Royal Detective: Borrowed Life

Detectives are usually put in weird situations as they investigate various cases, especially if the crimes in question are not your average bank robbery caught on tape. Fictional stories are even more interesting, especially when they contain supernatural events and mythical creatures. Finding the culprit when it can be a ghost or a werewolf is a lot more difficult, but then again such detectives also have special abilities.

Royal Detective: Borrowed Life is a hidden object adventure game in which you play the role of a detective who’s on a fairly peculiar case. The gameplay mechanics revolve around finding useful objects and using them to unlock the way further, but there are actual puzzles to tackle as well, even if they may not be as complex as in a true adventure game.

It all takes place in a small town by the name of Dorfield, where a local sculptor disappears and the authorities ask for help with the case. As it turns out, the sculptor’s wife is saying that his sculptures are actually coming alive and they are to blame for this whole thing, so your investigation turns interesting right away. There are a few other twists in the story, but don’t expect anything particularly memorable.

If you are a fan of the genre, then you should be able to get right down to it, gameplay-wise. All you need to do is carefully look around each scene and spot items that can be picked up. These objects can then be used to acquire other items, as well as open containers. Every now and again a puzzle pops up that requires a bit more thought, but they are far from challenging most of the time.

Thankfully, at least the artwork is in tune with the story and the setting, because you truly feel like you are part of a small town. Each scene contains a lot of details, not to mention the fact that everything is incredibly colorful and serene. Granted, the voice acting is a bit too annoying sometimes, but you can focus on the puzzles instead.

In the end, Royal Detective: Borrowed Life is by no means a bad game, but it lacks the originality element required to become a memorable title. Hence, you may have moderate amounts of fun with the puzzles and the story, but everything about it disappears from memory two weeks after you are done with the game. NOTE: This is a downloader for the game. Once run, the application will automatically download and install the game on your computer.

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