Dry drowning in the test: Cyberpunk noir for the Nintendo Switch

Dry drowning in the test

A strange ritual murder, a shielded city under constant surveillance, an unscrupulous detective and eerie animal masks - Dry Drowning, which was released for the PC in 2019 and is now hitting the Switch, delivers dark adventure entertainment that quickly casts a spell over hobby investigators becomes. However, as the description suggests, things are much darker here than in comparable Nintendo titles such as Professor Layton or Ace Attorney. With the latter, Dry Drowning has the supernatural elements in common, which loosen up the exciting development work and create an even more atmosphere.

Table of contents

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Antihero Mordred

Dry Drowning exudes a lot of noir and cyberpunk flair. It's dark, it's raining, the neon lights are shimmering - that creates a lot of atmosphere in the adventure. Source: PC Games The protagonist of the adventure is Mordred, a cynical, chain-smoking private investigator who has just been acquitted by a court. Not because he is innocent, but because of a lack of evidence. To get the conviction of two serial killers, Mordred falsified evidence - he is now a free man, but has gambled away his reputation. Nevertheless, a short time after the verdict, a new client was in the office: A murder had occurred in the park, the head of a right-wing party that had the city under control and rigorously attacked immigrants, monitored people and censored the media is suspected. Spicy: Mordred's assistant Hera herself is an immigrant and fears that she will soon also become a victim of the state's arbitrariness. What now? Dry drowning is exciting from the start and paints an interesting picture of a fictional society whose existence does not seem so absurd.

Traveling is quite confusing. It is difficult to tell the name of the place you have just selected from a faint border. Source: PC Games Set in the near future, the action takes place in a fictional, European mega-metropolis called Nova Polemos, which is not subject to any state and is self-governing. Tourists are hardly allowed in, especially not refugees and information. The cases skillfully use the context of the setting and stand out from the standard detective diet. In addition, the theme of (Greek) mythology runs like a red (Ariadne) thread through the plot, which is reflected in names, but also in allusions to legends and gods. The gloomy mood of Dry Drowning is reminiscent of the oppressive atmosphere in Zero Escape, only with fewer battle royale and puzzles. Because in this adventure game, talking, examining and combining predominates.

Traveling is pretty confusing. It is difficult to tell the name of the place you have just selected from a faint border. Source: PC Games This also includes, as is typical of the genre, making important decisions that affect the further course of the plot. A bit like in Ace Attorney, there are sequences in which Mordred uses psychic powers to pinpoint liars. If the other person is dizzy, the person appears to be wearing a mask. Only by pulling out the appropriate evidence in conversation can the detective remove the mask and thus bring the truth to light. As in the Capcom series, it is mostly (if not always) logical which information has to be presented or combined and when. Conveniently, the game automatically removes clues and pieces of evidence from the inventory as soon as they are no longer needed.

Close your eyes

You are investigating crime scenes using a kind of camera with a hologram function, to reveal hidden details and add them to the file. Source: PC Games In other places, however, a little more comfort would have been welcome, for example traveling through the difficult-to-see identification of what is hidden behind which marker, is more cumbersome than it should be, and the font is a bit bad for portable use turned out small. Touchscreen support would also have been a good choice, but of course you can also use the Pro Controller or simply via Joy-Cons. It is praiseworthy that the entire texts have been translated into German, not a matter of course in the genre, which ekes out a niche existence. This way, however, even players without appropriate knowledge of English can follow the action. It is a shame, however, that a relatively large number of typing errors and bumpy translations have crept in. The character Baker, for example, is sometimes also called Backer - that doesn't change anything in the investigation work, but it still interferes.

The writing is quite small, especially during interrogations, so it is often difficult to decipher in handheld mode. Source: PC Games The graphics are very atmospheric and use a mixture of neon colors and black and white. With some background images the perspective is not entirely correct and sometimes the drawings could use a little more sharpness, but the character models are at least slightly animated and therefore don't just look like painted cardboard displays. Just as gratifying: The protagonists are written in a multifaceted way and a few really weird birds appear in the game. All of this makes dry drowning good entertainment for hobby investigators on the Switch, assuming a certain age, because thematically the adventure is likely to be too scary for younger players. Due to the different decisions, there is also a certain replay value, although the simple play through with around eight to nine hours is within a good framework.

Slight sagging

As far as the quality of the plot as a whole is concerned, so dry drowning scores particularly well at the beginning and at the end - i.e. at the most important points. In between, the game gets lost a little between various twists and turns, but that doesn't prevent you from continuing to play, after all you want to find out what's behind all the happenings. It would be a real shame if console detectives (or PC investigators - the game is also available on Steam) missed this case.

My opinion

By Katharina Pache

Editor in Chief

[email protected] Always a good sign: Dry drowning grabbed me from the start. The blurry neon lights in the rain, a dystopian society between police violence and surveillance - you have certainly already experienced such settings, but Dry Drowning still makes something very special out of the currently popular cyberpunk set pieces. Puzzles could be a little more frequent and a little more challenging, but that is ultimately a question of personal preference. After not playing ace attorney in a long time, testing it to see how much I've missed a title of this style lately. I also found it refreshing that many of the actors in the game are not teenagers, but adults of all ages - especially in Japanese visual novels, younger semesters play the main roles. Regardless of whether the team behind Dry Drowning is creating a sequel or a new title, I'm looking forward to it. Dry Drowning (NSW) 8/10

Graphics - Sound - Multiplayer - Pros & Cons Exciting cases and interesting setting Varied adventure gameplay Various options for making choices Good background music, aesthetic optics German texts Exciting from the start. . . . . . but has a lot of typing errors in between "," rgTable-1 "," table "," fallback ");});