Some people are overly dramatic about how bad their day has been/is going. The Case of the Worst Day Ever is far from the exception, as the folk who entertain this intriguing detective game are the type of people who’ll stub their toe and trigger the end of days. It’s relative, and some of us sweat the small stuff, while others are more focused on their latest bake-off submission.
Despite the melodrama, this game is surprisingly entertaining and equally perplexing. The number of amateur detectives is on the increase, thanks to the influx of Netflix boxsets and social media platforms where everyone has a theory; however, the evidence-gathering here throws plenty of curveballs to test your grey matter.
Essentially, we have a family portrait setting where each chapter of the game will introduce a new character and their dilemma. Your job, in a relatively non-linear fashion, is to gather almost 40 clues in the form of a keyword, then decipher who’s who, who owns/is connected to what, and what in the Dickens is the scene depicting via way of a summary. Connect all the dots, and then it’s on to the next scene.
The Case of the Worst Day Ever follows the exact same format as Little Problems: A Cozy Detective Game in that you click around a scene for clues. Depending on your settings, as the game features a healthy number of hints and tips should you need it, you’ll be able to extract a variety of keywords that are colour-coded based on nouns, verbs and adjectives. Every day is a learning day! Each chapter will have a number of scenes for you to interact with, and while the keywords obtained often are out of context and red herrings, they offer enough for you to have a stab at each solution.
Admittedly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the illustration style in The Case of the Worst Day Ever, which is much different from Hero Game Co.’s previous titles, Prose & Codes and Poems & Codes – titles well worth the look for the inquisitive mind. While the cartoon style is quite innocent and accessible, the evidence is a little tricky. The names of characters are amusing and soon become quite memorable, though you can’t fast-track anything until obtaining all clues, and even then, there are the curveballs mentioned that add much more longevity to the game.
I wouldn’t for a second think I’m a decent detective, even though the point and click adventure is my drug of choice; however, I’m no boy scout. That said, I’d sometimes steamroll through a few solutions, only to get some nuance or two wrong. Mostly, it’s down to a lack of observation skills, and on the rare occasion, some of the solutions didn’t make sense. At least, to me. Nevertheless, much like the developer’s previous entries, you can move at a steady pace and find yourself dipping into a chapter at a time rather than steaming through.
Going back to that drug of choice example, I have myself playing quite a few non-review games of late and getting distracted, but The Case of the Worst Day Ever is one I’ve religiously been starting my day with, typically, one chapter at a time, though that’s based on time constraints rather than a reflection on the game. As stated, it’s surprisingly entertaining and will give you enough of a challenge to be paying attention and not dialling it in. Still, some people really do make a meal of their days and, in this case, none of them are life or death scenarios. Drama kings and queens, eh?
