The greatest mystery is how Arthur managed to become a lawyer...

Loco Motive had been on my radar for a hot minute, as a murder mystery on a train sounded right up my alley and I liked how it looked. Having finally played and completed it, I can say that Loco Motive is a really charming debut from Robust Games that shows a lot of talent in visual presentation and writing, even if it doesn't manage to be as compelling on the gameplay/plot front.

While the pixel art is relatively simplistic compared to other games, it's well executed with some really good animations and a nice use of color. Environments feel very cozy and the choice to focus the game in a small set of rooms allows for a lot of familiarity with the world without it feeling repetitive.

Writing is, arguably, the major draw of this game. It has incredibly strong comedic chops, delivering a sense of humour that is adult without being vulgar. There are countless lines that had me smirking, snickering, and some even loudly laughing at how well executed the jokes are. Characters are absurd and charismatic and I took a major liking to the cast with a lot of distinct personalities to get to know. I think the greatest achievement here is HERMAN MERMAN, DETECTIVE EXTRAORDINAIRE. He's such a riot in his line delivery and the kinds of absurdity he encounters and engages in. I love his blend of deadpan sarcasm and loud arrogance.

Gameplay is your usual point-and-click fare with very little to create a mechanical shake-up. A really exciting mechanism gets dangled towards the end in the form of getting to play as multiple characters at once and it's where the game starts to really shine. Unfortunately, this only comes near the end and left me feeling wanting for more puzzles.

The game broadly avoids bad logic, which can be a major pitfall for this genre. There were one or two puzzles that seemed to have somewhat far-fetched solutions, but they were minor occurrences and most of the game was a smooth ride. More than anything, I wish the puzzles got shaken up with more complex logic challenges. Quite a few puzzles felt too easy and required very little thought to solve.

Technically, the game was a pretty smooth ride. There were a few soft-locks where I was trapped in dialogue due to characters getting stuck in animations, but that was a minor issue greatly alleviated by autosave.

My only other major complaint would relate to plot, which felt underbaked in spots. The final twists weren't very strong and didn't have good setup, meaning that you're not really solving the murder for the majority of the game even though you technically are. Furthermore, it seems like there's been some cut content. Diana's segment felt surprisingly short and some characters' actions didn't seem to add up to anything/were just kind of forgotten.

At the end of the day, I enjoyed my time with Loco Motive and found it to be a very cozy and funny game with solid presentation. There are glimmers of something greater, particularly towards the end as you get to juggle multiple characters, but the game doesn't fully realize its potential on that front, nor narratively, which may upset those looking for a strong murder mystery, rather than a comedic point-and-click adventure with a murder mystery backdrop. Hopefully, the dev team will take these key strengths and use them to really explore their potential on a future outing. I'd score it 7/10.

Decent recommend FFO: Agatha Christie mysteries, comedy games, point-and-click adventures, and haters of algorithms.

very fun game, but get it on sale. VERY short, 0 replay value

if you're into twist endings or subverted expectations in your murder mysteries, then you'll be disappointed by the writing. For me, that's kind of the whole point of a murder mystery. So when the story was beating you over the head with the real murderer, I was hoping it was a red herring......... it was not.

That was pretty disappointing to me because I do love other aspects of the writing. The characters were all interesting and engaging to interact with. The voice acting was phenomenal. the writing is genuinely funny. Ultimately, this is more important to create a good gaming experience. And if you are more of a fan of point and click adventure more than murder mystery, it is absolutely the game for you and I recommend it.

The mystery aspect of it felt like an afterthought with how heavy handed the narrative was with pointing at the culprit.

This is my first time writing a review for any Steam game so you know this one is special. I played through Loco Motive twice to get all of the achievements and honestly want to play it a third time because I enjoyed the game that much. Everything about this game is just so incredibly well done. The story is really funny, the characters are charming, the jazz music is wonderful and the voice acting is simply immaculate.

If you're still not convinced, Loco Motive motivated me to play through the entire Monkey Island series on Steam because I wanted to see what inspired this gem of a game. It was that good!