Review: Tales of the Neon Sea (Steam)

Pros:

• Beautiful pixel art graphics.
• Controller support.
• Puzzle point and click gameplay.
• Well written story.
• Murder scenes–you get a selection of scanners to inspect the scene and each scanner will search for particulars.
• Clues-Once you find clues/evidence it gives you parts of a watch which you then must assemble it in order to get the recreation and subsequent results.
• Clues before getting watch parts do allow you to *verify* your findings and get a conclusion which can then help to gather more information.
• Many puzzle types.
• A tutorial area at the start then you get help tooltips.
• Question/interact with people and parts of the world.
• Can re-read/examine evidence and clues?
• Vibrant world to explore.
• Once you solve the crime you get treated to a cutscene.
• Minimal controls making it a lot easier to engage with.
• Lush soundtrack.
• Have you thinking out of the box.
• Few times I had scribbles of clues and theories on a notepad.

Cons:

• Mouse cursor stays on the screen.
• A lot of backtracking.
• Bare minimum tutorial.
• The controller shows its clunkiness on the watch puzzle.
• No hints/tips/skip option.
• No voice work.
• Watch puzzle has to be exact even though all cogs may well move how they are supposed too.
• Puzzles can become very obtuse.
• Few instances of puzzles locking you in a set area and won’t release you until you solve the puzzle.