Game preview: Chinatown Detective Agency shaping up to be an addictive point-and-click adventure

Chinatown Detective Agency features retro 8-bit-style pixel art graphics for the entire game. PHOTO: GENERAL INTERACTIVE CO

Chinatown Detective Agency (CDA) is a point-and-click puzzle adventure game set in a futuristic dystopian cyberpunk Singapore. I played an early build of the game and came away really impressed.

You play as private investigator Amira Darma, formerly a Singapore Police Force detective and an Interpol rising star. Disillusioned with internal politics, she resigned to set up CDA in Eu Tong Sen Street.

Unlike blockbuster games that have ultra-realistic graphics, the game features retro 8-bit-style pixel art graphics for the entire game, whether it is Amira's character, the maps or the user interface (UI).

The UI is clearly inspired by the Carmen Sandiego series of adventure video games released in the 1980s and 1990s.

A main panel takes up nearly two-thirds of the screen and is where the action happens. Here, you move Amira by right-clicking your mouse or select places of interests by left-clicking.

At the bottom of this panel is a row of small panels for map, the game's travel agency, shortcut to the office and settings.

On the left panel is a mobile phone-like interface with a number pad for calling people, incoming messages, the latest news and the current balance in your bank account.

At the start of the game, you will be visited by your former colleague and mentor Justin Koh. He will give you a lead to your first case.

Following the lead, you can unlock places in the map, from the Civic District to Bedok. Later, you travel overseas to locations such as London, Osaka and Istanbul to solve your cases.

I love that when you take the MRT, an MRT door would close and later open at the destination. It is a nice visual touch.

I love the voice acting too. All the voice actors are pretty spot-on in their delivery of Singlish, especially the one playing a character called Justin, who sounds like someone from your friendly Ah Beng mobile phone store.

The puzzles require you to search online for clues. Keep your smartphone nearby as you will find yourself Googling certain phrases to solve a puzzle. But some puzzles need more work, such as one in which you have to decode a message by interpreting a set of numbers.

According to the developer, while there are main quests to solve, there will be rewards for those who put in the effort to solve the side-quests. As a long-time role-playing game fan, I feel the more quests, the better.

The game is expected to be available by the end of this year. For details, visit the website.

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