Scriptic Crime Stories is What Happens if Netflix Shows Were Video Games

I discovered that Netflix includes games now¹ so I decided to try this one out since I’ve been into crime shows recently. In the game, you work as a detective constable who investigates murders for Scotland Yard using a software called YardOS which gives you access to the victim’s phone. I’ve played through it and I hope that TV shows are adapted into a similar format.

Previously named Dead Man’s Phone, you work as a detective constable who investigates two murders. Each murder is in a “season” consisting of various “episodes” where you use YardOS to access a victim’s phone along with their apps, interrogate people remotely and chat with other constables. You work with Sofie the lesbian intelligence gatherer, Virkam the Indian forensic scientist, DCI Sutherland your boss and seasoned detective as well as a few ground agents. As you bounce around the OS, you discover clues that get you close to the murder. Just be careful as things you consider mundane might be the difference between literal life and death.

The first season covers the murder of Jerome Jacobs, an creative and intelligent black teenager. Sure he was found dead but he was murdered a week earlier by the people he should have trusted. You get to do some sketchy shit in this season. The second season covers the murder of online adult influencer Gemma Dream. Hope you like fish because this season has a lot of red herrings². Don’t want to spoil much, but there was a point where I was screaming at the game for shitty opsec and I was vindicated though I wish I wasn’t.

There’s also a third season which wasn’t in the Netflix version though it’s free. You play as an emergency dispatcher who has to deal with emergency calls. You help people navigate their emergencies from a boy who’s dad has honey fever through to a lonely granny who noticed a man who smelt of vinegar. They’re great stories though you have to ignore the limited responses you can make given how you can text emergency services. After each call, you get a news story with the outcome. Interestingly, the bad outcomes are blamed on a systemic issue yet the good one’s are thanks to the quick thinking of the dispatcher. Feels as if both conditions can’t be true. Like yeah, verbose granny is both lonely but she is astutley noticing the vinegar man running a meth lab rather than being a fan of fish and chips nearby.

As much as I enjoyed this game it’s very buggy. It spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to save the game and there were points in both seasons where I lost 3 hours of work just because the game bugged out.

It’s a shame it hasn’t gotten much attention because it’s an interesting concept. You play it as a game though you experience it as a TV show. I don’t know how to explain it. You could say this is a full motion video game but that brings up images of cheesy 90s video games. It doesn’t compare to polished FMV games like Not for Broadcast and Her Story (which is the closest game to this) though and it’s hard to explain.