Mahjongg Investigations: Under Suspicion

You really wouldn't think this would work as well as it does. Taipei-type tile puzzle, but as you solve it you get randomly-generated "clues" to logic out who done it. One time a guy was murdered by three women who were each missing a leg, acting together. The minigames are optional (they give more clues) but they're fun; there's a memory game, Fake Tetris and some kind of speed thing that isn't particularly difficult. Still, it's a lot of terrible ideas that, all put together, make a really good, compelling whole. Way better for that Mahjongg itch than most of the ones with over-the-top pseudo-Asian themes.

Why can't a game ever bring up 'TRUE CRIME'? Why does it always have to be fictional? I don't get it. Do developers fear lawsuits? Are they not aware how big the 'True Crime' business industry already is? All they have to do is go down to a book store and read. Alas the closest I have played so far to 'True Crime' is 'L.A Noire' and they took a whole range of liberties with that one believe me. Mah-jong Investigations is developed by a company which disbanded in 2009 http://www.mobygames.com/company/zemnott-inc . The game is somewhat similar to 'Criminal Case' found on Facebook but take out the Hidden Object Games and replace them with Mah-jong solitaire and instead of watching the case play out entirely itself, here you have to do some very babyish deductive work. For those that don't know this is 'Mah-jong solitaire' (mah-jong itself is a completely different game) its a puzzle game based on finding the same tile strategy. The goal is to match open pairs of identical tiles and rem...

I can't even remember how I ended up with this game, but I just tried it out, and I'm impressed. It's nothing flashy, but it's solid. As you solve Mahjongg boards (with non-traditional tiles), some tiles give you clues toward solving a mystery. Your goal is to make a Carmen Sandiego/Guess Who-style identification of the suspect(s) based on identifying details and obtained clues. I enjoy Mahjongg, and I enjoyed this. It's a fun game, with straightforward puzzle gameplay and tutorials to gradually introduce you to your crime-solving tools.

Since some people in the reviews mentioned not being able to run the game, I thought that I should mention that the game ran without any trouble on my Windows 10 PC. The game was what I was hoping it would be, for the most part. The only slight ding I would put on its report card is that the vocal track of police officers on the radio you hear while playing the game is on a pretty short loop (considering how long it takes to play enough games to reach the top rank). I am getting my Steam sale money's worth on this one.

A neat twist on mahjongg. I play when I don't want to have to focus too much.

Absorbing mahjong title with a crime solving flavour. Early levels seem absurdly simple, but later on it gets tense as you try and eliminate suspects before your time runs out. Graphics are pretty awful but don't bother me. They are functional enough for my purposes

Pretty much everything I tried did not work, the game will not even start and I can't return it because not enough time shows for play due to the 'will not start' problem. The devs (it seems) will not respond to me or anyone else so I can only take that as a money grab on their part. I've tried it several times with more then a dozen variations for Compatibility. I consider this a bad buy and a waste of time, stay away. I could not even post review without having 5 minutes in game so I had to start and watch it crash over and over, what a farce!!!! Note: I finally got it to work after trying a few dozen different settings but the NEG stands because it was such a hassle to get working and no response from devs. I got it working because of my superior intergenanncee.. (< spelled like that intentionally)

Others have described exactly what you do in the game, so I won't go into that. What I will say is I enjoyed this game immensely and will probably return to it from time to time. The atmosphere is set well, there's a lot of different elements and a few minigames that all gel well together. Even though the countdown timer should never have been a concern to me, its presence did make everything feel more urgent (which is something that really annoys me in most games, but didn't in this one). The one negative is the continuous pop-ups of each new piece of information (Ted Whatshisface weighs 122 pounds!) gets a little annoying towards the end, particularly since with four perps and 20-ish suspects, you don't (and can't) really care about each piece of information but what it all tells you when combined on the case info page. There really should be an option to turn that off. Actually, I tell a lie. There is a second negative, if you're playing the minigame where you're chasing a su...

Bought within a sale collection, I found "Mahjongg Investigations" interesting from the screenshots, but haven't tried it until now. Glad I did it now, revealing a true casual gaming gem with some nice twists. It's Mahjongg with different stones (glasses, knives, pistols, cars), but some tiles are really special: they give clues to a case which is completely randomly generated when starting a round. These clues help you identify suspects that are presented on a seperate screen, all with random abilities like height, hobbies, hair-color, and so on. The more clues you get, the easier it becomes to identify the right person. That's hell of fun, especially because you can decide to interrogate suspects for more clues, even pushing them to commit to the crime. When doing so, the game changes to a matching/memory kind of game, giving a damn good selection of different gameplays during one thrilling detective Mahjongg case.

I've played all manner of Mahjongg games, but this one has a unique aspect in that you solve crimes as you play. It's addictive but simple and I often play while waiting for something to finish on my computer, a download, a new installation, or anything like that. It's better than doodling. Steam is telling me I've played 6658 hours, so that should give an indication of how much I love playing this game. It's a good way to practice your logic and deduction skills.