Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth Review
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By Ben Salter
"Your logic is flawed" he said with devilish grin. With arrogance written all over his smug face Miles Edgeworth explains why you, and everyone else is this room, is completely wrong about everything, and to be quite frank, utterly useless. The Ace Attorney series has always had a strong storyline, and that’s no different for the first game in the Investigations spin-off. Protagonist Miles Edgeworth is ready to get his hands dirty, by heading outside of the traditional Ace Attorney courtroom and getting right into the thick of the action CSI style.
The days of Phoenix Wright are over; five games down the track we finally get to step into his nemesis’s shoes. If he posted on the MyMedia forums Miles Edgeworth would be your classic Internet tough guy. He doesn’t care for idiots, even though he’s partnered by bumbling side kick Dick Gumshoe in the first story, he thrives on pointing out everyone’s minor mistakes and he doesn’t want to be liked by anyone, at least on the surface. While most of the game takes place outside of the courtroom there’s still more than enough finger pointing and screaming to be had, minus the judge. Instead you simply argue you case with almost anyone you come into contact with while at the crime scenes.
There are 5 different stories to complete, each focusing on a different crime. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth has to be commended for its story, as each crime is connected in interesting and obscure ways, and will leave you conjecturing until the very end. Like many DS games there’s an e-book’s worth of text to contend with, and about half of the game is reading. If you’re not into that and want to get straight into the action Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is not the game for you. There’s about 15 minutes of text at the start of the game, before you get to do anything, and even then it’s a minor button press, followed by several minutes of story. Playing the role of a detective and prosecutor makes the extravagant story vital to the gameplay and the decision that you make, so make sure you are prepared to read and pay attention.
The premise is much the same as it’s always been. Edgeworth, or one of his associates, is accused of a crime, often murder, and he has to find all of the clues to clear the innocent name and uncover the real perpetrator. To be honest, it’s a little surprising that he’s still allowed to practice law, seeing how he’s constantly accused of shooting and kidnapping people, and happens to be the only one that can clear his name. But that’s what makes Ace Attorney so great. The story is out there, it’s far from realistic, and at times even fairly predictable. However, you still find yourself on the edge of your seat wanting to find out what happens next. While the overall narrative mightn’t be the best thing ever committed to paper (or game cart) the way the crime investigations pan out is second to none, at least, when the work.
To solve crimes and argue your point, without making a fool out Miles, you have to examine the scene very carefully. Piece by piece you’ll stumble upon new clues, and then finally discover something that doesn’t quite fit. The big change in Investigations is the move into the third person. Miles can be controlled on the top screen with either the D-pad or touch screen. Walking around the crime scene you can examine anything that looks out of place. As such, it plays out like a traditional point and click adventure. Using his “logic”, accessed on the touch screen, Miles can piece together what he’s learnt so far to begin painting a mental picture of how everything is connected.
The courtroom gameplay has been maintained, just placed in different environments. As in previous games, you can still listen to your opponents’ arguments and press them for more information before presenting evidence to prove they are terribly wrong. It just happens in your office, or at the local theme park instead of in the courtroom. While the crime scene investigating makes things new and exciting, the prosecuting gameplay is still where most of the work is. Figuring out how things are connected is either immediately obvious or nothing more in depth than trial and error.
For the most part the clues are fantastic, the evidence needed to foil your opponent is clear-cut, clever and interesting and it’s a joy to watch Edgeworth use the power of logic to clear an innocent soul. Unfortunately, however, this isn’t the case for the entire game. The series’ recurring issues have returned once again to plague what could have been a fantastic spin-off. While some clues are ingenious others are nothing short of increasingly frustrating. What you think can be completely wrong, and as such Edgey will lose a big chunk of his health or truth bar, which increases or decreases depending on his success. When it becomes apparent that you and the scriptwriters are one two different wave lengths it ceases to be clever and becomes a button mashing trial and error nightmare. It’s hard to be conclusive, but we believe the number of times this will happen is going to come down to the individual, depending on your thought process. Too often there are similar pieces of evidence that point to the same, or possible other, contradictions, but only one is ever correct. We said the story, on the whole, should be commended, but if you find you have a completely different thought process to Capcom you may think otherwise.
While some of the clue and evidence combinations had us pulling our hair out, it’s easy to forget that you’re now half bald when you hit one that just clicks. Either way you’ll be dying to know what happens next and be filled with a sense of achievement when you finally get past whatever had you more confused than a barking cat.
The visuals are colourful, and the crime scene locations are full of hidden surprises. With the exception of examining some evidence, most of the game is presented in 2D, and the conversations are still primarily a stationary face with the occasional finger pointing and giant eye burning words flashing across the screen. It works fine, but is certainly nothing amazing. The sound isn’t really important in a game like this, but the elevator-style music develops a nice crime-solving atmosphere.
The Final Verdict
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is a great spin-off and injected some much needed life into a strong series at just the right time. While each game in the serious is good, Ace Attorney still hasn’t reached the dizzying heights we hoped it would, just because of the re-occurring trial and error issues. Despite the moments of frustration it’s hard to stay mad at Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, because on the whole it’s a charming game that’ll have you guessing until the very end.
Gameplay
8.0
Heading out of the courtroom was a great way to inject life into the series. For the most part the crime scene investigating is fun, it's just held back by the same problems the series has had since its inception: There's too much trial and error between the ingenious puzzles.
Graphics
7.0
The characters all look great, it's just a little too lacklustre. After 5 years we know that 2D DS games, especially ones filled with text, need a little more than a character's face with some finger tapping.
Sound
7.5
Sound doesn't play a big part, but it's a nice touch.
Value
7.5
The 5 stories take a while to power through, but there's no reason to play it again.
Overall
7.8
A score between 7.3 and 7.9 means the overall experience is good but may suffer from some medium-to-major problems on the gameplay, value and/or graphical front.
Submitted by ICC_06
20/02/2010
17
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