NIGHT CALL (XBox for PC GAME PASS) - REVIEW.
PLAY-THROUGH #1 = 7-21-2019.
INTRO:
Played this Night Call (game) on Xbox for PC Game Pass.
First play-through here, I took on The Judge's case.
It took 2h25m...and the first play-through is over with for Night Call with The Judge's case. This is an entertaining adventure game with very good writing and music; a very cool noir-setting; and a very cool art style.
STORY & GAMEPLAY.
You play a cabbie who gets attacked, left for dead, recovers, and then has to find out why he was attacked. Meanwhile, a serial killer is on the run...and is probably who attacked you.
You are to decide what fares to take and what to say to these very interesting characters (and there's said to be over 70 of them!), often making decisions that can impact the way the journey goes and how things play out in the end. Sometimes, you'll even run into special events along the way, as you are driving around.
After a night of driving around & investigating, you have work to do. You go to your board and table; and review evidence clue & any info you may have gained. You repeat this process and eventually decide who you think the person who attacked you might be.
You also have to make sure you make $ on your fares and don't get horrible fares or lose money from on-the-side stuff...or it could be "Game Over" for our cabbie.
Basically, this all feels like adventure-style video game here of a cool mystery story meets HBO's Taxicab Confessions . If that sounds right up your alley, you should take this fare on. It's a pretty good and short ride (per play-through), to say the least.
A COLORFUL CAST OF CHARACTERS.
While there might not be any voice-acting here, this is not that important. The cast of characters you meet are often interesting and very colorful; and the written dialogue is really good. Sometimes, the dialogue's straight-up hilarious. Sometimes, it's very serious. Often, the dialogue is tackling some kind of theme - whether it's adultery, relationships, terrorism, racism, prejudice, and/or whatever it throws your way - it's always trying to tackle some sort of topic. And it does a really good job at all of this, too.
At times, it feels like you might not discover much of anything in your story of your attack, who did it, and why - but it feels like it's mostly the journey itself with meeting the outstanding cast of characters and decisions that matter so much here in this game, that this here all is the real reason to play this game.
A RIDE WORTH TAKING.
And this all can give plenty of reason here, even with its 2h25m brevity in my 1st play-through, that I'm likely going to replay this very enjoyable adventure game. A bunch of times. With a great cast of characters & really good writing, it's already off to a good start. And since there's supposedly multiple endings & multiple other ways to play this game (different modes and difficulties), that can only make me want to take another ride in this cab of an adventure game.
To say the least, I really enjoyed my first ride in this game's cab. It was quite a good ride.
