Within two minutes of booting up DeTechtive 2112, you’ve been robbed by a gang of virtual thugs. You’ve just left the local bar – ironically called Friends Bar – and you’ve been left with nothing. There’s a sense of hopelessness and unease, amplified by the crushing darkness of the city’s rain-soaked streets and the eerie flickering of colorful neon signs advertising everything from medical help to a good ol’ fashioned night on the town. It’s a world that you want to explore – even if you’ll potentially lose your belongings along the way.
The brainchild of Turkish developer M11 Studio – famous for its 80%-positive rated RPG Ronin: Two Souls – DeTechtive 2112 thrusts you into the shoes of investigator extraordinaire Matthew Wallace, a shadowy sleuth with a hazy past. A veteran of the Third World War, a nuclear conflict that effectively reduces England to rubble, Wallace has taken a case that may just change his life – and undercover the city’s dirty, long-buried secrets.
The Third World War isn’t all that it seems, you see – instead it appears to be connected to a wider conspiracy involving England’s elite. As the people suffer, Wallace is set on rooting out the corruption that chokes them, simultaneously learning more about his own past as he unravels the city’s mysteries. DeTechtive 2112 is a cyberpunk murder mystery, and every twist will have your jaw on the floor.
Published by indie.io, DeTechtive 2112 oozes grime. The streets are dark and brown, the building interiors dimly lit aside from the unnatural hue of myriad neon lights. Abandoned subways and tunnels lie beneath the hard-trodden concrete, filled with secrets that you’ll be tasked with uncovering. Notably, it never stops raining, with the gentle swish of water soundtracking your movements as droplets pool around your screen. It really makes you feel like you’re part of the world, not just an omnipresent bystander.
Before you retrieve your gear from those pesky punks you’ll have to reacquire a gun. A quick stop at the weapons store grants you a free pistol (terms and conditions certainly applied) and then you’re off to an abandoned parking garage that has become the pseudo-base of the street thugs that attacked you. You can either approach stealthily or go in all guns blazing, but considering you’ve only got a pistol, stealth feels like the better option.
You can hide behind cover then execute your opponents from the shadows, slowly choking them out. You’ll have to stash the bodies somewhere out of sight before the remaining foes notice, and you can use trash cans and closets to hide in if things start to get dicey. Slowly picking off enemies feels monumental, with each kill feeling like a notch on your very snazzy leather belt.
If you dive in head-on, however, you’ll be met with some serious resistance. You can only fire ten times with your pistol before you need to change magazines, so every bullet counts. Hand grenades can easily clear out enemies, but they’re in limited supply. You’ll have to weigh it all up to ensure that you survive – buying an expensive weapon might seem great on paper, but those grenades do pack a serious punch. Perhaps going down the middle is the better option.
DeTechtive 2112 has five missions, each of which contains their own puzzle elements and unique narratives. You can customize your loadout at the gun store and in your office, with two guns on offer alongside four special items. Tapping Tab triggers Detective Vision, highlighting enemies and interactable objects that can help you scope out areas in advance.
But you won’t have to do it alone. DeTechtive is fully co-op – both locally and online – meaning you can undertake missions as a four-person stack. Each player can customize their sleuthing outfit to really show off, and you’ll be able to slink through the city’s sewers as a united, heavily-armed force.
Playing stealthily allows you to cover all of your angles and sneak up on opponents, allowing you to coordinate your strikes and strategize to your heart’s content. Alternatively, you can run headlong into the fray and cause chaos. Shower the room with bullets, pepper the walls, and tear through hordes of bad guys: DeTechtive 2112 lets you do it your way – and let’s be real, chaos is always much more fun when there’s four of you.
DeTechtive 2112 is now available on Steam, published by indie.io, a team of veterans that’s committed to spotlighting independent videogames and supporting smaller developers. Whether you’re looking for a new co-op game to play with friends, or simply enjoy immersing yourself in the alluring dystopian moodiness of cyberpunk games, DeTechtive 2112 won’t disappoint. Just make sure to hold onto your belongings, though – they do have a nasty habit of going missing, after all.