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Review - Tails Noir... Striper No Striping.

 
Image Credit: Egg Nut

In order to do this game justice with my review, I'm going to keep it short and sweet. That is exactly what the developers did, anyway.

    In Tails Noir you play a private investigator named Howard. Howard's typical clientele are people looking for cheating spouses or those who have misplaced a valuable bauble or two. Nothing big time. And he knows it. He also is well aware of how lame his life feels as a result.

    The latest case that drops in his lap seems just like all the others. A pregnant mother is looking for her deadbeat husband. She just knows he's two-timing, but she doesn't want to fully boot him out without proof. Howard is on the case! When investigating this particular dirtbag, however, Howard discovers a lot more than he bargained for. For one, the guy is dead. And secondly, his corpse is being chopped up and packaged off as if it's going to market. Could there really be people in elite society feasting on the flesh of those below who will hardly be missed? Well... if some of this Epstein stuff is to be believed... maybe fiction isn't so strange, after all.

    Oh, did I mention everyone is a talking animal? The cover photo and title should have given that away, anyway, but I thought I'd just clear that up. It certainly plays into the different species, or "kinds" as they're referred to in game, developing a class structure that holds some down while elevating others.

The Good

Story is crucial in a game like this. It makes up the brunt of the entire experience, and clocking in at just six hours it needs to be homed in on exactly what the audience is looking for. Luckily, Egg Nut carries this task out very well. Is it on par with Citizen Sleeper? No. But that is a hard bar to reach. The writers do a good job in putting Howard's story out there, and the mystery that unravels is at times jarring and others emotionally grounded.

    I'm a fan of the pixelated graphics. It takes me back to that time of yore, maybe. Or maybe it's just refreshing to see something that doesn't need to be so completely CGI-enhanced that I know people got burnt out from crunch and ended up getting laid off anyway. I'm looking at you, EA. Egg Nut's visuals are kitschy, but they're meant to be, and they help in unfolding that story as well as it does.

The Bad

Audio is a bit lacking. There's no voice acting, but that's not necessarily a negative. It's more just the fact that the soundtrack is so dry. Some of this is intentional. It is a noir game, after all, but there could have been more poignant music to engage the player a bit.

    I also thought the gameplay could have been tweaked. There are things a game, even a text-adventure-type, can do in order to pull the audience in more. None of that really happens in Tails Noir. You can walk, jog, climb up, or crouch. Even the crouching dynamic is used so sparingly you'll forget it's an option. There are really only two scenes, lasting 20 seconds a piece, where you'll need to use crouch to get through to the other side. Egg Nut could have done more, here.

The Takeaway

Tails Noir is a fun little mental getaway for a day or two of play. If you have a spare six hours between games, it could easily be used as something of a "palate cleanser." It isn't a huge investment, and it actually tells a pretty interesting tale.

7/10

Good Enough

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