This is the third outing by White Paper Games, a studio that has been experimenting with story driven adventure titles for almost a decade now. And it’s also the first one that I’ve decided to play till the end, as both Ether One and The Occupation got me bored and frustrated very early on in their playtime. I would’ve dropped Conway as well if not for a purely academic interest in seeing how other developers deal with detective stories. Now I have additional knowledge on how to avoid doing it.
At its core Conway: Disappearance at Dahlia View presents itself as an investigation story driven adventure game about an abduction of a child. It is, as I understand, at least somewhat reminiscent of the Hitchcock classic Rear Window that I’m sadly not yet familiar with, as it features a main character in a wheelchair learning things about his neighbors through his window. Though, only a few sections in the game actually work like that, with most of the gameplay working more similarly to how a modern direct controlled 3D adventure game works, except the main character is in the wheelchair.
On paper, this sounds like a very interesting setup that should get players excited from the beginning and emotionally invested in the investigation. But on practice, the game does nothing of the sort. Instead, what follows is a messy and confused introduction to the unlikable main character and the rest of the cast while the rest of the game plays like a very uninspired and boring adventure title. Conway, for one, is a horrible idiot you don’t want to control and it’s clearly not the intended direction the game was going for. I think he’s supposed to be pushy and stepping out of line, but righteous, smart and justified. But in reality he’s just stumbling through the game like a moron in spite of player desires and direction, constantly leaving a mess after himself, jumping to wildest conclusions and not acknowledging the obvious.
And I feel like this is happening mostly because the game is not really structured like an investigation game and rather as an extremely tired and traditional take on an adventure game, it’s just that the plot just happens to be about an investigation. It’s not that things you do are linear, rather, it’s the complete absence of a feeling that you as a player is discovering something and coming to conclusions. Rather, you solve puzzles… and yes, it never feels like you’re resolving problems, as most modern story driven adventure games do, but rather solve some abstract puzzles dressed up as narratively explained “problems”. Anyway, you solve puzzles and pick up items and use them on other items and places just because the game won’t proceed until you do. Even when there’s no clear reason to do that. You just hug every wall until you find a random shelf that has a random vase which contains a random key which unlocks a drawer which contains a resource for a terrible mini-game to unlock a door that contains a room with a key which… you get the idea.
There are very few instances where you’re required to think about what you’re doing, to analyze what you’ve seen and done and even those moments are often full of bizarre decisions and ideas. Like the evidence board which is a neat concept, except it only ever accepts one solution even when a piece of evidence has 3 separate selectable options which are all equally valid. Even when the correct solution is actually less logically valid than some incorrect ones.
I won’t even go into technical issues, the ridiculousness of the mini-games (that can be mercifully mostly turned off or simplified in the options), the horrid camera angles and barely visible or logical interaction prompts other than to say that the game is full of those as well. Arguably, even the story resolves in a tired manner, although there’s a twist to it that does work well. But if anything, the plot itself is solid, it’s just a shame that it’s told through poor narrative and gameplay.
It’s a shame that White Paper Games still can’t quite get their ideas right. I admire the concepts they’re trying to do and every game of theirs so far has had some genuinely good ideas. But even with Conway: Disappearance at Dahlia View they haven’t gotten it right yet. There are countless better story driven adventure games out there and if you’re looking for investigation titles this is definitely not for you either.