[ENG] A Brief Word About Night Call

I opened my eyes slowly, the cold darkness washed upon my face. I got up from my worn-out bed pretty quickly and got ready for another night and barely few minutes after opening my eyes - I was outside my apartment, waiting in the cab for someone to pick up. 10PM, my shift begins. Someone ordered a cab only a few blocks away, I was expecting another drunkard mumbling about his night... But this time it was a rather clean looking man... Well, clean in comparison to the scene that was happening behind him - several cops. A young man standing surrounded by cops... Must've missed last train back, happens quite often in this city... As soon as my passenger entered the cab, he was furious. Started throwing insults about the police... I wondered what happened to that guy and considering we had a bit to drive, I've decided to ask him what was that. It was a rather young Arabian, in his young twenties or maybe even younger... I felt bad for that guy, being Arabian in this city wasn't the best thing that could happen to you - police treats you like bullshit, they consider your every move to be a threat and a lot of people just decide to ignore your existence... Fucking ignorance is bliss they say... Paris - a city of beauty and love... Yeah, shame that no one is talking about the other side of this coin, the rusty side, the side filled with racism, xenophobia, homophobia and attacks on others just because they don't look 'France enough' or even European... Young man continued, pulling out The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas... A good book, but he told me that the police ordered him to tell where he has stolen this book... Like they couldn't believe this youngster could own a book... I could see it in his eyes in rearview mirror... Though he tried to hide it, I could see it very clearly - the sense of shame, the inner struggle... A feeling some of us know all too well... I tried to change the subject by asking him about the book... He mentioned that his girlfriend gave it to him... She wanted him to read Pride and Prejudice, but he couldn't make it to the end and now she really wants him to finish Count of Monte Cristo for some reason. The cold and barren Paris streets weren't helping... We passed cold buildings and dim streetlights, but as long as I could keep the talk, maybe this youngster would be able to forget about all this unfairness in the world for even a brief while... I pulled up to the address given, the young Arabian seemed a bit angry at himself for telling me all of this, but I kindly reassured him that it wasn't any problem. He paid for the fare, went out of the cab and vanished into the dark night of Paris... The night was still young and I still could make few fares, I started the engine and began driving slowly around the neighborhood, waiting for someone to order a cab... 

(5 suspects, 1 killer... Will you be able to find haunts the streets of Paris?)

This is one of many stories Night Call may present to you. And before anything else – I am not talking about a song called Nightcall by Kavinsky (Though I really like this song but that's beside the point). Night Call is a really unusual game that went really under the radar... Not that it should've broken the spotlight because it's not anything outstanding – If I had to be the judge, I would say that this game had a really interesting idea but painfully poor execution... Let's talk about what Night Call is.

When I got this game, I thought it's a story driven game about being a taxi driver while working undercover for the police... Well, first of all – it's not directly story driven. There is no given plot – you choose a killer which you will have to 'hunt down' and then the plot is built around this certain killer. You work as a taxi driver in Paris, a night shift driver to be precise – by the many you are considered the lucky one but at the same time you are branded. You're the only survivor of a serial killer that's haunting the streets of Paris and you are being blackmailed by the police. You don't have much choice – you either work with them and help them catch the killer (i.e just do their job while they sit on their asses. Plus being a taxi driver... You have a gift of getting people to talk) or the truth about your identity, your past – about everything goes public. After that – there are no second chances in life. You're screwed.

(After each night your balance changes by the difference between your profits and losses)

And here the biggest weakness of this game rears it's ugly head – the gameplay. The very idea where you just take various passengers in Paris, drive them, listen to their stories and slowly learn more about the killer is interesting but... It quickly gets repetitive and frankly boring. Drive the passenger, listen to their story, talk with them, maybe get some clue to the killer, get paid for transport, repeat. You have to refuel your cab from time to time... But! There is a second part of gameplay. After you finish your shift – you get back to your apartment and look at clues you have gathered so far. You only have your instinct to look at the clues and deduce who the killer is... Though there isn't much more to it than that.
You also have to manage your money a bit. Every night you earn a bit of your fares, but after each night you lose some amount of money on various things like taxes. Fuel and some bonus intel costs too so... Just be sure you don't lose all your money before the last night.
During your fares you get to choose from various dialogue options depending on the passenger – and whereas gameplay quickly gets boring and repetitive, varied passengers and dialogue try really well to make up for it! Just... Creativity and writing in this game is pretty on point.

