Steam: The Crimson Diamond on Steam
Premise
Follow Nancy, an amateur geologist, as she travels north to the ghost town of Crimson, Ontario to investigate the discovery of a massive diamond in the area.
The game’s premise might not appeal to many, but mechanically this game is amazing. This is a retro-style adventure game where object interaction and puzzle solving depends on your competence with the text parser.
Investigation Mechanics
- Your ability to solve puzzles is closely tied to how well you understand the text parser. The text parser itself is competently designed, and there’s a decent amount of keyboard shortcuts to make your life easy.
- The game is generous with hints, thereby making it easy for you to get started with investigations. Even then, it’s pretty easy to miss important details.
- A successful investigation requires carefully examination of your surroundings for clues.
- Evidence can be scrutinized further within your inventory to uncover new insights.
- Figuring out how items can be combined is a key part of the process. If items could simply be dragged and dropped, discovering all permutations would be trivial. But in Crimson Diamond, the command-driven interface obscures the correct course of action, increasing the challenge.
- However, the text parser’s use isn’t limited to inventory puzzles. You also use it to determine which topics to discuss with characters. Paying attention to keywords in their responses is essential, as these can be used to probe them further. This is another example of how the text parser adds much needed complexity, something a conventional dialogue tree would have trivialized.
- The puzzles in the game are pretty good and fairly logical. For instance, in some chapters, solving key events largely involves basic shoeprint and fingerprint analysis that is then used to eliminate innocent parties and identify suspects. The brilliance lies in its simplicity. While the analysis itself is straightforward, obtaining those fingerprints requires you to often think creatively rather than rely on brute force.
- Your choices have consequences, and it’s not impossible to be rendered unable to solve a puzzle, or the larger mystery.
Writing
- Both the overarching narrative and the dialogue are competently written.
- As an adventure and mystery game, the character writing is solid. Character motivations are clearly defined and thoughtfully developed.
Presentation/Artstyle
- The presentation is very tasteful and retro.
- Despite using EGA-style graphics, the visuals do not hamper your ability to investigate. Environments are surprisingly detailed, and objects on the floor are easy to distinguish.
Other Stuff
- The whole geologist thing is taken seriously. A key reason why you’re able to solve the mystery is due to your profession.
- The main menu theme is pretty good.
My Thoughts
This game was a surprisingly delightful to play. For a solo-dev effort, this very competently made. I personally found the mystery rather easy to unravel. But, solving the actual puzzles in the game required me to think a lot. If you’re a fan of investigation games, puzzle games, or any sort of adventure games, I recommend that you try The Crimson Diamond.