DeTechtive 2112

My honest first reaction to DeTechtive 2112 was something close to wistful hope. The intro pulls you in hard: post-World War III England rendered in rain-slicked isometric streets, neon bleeding through every shadow, a fully voiced detective named Matthew Wallace who carries secrets the way this city carries fog. M11 Studio clearly cared about building a world, and for a small indie team the visual ambition powered by Unreal Engine 5 is genuinely striking. The neon-lit cityscapes, detailed character portraits, and that persistent, mood-heavy soundtrack all do real work. If atmosphere were the whole game, this would be an easy recommendation. The problem is that the title says detective and the gameplay says something else entirely. What you actually spend most of your three hours doing is running a case structure that amounts to receiving a mission, entering a map, and shooting waves of enemies before heading back to the office. The five cases each have their own map and a short story beat connecting them, and there is a loadout screen that lets you slot two weapons plus up to four pieces of equipment. That part has promise. But the stealth system, advertised as a genuine option, is undermined by enemy AI that lines soldiers up in predictable rows and reacts inconsistently to your presence. In practice most players end up ignoring stealth entirely and going loud, not because violence is satisfying but because sneaking simply does not function reliably. Bosses follow the same pattern as regular enemies, just with more health. The money-and-weapons economy exists but offers little reason to experiment, and the world itself is linear with almost no meaningful exploration or NPC interaction beyond repeated dialogue lines. The co-op component is where the package finds its best version of itself. Up to four players can run cases together online, and the chaos of coordinated shooting in these neon corridors lands better with company. There is also a Cyber Zombie Mode unlocked after the campaign for groups who want pure action without the case framing. Neither mode fixes the shallow AI or the lack of detective depth, but they reframe the experience as a short, breezy co-op arcade session rather than a narrative game you are supposed to sit with. On Easy or Normal difficulty, a squad can knock out the full campaign in an evening. Steam reception has settled around Mixed, with players consistently praising the visuals and soundtrack while criticizing the repetitive structure, the thin story, the underpowered stealth, and a runtime that many found too short for the price at launch. There is something genuinely likeable buried in here. The concept of a post-war private eye piecing together the crimes of a crumbling elite society, assisted by his secretary Abigail across interconnected cases, is the seed of something thoughtful. The soundtrack aligns with the mood in a way that smaller indie games often get wrong. Controller support is solid. Three difficulty settings mean you can tune the combat frustration somewhat. But the gap between what DeTechtive 2112 wants to be and what it currently is feels wider than a patch or two can close. If you approach it as a compact, visually rich co-op shooter with a cyberpunk skin and low expectations for investigative depth, you might leave with something. If you come expecting L.A. Noire in 2112, you will leave disappointed.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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