Test - The Darkest Files: Test: This game is not only important, but also really good

The ACE-Attorney series games have always been proving that it can be fun to play lawyers. With The Darkest Files, Paintbucket Games is now devoting himself to the processing of injustice from National Socialism in the youngsters of the Federal Republic. The result is a multi-layered portrait of society and character that convinces with atmospheric density and narrative brilliance.

A good five years ago Paintbucket Games released. Core idea at the time: manage a resistance group during the twelve years of National Socialism, plus some Interactive Novel passages. As brave and aesthetically stylish, the title was: it was not perfectly out, especially the rapidly repetitive mechanics of the action and group planning were noticeable.

At the same time, the title was able to find the right degree of social insight and empathy. A problem that products with a very clear enemy like The Saboteur do not even make themselves - but the other fails. The one published in 2022For example, tried to reveal a tragic family history to the last SS villain. The ridge between sincere historical nuancing and "War is already bad" banalities went Schmal-and the predecessor hit him.

Files instead of sabotage files

Mixed conditions for the successor The Darkest Files. First of all, it sounds much less exciting to work in a public prosecutor than to organize active resistance. Comb through files? Consider interrogation? Deliver evidence chains in court? This is a clear change from the predecessor, and he is doing a damn good for the game, because the team around Jörg Friedrich and Sebastian St. Schulz is reflected in their strength: good, complex stories with a clear moral compass and show us the background.

We play Esther Katz, who is fresh in the team of the Hessian Attorney GeneralFritz BauerGet in and deal with extensive cases in several chapters. Bauer himself is a real historical person: the companion Willy Brandts was involved in numerous pioneering judicial work on the post -war period, including the Auschwitz trials go back to his tireless work.

So far, Bauer did not make many friends, the West German society did not want to see the index finger. As a reminder: The first Federal President Theodor Heuss voted in 1933 for the Enabling Act. Konrad Adenauer's head of chancellor Hans Globke was a co -author and legal commentator of the Nuremberg breed laws. The FDP was in its Bundestag campaigns against the denazification of the victorious powers and called for a line.

Public demonstrations before negotiations and threatening letters to Bauer's team shape everyday life. Our family also asks if we shouldn't take a classic lawyer job, the neighbors talk and so on. The Darkest files brings this entire time color almost throughout the sovereignty seen, only occasionally some dialog paths look like compulsory exercises.

Everyday life in the public prosecutor

As in a first-person adventure, we move Esther through the office building and through the various sceneries in the interrogations (more on that). The former would not have needed in this form - or at least alternatively, shortcuts would have been possible. After we have flashed through the office space, the playful added value is marginal to actively rush into the conference room or the office of a colleague for the next conversation. Idea: The elderly football manager impetus 3 offered the opportunity to pursue all activities through a classic menu and to accept the possibly atmospheric walking paths.

In any case, we see files, empty the mailbox, speak to our assistance, make calls - and have a lot of conversations. Often a relative or a member of a victim is aimed at us: Here, someone was convicted of the war on the same time for high treason or supposed looting, but the situation was actually completely different.

The interrogations with the witnesses then take full advantage of the reduced aesthetics - in the bald memorial rooms, for example, flames or red flags stand out again. But what really deserves highest recognition: Even if we do not do much more in the memories than to run from dot to dot and to click on relevant people and objects for statements from our interlocutors, the staging is tight and enormously immersive.

The English voice output hits some AAA production itself. The voices have a German accent almost continuously, but it is far more subtle than the typical problems with the-th articulate in film and television. Whether selection of the line-up or dialogue: The audio backlog of The Darkest files deserves the highest praise and raises the interrogations or personal flashbacks into the atmospheric premier class. The stories themselves are based on real historical incidents and require a lot of attention.

Objection!

From the interrogations and documents, we finally collect the most convincing evidence chains or try to clarify contradictions in the testimony. Who really shot here, who might not be present? References from statements or documents such as personnel files, résumés, original convictions are searched through and presented as evidence during the interrogations and later in the court process.

This is where the only real detailed weakness of The Darkest Files comes into play: It did not always seem completely plausible to us why certain documents were accepted as evidence in court or not. A succinct "I do not see the connection" of the judge also helps little, analogous to the eternal "that doesn't work" in adventure games.

After all, the game allows to show more lavish information or to reduce the specificity of the required documents so that no concrete section has to be presented. And finally, a rather moderate grading - and worse: an inadequate conviction of the true criminals - can really motivate to do better next time. In addition to our professional development as a prosecutor, there is also a personal touch in the course of the game that gradually develops. The following also applies here: History and conversations have The Darkest Files.

Five years after Through the Darkest of Times, Paintbucket Games made it: the successor in spirit makes everything better. Browse through files, have the gray cells combined and interrogate the wrongly wrong - that has rarely motivated!