(The entire Passidex, as you can see despite my 3 playthroughs I still haven't met quite a bit of the passengers)

When I started playing this game, I thought I was going for some plain and boring passengers but... After maybe two or three fares I quickly realized that passengers are probably the biggest strength of this game. During the very first night I got to drive – a pair of lesbians from which one was pregnant, a Japanese man who couldn't speak English and in effect I couldn't understand what is he talking about, a literal cat and a homeless man.
During other nights I got to meet – a poet looking for inspiration, mother taking care of her disabled son, a pair of cosplayers, a politician, a woman claiming to be a vampire... and so on and so on... And it was only on the first case! Each fare despite being the same in the terms of gameplay was unique and interesting thanks to the passengers – the writing of characters and their stories is something astounding! Their stories are set in reality (Game even tells you at the very start that stories were inspired from real life) and often give you different points of view on certain things.
You can check all of the passengers you have met in 'The Passidex'

(Get used to this screen, it takes majority of the game and here you have example of a passenger - a porn actress)

The music in this game is very subtle which perfectly fits into it's dark noir graphic style. The music is very soft and calm, it occasionally changes when certain passengers enter the cab or when killer realizes that something is off with you. The noir style works beautifully with Paris presented in this game – it's a city filled with racism, xenophobia and homophobia – from relations of various passengers we get to know that Paris, the supposed 'Land of Freedom' isn't really that friendly and open. Although the city is beautiful, the people mostly aren't, they are often scared of something they can't understand.
There is one pretty clever mechanic in the prologue. During one of the very first dialogues, Nurse asks you if you can hear her clearly or do you want her to speak up... Of course there is no voice acting here so you can't really hear her – but choosing to speak up will make the font bigger and asking to talk a bit quieter will make the font smaller... A small detail, but a very clever one.

(As you can see, I've completed all cases and with each one I was getting more and more efficient)

There are only 3 cases – The Judge, The Angel of Death and The Sandman. And after completing all of them I can clearly say that difficulty grows respectively with mentioned killers. Whereas The Judge has a pretty clear motive and murder pattern, The Sandman's pattern is chaotic and motive seems unknown. I really wish there were more cases to solve and even more passengers to meet... Even if it meant making the game even more repetitive, I totally wouldn't mind a fourth or fifth killer. But next to repetitive gameplay I have another complain... The prologue and epilogue is exactly the same for each and every single of cases. It's pretty disappointing.

(6th night - one suspect is taken off and you have to judge who you think the killer is based on the clues given. As you can see there are a lot of useless clues that don't connect to any suspect)

You always have 5 suspects to look at and check if the clues (and your instinct) make sense. But do not be sure about someone right from the start because... After third night – one of the suspects is taken off the board, leaving you only 4 to work with. And after sixth night comes the moment of truth – you have to choose who is the killer. If you guessed right, you enter seventh night and you have to drive at least one passenger before you'll be able to pick up the killer and then... Waiting games and negotiations begin. Very often killer will be aware that something is off and that you work for someone... With a bit of cold blood and patience you'll be able to buy yourself some time to deliver the killer to the police.

I have a bit of a hard time recommending Night Call. Since the dialogues and characters are really worth it plus there is a certain joy when you successfully deduce who the killer is but... The gameplay and maybe noir graphic can really put many people off or bore them before they even catch the first killer. If you'll have an opportunity – give it a shot, but if not... Well, it's up to you if you can handle the repetitiveness.

Don't let your past catch you and serve justice to the murderers! 

(Fun Fact! Since the game takes place in Paris, France – the achievement names aren't English, they are French!)

Kind Regards,
Wing.