After spending hours poring over Alan Wake 2 this week, corkboards full of photos, red string and important little clue nuggets have definitely been on my brain. Alas, Remedy's horror-fuelled detective 'em up keeps its problem-solving a little too much at arm's length for my tastes. Every piece of evidence you collect has its own set place on the board, for example, and heck, even the thrill of joining the dots with a set of pins and string is taken away from you, as its deduction work is all swept up in a wave of automation.
Happily, other developers are stepping in to fill that string-based gap, and chief among them is the French-made Chronique Des Silencieux, whose Steam demo I played over lunch today. You play as a rookie detective in this charming point and click game, and your entire raison d'etre is to point out contradictions Phoenix Wright-style between testimonies you gather and the evidence you accumulate. Only instead of shouting, "Objection!" you do it by manually sticking pins and red string between the offending bits of information. It's delightful, and well worth a nose if old Alan leaves you wanting this weekend.