BROK The InvestiGator – Review

COWCAT’s BROK The InvestiGATOR mixes a lost game style, the point-and-click adventure, with a 2D side-scrolling beat ‘em up (e.g. Streets of Rage). Those who haven’t played point-and-click games will get their chance with this one.

Players will run into problem-solving situations that must be answered by a multiple-choice question or by solving a puzzle to advance to the next scene. Some puzzles can be frustrating, such as putting together pieces to make a triangle. You’ll use the game’s cursor to pick the parts or questions to solve the riddle. Picking the wrong one can result in a battle against foes like robots or in getting zapped by electricity, which depletes your health gauge. The game offers clues, but sometimes you want to figure it out on your own.

Set in a futuristic cyberpunk city where the air is polluted and animals have replaced humans, society is split into two classes – the fortunate, known as Drumers who live under the safety of the dome, and the unfortunate, known as Slumers who live in the slums struggling for survival. Brok is a former boxer turned private detective who lives in the Slums with Graff, a student and the son of his deceased wife.

One morning Brok gets a call from a police officer needing help locating his lost weapon, a case that he accepts and one that leads to Brok uncovering a much more sinister plot. While animals may have replaced humans, robots (known as Tribots) are also a prominent part of society, one that Brok doesn’t trust as much as others. Brok has noticed that the Tribots have been acting strangely of late, along with the Squealers – a gang of rats that lurk in the Slums. Are they all connected to what is happening? Brok will need to get to the bottom of it before it’s too late.

BROK the Investigator is a great point-and-click adventure game with fun fighting action segments with a deep and complex story. The stories of these characters teach you the motivations of each person you meet and why they do what they do. Touching on political and economic elements, this story is a lot more serious than you would think a game would be, especially one starring an alligator and a bunch of other animals in a world full of robots who take on the roles of police officers and other roles previously held by humans would be. Depending on the choices you make during the game, there are multiple different endings that you can unlock. Your first playthrough will probably take over 10 hours to complete. You can always create multiple save files to jump back before that even occurs if something doesn’t go how you want it to. Or, if you finish the game, you can use this to go back and try to unlock another one of the endings.

The majority of Brok’s gameplay unfolds in adventure mode, where you can either point and click at hotspots on the screen with a mouse, or take direct control of Brok with a gamepad or keyboard controls to interact with things by walking up to them. This latter option integrates better with the other aspects of the gameplay, so this is the recommended way to play — though if you prefer to kick it properly old-school point-and-click, you can do so. You can even turn the beat ’em up parts off altogether if you simply want a pure adventure.

When those beat ’em up parts do crop up, they’re well implemented. Like most good beat ’em ups, the mechanics initially appear very simple — you simply have an attack button and a jump button, plus a special attack button once you unlock it — but they have a surprising amount of hidden depth to them. Many inventory items can be equipped as weapons that can be used to strike or be thrown, for example, and various button and directional combinations will unleash moves other than the basic punch combo.

It’s hard to overstate how robust an experience BROK the InvestiGator is. With its many different types of gameplay, its dual characters, its half-dozen-plus endings, and just the sheer volume of writing, it’s about as complete as a game can be without ever being too much. The mixing of nostalgia for 90s-era Saturday morning cartoons, point-and-clicks, and beat-em-ups results in an alchemical concoction that feels new and fresh. Aside from some tropes and stiff animation, the game is a truly stunning achievement and it’s all fully accessible. While people who love fighting games might find the action underwhelming, BROK the InvestiGator is sure to punch its way directly into the hearts of adventure game fans looking for something extraordinary.