I think it’s fair to say that developers Indigo Studios tailor to a very particular niche with the games they create. If you’ve already played any of their previous titles – Seven Doors, Charon’s Staircase & Portrait of A Torn – you’ll be familiar with this design and style. They’re dark, detailed, with elements of horror centred around a supernatural mystery that we, as the player-character, are tasked with unveiling. There are puzzles, jump scares and a near constant desire to turn up the brightness on your monitor. All of that is true of their most recent creation: The Last Case of John Morley.

An atmospheric noir-like ‘whodunit’, this game takes us to the 1940’s as we attempt to solve a murder mystery case that has remained unsolved for 20 years. Is The Last Case of John Morley a cold case worth heating up? Or should we keep this case closed? Let’s don a fedora, knock back two fingers of whisky and examine the clues.

Dear John… Morley

At the start of the game, you’re thrust into the first person gumshoes of the titular private detective. After awaking from a nightmare in a hospital bed, you’re quickly oriented to his situation; John’s last case ended badly and resulted in him falling from a waterfall. Now discharged from the London hospital with a clean bill of health, John heads to his run-down office where he discovers his assistant has left him and his debts have mounted up while he was healing from his wounds.

In steps an offer he can’t refuse. Unlike the tired tropes however, this offer doesn’t come wearing a tight-fitting red dress. Instead, it’s a dour, hard-faced countess called Lady Margaret Fordside who’s here to enlist John Morley’s help. 20 years earlier, Lady Fordside’s daughter was murdered in her family home, the countess explains, and the real culprit was never brought to justice. With a huge sum of money on offer to crack the case and find the real killer, John takes the case and heads to the abandoned stately home that was once the scene of a grizzly murder.

Sherlock Holmes, But From Wish

I’ve seen enough crime dramas on TV to know that finding new physical evidence is almost never how these cold cases are solved. In The Last Case of John Morley however, that’s exactly what the game asks you to do. The first half of the game is spent scouring through a manor that has been entirely abandoned for two decades, in which we’re expected to believe that nothing has been touched, and that evidence like blood stains and hand written notes would still be viable clues without Father Time turning them to dust. For those that can suspend their disbelief enough to accept this, you’ll likely have a more enjoyable time with this first half of the game. I just couldn’t shake the feeling of how absurd it is.

That being said, the moment to moment puzzle solving and ever expanding layers to the mystery are still reasonably enjoyable, with low effort required. The Last Case of John Morley quickly settles into a nice little routine; you enter a room with a locked path forward, and you set out to find all the clues therein, while also attempting to find a way to progress further into the mansion. The puzzles never become too taxing, mostly requiring you to remember (or write down) codes or details to use later. These headscratchers lack those ‘eureka’ moments you will find in other games, but you’ll never feel like you’re stuck or unsure of how to progress.

During a number of junctures in the mansion, John will stop to visually recreate the events leading up to the murder of the young Miss Fordside based on what he finds. This is similar to the mechanics in the Frogwares Sherlock Holmes‘ games, only here there’s no real deductions to be made here. You’ll explore the area looking for a point that is highlighted by what look like green fireflies. Clicking on them will progress the recreation of events in a linear fashion. While this is a far more passive way to solve a mystery compared to many of its peers, this does mean that The Last Case of John Morley unveils its narrative beats in a structured and paced manner.

Murder Most Obvious

As you might expect from Indigo Studios, the story to The Last Case of John Morley comes with a twist. Unfortunately, the game telegraphs the swerve far too early, and by the time it’s unveiled, it has lost most of its impact. While a number of suspects are indicated as the tale develops, more care needed to be taken to lay stronger breadcrumbs away from the actual culprit or to present stronger alternatives. The denouement is still enjoyable, and comes with a distinct twist of its own, but by that point, you might have already guessed everything that will get unveiled.

The destination might not be the strongest element to The Last Case of John Morley, but the journey there certainly has its high points. The game manages to regularly build a tense atmosphere, combining a blanket of darkness shrouding chilling environments, foreboding glimpses of threats and sudden breaks in silence with creepy sound effects to put the player on edge. There are a few jump scares to punctuate the ambiance too.

From a small indie developer, The Last Case of John Morley also carries a pleasantly high level of polish and visuals. There are more than a few times when I found myself simply appreciating the environments, the establishing shots of locations, and the way the lighting played with the creepy surroundings.

Just One More Thing

The Last Case of John Morley is fully voiced, with the detective suffering from a serious case of Lara-Croft-itus. As in, he just says everything that he’s thinking. The vast majority of the vocal performances are believable here. There are a few lines that sound stilted, and John very rarely sounds scared, even when the events of the game are causing that feeling in the player. Otherwise, the vocals in the game are perfectly passable, and achieve their goal.

I think it’s also worth mentioning that The Last Case of John Morley is a short game. I completed the game in just under 2 and a half hours, and because the game is linear, it has virtually no replayability. Personally, when I reached the obvious final act, and I realised that all of my strong suspicions about the ending would come to fruition, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. There was certainly scope to add more, explore some of the other characters and throw out a few red herrings to distract the player from the twist that was coming. Still, if you like a game you can start and end in an evening, and like a pulpy, hard-boiled detective story, you can do a lot worse than The Last Case of John Morley.

The Last Case of John Morley is available now on PC (review platform), Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.

Developer: Indigo Studios
Publisher: JanduSoft

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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