The Detail Review

It’s a good sign when finishing a game causes me to audibly yell "Nooo, don’t finish there!" at my iPad. It’s also a sign that the first episode of The Detail could perhaps do with being a little longer. It offers just enough to really grab your attention, but its premium price tag doesn’t quite match up with the quantity offered here.

The App Store description suggests a mixture of The Walking Dead with the grim realism of The Wire. That’s about right, too. The Detail is a pretty dark game, even this early on, but it hooks you in fast.

Following two very different characters - a grizzled and cynical veteran detective and a reformed criminal with a family - it’s not long at all before you’re drawn into the storyline. Action is much like other adventure games with you tapping on hotspots to interact with them in some way. Within a few minutes, you’re inspecting a body, trying to glean clues as to what’s unfolding. You can also talk to people, ask them questions, and adjust your tone accordingly.

Besides that, there are near Fahrenheit style moments with swiping gestures used to dictate how you want to deal with incidents. At times interacting with things doesn’t entirely work, for a reason I couldn’t fully pinpoint, but the majority of the time there’s no issue here.

Visually, The Detail is immensely stylish. Designed much like a comic book, flitting between black and white and color, it’s the kind of look that sticks in your mind.

Where The Detail falters is its ending. As episodic content often does, the first episode ends quickly and with little warning. You’re left wanting to know what happens next, which is a good thing, but it's also frustrating in how soon it happens (only around an hour into the game). It’s a great hour though, and one that’s still worth the asking price. The quality and love that’s clearly been invested in this game is there for all to see. It just makes that wait for the next episode all the more frustrating.