#oneaday Day 746: InstiGator

S-RANK PATRONS: Get your questions in for December Q&A at https://www.patreon.com/posts/s-rank-patrons-q-45110887 or see the pinned post on https://patreon.com/petedavison/posts

Merry Christmas! I'll have a proper Christmas message for you all tomorrow as I technically haven't had my Christmas Eve sleep yet, so it's still Christmas Eve.

The reason I stayed up late is because I was investigating the recently released "Prologue" chapter to a game called Brok: The InvestiGator. I'll have a full writeup on this next week, but I did want to throw out a quick recommendation now.

Brok is the work of Fabrice Breton, aka COWCATgames, the person who did the console versions of the lovely pixel art games Riddled Corpses, Xenon Valkyrie and that other one from the same developer that I can't remember the name of. Demon's Tier?

When not doing great ports, Breton works on adventure games that are clearly passion projects. Brok has been in the works for a while, but its playable prologue (about 3 hours worth of gameplay!) released recently, so I was keen to check it out. Breton describes it as a fusion of point and click adventure and beat 'em up, and those are two of my favourite things.

And it really works. The adventure side is most prominent, as you might expect, but the beat 'em up side is solidly implemented and enjoyable. It occurs during times when you choose a more aggressive solution to a problem — but there's usually a "brains" approach you can take too.

Brok unfolds in a sci-fi vision of the future, but the twist is all the characters are anthropomorphic animals. The titular hero is an alligator, hence the pun in the title. The world is filled with pollution called the Haze, and societal inequality has escalated to where the "Drumers" of society live the high life in domed cities, while "Slumers" have to make the best of a decaying world.

There's plenty of interesting characterisation and a ton of emotional engagement. The case you work in the prologue is intriguing, and there are lots of optional things to discover. I won't spoil any of them for now, but if you enjoy the sort of investigative game where you have to gather clues and then effectively "show your working" in a final interrogation, you'll love this.

This game is going to be very special, though I know Breton has struggled to get the press to pay attention to it so far. I'll be doing my bit after the Christmas break, and I encourage you to check our the free prologue yourself in the meantime — it's really good. You can get it on GOG or Steam, I believe (I'm writing on my phone, otherwise I'd provide a more convenient link for you!)

Anyway. That was my Christmas Eve. Hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow!