The Innsmouth Case | Nintendo Switch Review
Updated: Nov 19, 2021
A Lovecraftian-inspired tale of horror with a splash of humour awaits you in this text-based adventure developed by Robot Pumpkin Games and published by Assemble Entertainment. The Innsmouth Case was released on June 23rd and is available right now on Windows PC, PlayStation, XBox and Nintendo Switch. For my review I was playing on the Nintendo Switch.
The Innsmouth Case begins with you, the Private Detective, sitting around your office, when there is a knock on the door and a mysterious woman enters looking to hire you to try and track down her missing daughter. She proceeds to tell you that she is from the coastal city of Innsmouth along with some details about her daughter, then leaves a photograph of her missing daughter as well as her contact details. You are then able to set off on the adventure in the hope of locating the daughter and returning her to her mother, so you can get paid.
The game is played and told through text on screen in a visual novel style, and you are able to make decisions and choices, and ask questions to further the story, helping you on the case. As with other games that have branching stories, your choices will take you off on that specific path in the story, and I found myself falling foul more often that not during my playthrough. Luckily you have the option to reload, either from the most previous chapter in the game or go back a bit further. This really does come in handy, as you will definitely be falling foul of various things while playing The Innsmouth Case. Thank heavens for autosave!
As this is a H.P. Lovecraft-inspired story, expect some horror throughout. There is also a little dash of humour included to lighten the mood, as well as some very questionable storylines, which I will leave for you to discover yourself in the game. It all moves along at a decent pace and the story is really well done, with lots of characters to interact with and locations for you to visit and explore - some that you will be re-visiting maybe just a little bit more that others.
The controls in the game are simple, with the A button to select and the left thumbstick or D pad to move up or down. Options at the start are for language, text speed and volume, with an achievement tracker to keep an eye on your progress during the game, and a map of the city of Innsmouth showing a percentage of what you have unlocked. There is also a chapter select here, and you do have access to that in-game if you should succumb to a very sudden end unexpectedly. There are 27 achievements or endings to unlock and 35 chapters of the book and story to keep you entertained while you play through The Innsmouth Case.
Overall, a great little text-based horror adventure with some humour - light-hearted at times, and mature in content in others. Playing on the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode was fine, and the text was clear and easy to read. Another little indie game that I would recommend. I found it very chilled and laid back to play, and you would not need to play it through in one sitting. One to pick up and play on the go, so an ideal purchase for the Nintendo Switch.
g1a5w3g1an's Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
For more information on The Innsmouth Case please use the following links...
Robot Pumpkin Games - Developer | Facebook | Twitter | Website
Assemble Entertainment - Publisher | Facebook | Twitter | Website
Many thanks to Mark Allen and PressEngine for supplying the review code.
The Innsmouth Case | Steam Store | PlayStation Store | XBox Live | Nintendo eShop
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