By Tina Lam
Have you ever wanted to solve a mystery while wearing a fake mustache at the morning vegetable market? No? Yeah, me neither. But here I am, reviewing a game that somehow makes solving mysteries while dressed up like my grandpa … weirdly satisfying.
Detective games aren’t really my thing. They’re either too dark, too slow, or trying way too hard to be Sherlock, but edgy. But this one? It’s got the charm of a Bollywood movie, the color and chaos of a street festival, and just the right amount of mystery to keep you engaged. When I was playing Detective Dotson, I wasn’t just solving mysteries; I was laughing, thinking, and occasionally throwing trash at the NPCs. (Yes, throwing shade is a real feature.)
The game’s main character, Dotson, is what you get when a wannabe Bollywood hero stumbles across a series of mysteries connected to his father’s death. Determined to solve them all, he acts like the star of his own thriller. What starts off as a few peculiar neighborhood mysteries slowly transforms into something a lot more personal: the long-buried truth behind Dotson’s father’s death. As the game progresses, Dotson encounters a diverse cast of characters, including the worried Mrs. Senguputa and her son Tinu. In the opening case, “Who Painted Papadam,” Dotson questions Mrs. Senguputa and discovers that Papadam is “terrorizing” Tinu. Now it’s Dotson’s turn to crack this bizarre case and determine if the mischievous pet really is guilty, or if there’s more to the mystery than meets the eye.
What makes Detective Dotson stand out is how playful it is. Every case feels like a mix of satire and classic comedy, wrapped in engaging dialogue and characters who all seem one step away from starring in a soap opera. The puzzles are fun too; you’re not just finding clues, you’re connecting them on an evidence board like a real detective.
The gameplay is built around exploration and problem solving. You’ll need to talk to people for clues, but they won’t spill their secrets for free; above their heads is an icon that tells you the material they want, and you have to give it to them for information. For example, some of them want materials you buy from street vendors. To earn the money to buy these items, you will need to jump into one of Detective Dotson’s mini games, like the hidden objects game. Here, you need to find objects hidden in a map under a specific time limit. It’s simple, and pretty satisfying if you ask me.
Earning money for something as easy as spotting a tree behind a bunch of market stalls? Count me in. When buying items from street vendors, you can bargain with them at least three times for a price that you want. When you make an offer, the game tells you how much is acceptable with colors. Red is too low, orange is pushing it, and green is just fine. As someone who’s never bargained before, I found this feature thoughtful and pretty helpful in building real life skills .
However, there was one part of the game that I had some issues with. In Detective Dotson, there’s a scrap paper puzzle, where you find scattered pieces of paper and have to place them in the correct order to reveal a clue for your evidence board. Simple right? Not exactly. Every time I tried to move the pieces, I just couldn’t get them to fit, and when I did, the whole puzzle froze. This forced me to restart the whole thing from scratch. At that point, even the NPCs looked tired of me.
After you have collected all of your clues, it’s time to head on over to the evidence board. You’ve got your standard detective arrangement: suspect photos, red strings, and naturally, post-it notes. It’s a little messy, but piecing together all of your clues feels rather pleasing. And then there’s the case log, which is designed to help you keep everything in order. But it felt more like a hindrance than a help. It squeezed all my clues and conversations into a small window, so it was annoying for me to scroll through and organize all of my thoughts. While I do admit that it’s a handy tool for browsing through clues, I still think a larger and more flexible layout would be more effective at getting all your information in order.
The music hits in a low-key, jazzy, “I’m going to crack this case wide open” kind of way. It’s fun, but not obnoxiously loud, and it doesn’t overwhelm you while still making you stay alert, which is just the background I need when I’m trying to focus on cracking cases. The sound effects are nice, too. I never knew how complete I could feel just from just hearing the sound of a clue click into place. When I answered something correctly, the game would whisper in a way that sounded like, “Keep it up genius, you’re getting somewhere.” I had my own personal cheerleader, only that there weren’t pom-poms involved.
But that’s not all. Dotson even lets you customize your character into many different disguises. Ever wish to walk into a shady office while wearing a shawl and fake goatee? Now’s your chance. The disguises are a playful spin that allow you to play in different, creative ways. Every disguise offers new opportunities for you to interact with the world and embrace your inner diva. This not only made the gameplay more fun but also allowed me to reconnect with my childhood days, when I’d play princess dress-up games everyday after school and get lost in the silliness of it all.
The art style is a perfect mix of 2D and 3D, with neighborhoods that actually feel real, especially with the market stalls, nosy neighbors, and stray dogs. There’s no question that Mansala Games has put a genuine passion for South Asian culture into each image. From the colors of the street vendors’ umbrellas to the calming melodies that fill your ears, everything in this game has that feeling of realism without becoming too realistic. Instead, the game creates a world that authentically reflects Indian culture while also being fun and engaging to play. When I was playing Detective Dotson, I could tell how much thought Mansala Games put into drawing from Indian culture, because the respect for the culture did not feel forced at all. The game is aware of what it is that makes the culture so rich, and it respects that by accurately portraying life in India with 50, well-rounded characters. It’s not often that you get to play something that is so culturally rich.
Among the wacky characters, bright world, and puzzles that make you sweat, Detective Dotson is a roller coaster ride of suspense. Yes, there are a few bumps: Some of the mini-games don’t quite cut it and the case log would have been better with a larger layout. But if you’re in the mood to play a game where you have to solve crimes, bargain with street vendors over prices, and slip into disguises, then Detective Dotson is your game. Just remember to have your fake mustache on straight because this adventure’s got more twists than any other generic Bollywood movie plot!
Tina Lam, one of the Circle’s newest interns, is a sophomore at Baruch College Campus High School.
