BROK the InvestiGator (PS5)

Sometimes in a point and click adventure game you can find yourself stuck on an inventory puzzle and just wish you could smash your way through the roadblock preventing you from progression, and BROK the InvestiGator understands that, providing the opportunity to simply use your fists as a solution. Smashing things to bits instead of properly solving them can have consequences of course and the story can even adjust based on how often you go for the aggressive approach, but at the same time sometimes punching something apart is the intended way of progressing, and with some legitimate fights along the way and mild platforming, this detective story is able to provide a broader approach to problem-solving than just using the right items in a specific way.

 

BROK the InvestiGator takes place in a world of colorful humanoid animals, but while their designs evoke 90s Disney cartoons, their often bleak post-apocalyptic world certainly isn’t a bright one. A toxic haze infects the air of their ruined world, and while every citizen is provided a pill to help alleviate its effects, the upper class are able to live in a cleaner dome where more advanced technology and security help them stay safe and comfortable. Outside of the dome are the less well off, the life in the slums seeing people operating with technology that is decades old or whatever scraps they can salvage from the dome’s trash. There’s a pretty well-realized history to this economic disparity between the so-called Drumers and Slumers, and while Brok the private detective is usually used to operating out of the slums for his detective work, circumstance begins to bring him closer to uncovering some dark truths about the way the dome is being handled. The alligator investigator is the main character of the story and while there are undercurrents of the broader picture in play early on, the major issues do start to emerge more gradually as Brok’s work puts him closer and closer to Drumer lifer than he had been before. Interestingly enough though, there is a second playable character and one who gets nearly as much screen time, Brok’s stepson Graff actually in the midst of undergoing evaluation for moving from slum life to life within the dome.

Brok’s uneasy relationship with his feline stepson is a major component of the game’s narrative, the adolescent Graff feeling he needs support more than ever at this pivotal point in his life while Brok is caught up in the whirlwind of an increasingly complicated series of investigations. The pair are distant but Brok is trying to do the best by his boy, but Graff’s emotional volatility leads to a believable unease between them that is further sold by an excellent vocal performance by Michael Covach who has a lot of highs and lows he needs to capture. Voice work in general is well-handled and present throughout, and some characters like the scientist Dr. Mink are really given an extra layer of personality from how their performance gels well with the face art that changes to show their emotional state during a conversation. In general the cast is tight but well-handled, many consistent players appearing both across Brok’s work and Graff’s ongoing tests so you come to understand and sympathize with a good deal of them. Since the story isn’t afraid to look at the struggles of this future’s form of life as well, there are many moments made to draw out greater emotion from this experience, especially since its branching narrative contains possible sad endings for its characters due to the struggles this rough albeit not hopeless future entails.

 

There are a few ways your time in BROK the InvestiGator will be spent, with perhaps the most prevalent being searching a new area you enter for important items or people to speak with. If you have trouble uncovering them naturally you can hold a button to find interaction points but there are hidden “ads” on most every screen, the player needing to find these small QR codes unassisted but in an interesting twist, these ads actually contain hints in case you get stuck during play and need a little push in the right direction. Being QR codes you only get these hints if you go through the effort of scanning them with your real life phone as well, meaning you can collect them for completion’s sake without worrying about having a puzzle’s solution given away in the process. Despite offering the option of being able to smash your way through many puzzles, BROK the InvestiGator actually has a good handle on how to make its puzzles reasonable yet still challenging to solve. Graff in particular faces many trials that require some problem solving as his test for dome citizenry provides many reasonable reasons for such activities. Whether it’s repairing his science project and protecting it from a bully or utilizing the history and exhibits of a museum in tandem with each other to get a vital clue, Graff’s sections often provide the more intricate inventory interaction puzzles while Brok’s often work more towards story goals such as his various investigations.

