Song of Farca is a police procedural set in the near future with a digital dominance atmosphere in the style of Black Mirror. In the futuristic city of Farca, where criminal gangs dominate according to areas of influence, leaving the corrupt government unable to assist law-abiding citizens, you will take on the role of Isabella Song, a private detective with the goal of uncovering the truth behind the crimes and injustices enveloping the city of Farca. These are the premises of the new point-and-click investigative game developed by Wooden Monkeys: a small gem or a wasted opportunity?
This content is provided by YouTube. To view it, you must allow external content. Activation may result in data being shared with the third party.
Detective in smart-working
The game opens by splitting the screen horizontally in half: the top half shows Isabella’s apartment, while the bottom displays her computer screen — which we can interact with only when the detective sits down at her workstation. Isabella is, in fact, under house arrest following a fight from some time ago, but this doesn’t prevent her from comfortably carrying out her duties from her living room. 10 cases will be called upon to solve, with durations varying between 40 and 60 minutes each, for a total of 8 hours of gameplay required for the author to see the end credits.
Every investigation begins with the employer’s “Skype” call, which will outline their requests and give us an initial idea of the situation. After regularly signing the collaboration contract, the true investigative phase of the game begins, during which we must use all available tools to gather as much information as possible and formulate our verdict. Isabella can analyse the profiles of the suspects by cross-referencing online databases, she can call and speak with various interested parties, invade their privacy by hacking cameras and electronic devices in the homes and offices of the involved NPCs, and finally have any evidence analysed by her most trusted — yet clumsy — self-taught AI, Maurice. Our choices and decisions, as well as the relationships we form with the various personalities we encounter, will alter the course of events, though honestly, I haven’t found much obvious.
Puzzles and puzzles turn out to be, in most cases, simple and intuitive, just as hacking phases in locations of interest for the case, often downright trivial, but nonetheless result in a slight change of pace in an otherwise overly bland gameplay. The idea is good, but the execution is lacking, especially for the "objection" mechanic available during phone calls with suspects: when they utter an obvious lie, we can observe an increase in their heart rate and dilation of their pupils, allowing us to object by contradicting them using some of the evidence we’ve collected, both physical and theoretical. Certainly, the writer is not a born detective, but often finding the right objection was far from intuitive, and the whole thing resulted in a tragicomic trial and error in which the poor interlocutor was forced to repeatedly deny every objection (often out of place) I presented to him, all without any consequence for the progress of the case...oooook.
Technically speaking
We tested Song of Farca on the following setup:
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x @ 3.60 GHz
Gigabyte RTX AORUS Master 3080 Ti 12Gb
Kingston Hyper X FURY (2x8Gb) DDR4
3440x1440 resolution (21:9)
Given its point-and-click nature, the title has not shown any technical issues in terms of optimisation or stability. The interface, while fairly simplistic, serves the gameplay needs and is therefore more than acceptable. The dialogue is well-structured and coherent, a clear result of the team’s careful work. Be aware, however, that the title is entirely in English, and if you’re not fluent in the language, you’ll certainly struggle to enjoy the game — gamer warned, half saved. There is no voice acting, while the soundtrack consists of several cyberpunk-style songs that can be freely changed via the “Spotify” available on Isabella’s PC — nothing particularly memorable, but decent background tunes.
In conclusion
Song of Farca is a decent investigative title that may entertain newcomers more than veterans. Alongside play mechanics with a bit of blandness, there is also a narrative segment perhaps lacking ambition, which could have offered something beyond the tired, corporate-controlled dystopian future. The 7/8 hours of gameplay required to complete the title become heavier as enthusiasm and curiosity for uncovering the game’s mechanics fade, and the detective work’s excessive linearity and repetitiveness become apparent. The budget price of €16 certainly eases some of these flaws, but if you’re still not convinced, you can always wait for Steam sales.
