint button, and a circling representation of your police badge will highlight an object on your list. During the mini-games, after a short period of time, you can click the Solve button to advance through the puzzle. If you'd prefer to keep pushing through the mini-game with just a little help, there are 5 Hint buttons to help you along.
The developers had some good ideas for the game, but they need to hone the concepts down a little. Another game I recently played, Masters of Mystery: Blood of Betrayal, really nailed the blend of hidden object and forensics mini-games to where you actually feel as though you are participating in the capture of a killer. Righteous Kill HD is off to a decent start, but there's room to grow.
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
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