While Brok isn’t always working on a case, you do spend a good deal of time uncovering details about the world or vital clues from the environment that can then later come in handy. At a few key points in the story Brok will need to present his findings, the player given a set of the information they’ve found that they need to make the right connections between in order to make the right deductions. There isn’t always a pressure to be absolutely correct when doing this so you can feel your way through the investigation some, but it does give the game a sense of legitimate mystery solving when these do arise. At other times though Brok will need to make his way forward through places either through clever use of the tools on hand or his own physical abilities. While fighting is put forth as the most common application of this, sometimes it instead manifests as making a way to climb up to somewhere new or outrunning a danger, and there is often more than one way to overcome an obstacle based on actions you’ve taken before. There are many moments where you asked to make a clear choice, such as whether or not you’ll help someone or how exactly you respond in a conversation. The rewards from these interactions can manifest in some interesting ways, such as whether a character trusts you enough to help out later, this even potentially leading to moments where an entire fight can be skipped or, conversely, where a fight you didn’t need to get into occurs. Things like the bond between Brok and Graff can shift based on such choices as well and lead to alternate endings, and while the so-called “canon” ending is a bit unusual, you can even find satisfying finales in other story routes and multiple save files give you a chance to pursue different choices.

 

While smashing things apart is a helpful option to have, BROK the InvestiGator does present some full on fighting segments where Brok or Graff will take foes in a style reminiscent of beat ’em up games. These brawler segments let you freely move around a space and sometimes even grab weapons or smash crates for healing items, but a few things hold these back from being a selling point. Despite the story taking you to a decently wide range of diverse locations, for the most part you’ll be fighting the robotic sentries called Tribots who protect the dome or the Squealers gang of rats who operate on the fringes of society. Both groups have a few different enemy types within their group, but they aren’t too varied and neither are your battle options. You have a simple and lightly adjustable combo string and some options like a super move, running attack, and a few aerial attacks, and Brok and Graff do have different fighting styles to set apart how they approach a fight. However, these fights still often feel pretty straightforward in regards to how you approach them, only a few boss characters really asking for more evasive play and picking your moments. There is a VR arena you can enter at your leisure that cranks up the difficulty to provide a challenge that asks more out of you, but for the most part, these fights feel like their main purpose is to provide some challenge should you choose a more violent solution over puzzle solving. While many fights can be a bit plain, others will have foes swarm the battlefield or provide a particularly durable opponent, meaning that choosing between figuring out the puzzle or fighting your way through is a decision with some weight on both sides. Cash can be earned through conflict that can go towards helpful items or even story related tasks and experience points will allow you to become a more capable fighter the more you engage with it, but making your heroes more violent also can twist that story in certain directions to again add a more intricate layer of decision making even over the seemingly brute force option for making progress.

THE VERDICT: Quality vocal performances and writing bring the well-realized point and click world of BROK the InvestiGator to life, its well-rounded characters contributing nicely to a narrative of societal strife that doesn’t shy away from harsh truths but still provides emotional payoffs if you approach your personal relationships well. The puzzles are often designed smartly on their own, but the option to fight your way through a situation introduces an interesting secondary choice that caters to the game’s focus on many potential paths for the narrative to follow. The fighting itself feels rather simplistic admittedly, but it’s not so weak that it weighs the experience down, the player able to focus on the world-building and detective work that make up this game’s true strengths.

 

And so, I give BROK the InvestiGator for PlayStation 5…

A GOOD rating. While like any point and click adventure it has a few puzzles that can feel a little off in their logic, BROK the InvestiGator also gives you a way to work around it that isn’t just a glorified skip option. While making the brawling segments more entertaining on their own would be the obvious direction for polishing up this experience further, they do work well in terms of providing something that must be overcome no matter which route you’re going for in terms of a solution. The story of Brok and Graff struggling to live in this harsh world is definitely the best executed part of the experience, the pathos of watching the struggle from both sides of this low income single parent household making its emotional highs and lows hit harder. It can still have its comedic moments and its world isn’t established just for the sake of grinding down its characters, but it is willing to explore the harsh realities they experience and make that part of the main plot’s narrative direction. The multiple endings and different outcomes based on decisions do benefit the game a great deal as they can lead to satisfying payoffs for sticking it out on a hard puzzle or behaving the right way in character interactions, and making some of the endings well-realized rather than just novelties means you can find finales that perhaps better suit what you were hoping for out of an ending. The split protagonist focus does also ensure some variety is always present as well, the moments where you can jump between them operating in entirely different situations also a nice way to cool off if you feel stuck.

 

Had the action side provided more thrills on its own merits then BROK the InvestiGator could have been bumped up another rating level, the story and puzzles certainly where they’d need to be for a memorable experience. The setting and cast are established quite well and the investigation elements feel purposeful because of how knowledge and decisions can pay off down the line. This isn’t a game where you’re choosing between being brainy or meat-headed, because just like its setting, things can be more complex and interconnected than they might first appear.