I love a good adventure—point ‘n clicks are my jam and all though Masala Games’ first venture ‘Detective Dotson‘ isn’t quite a PnC, that doesn’t mean it can’t get as close to it through other means! This isn’t your typical game launch, however, as Detective Dotson marks the launch of both a 2D mystery adventure title but also an animated comedy-drama film set to the tune of a 90s Bollywood adventure. Said 60-minute film serves as a prologue to the video game, which has since aired on and is available for free on YouTube.
Mind, this isn’t the first game to do a trans-media launch of sorts—some do it quite well, like Wakfu’s animated television series serving as a precursor to the MMORPG. Others, like the ‘Ratchet and Clank’ reboot, are best left to the bowels of the internet. But I’m not really a fan of this approach as splitting up a narrative across even just one kind of differing medium means that anyone jumping into the game may be left out of the whole picture. And that is what happened when I started playing Detective Dotson, but I’ll get into that more in a moment. At the very least, the film is free—but it should be bundled with the game’s client at the very least.
As this movie is essentially a required watch into the world of Detective Dotson, I’ll be going over both the animated film and the game in two parts.
Detective Dotson The Movie
Who done did killed my old man?
I haven’t sat down to watch a movie in years. Matter of fact, I’d say that I don’t really enjoy sitting down to watch any form of telly media at all—I’m strictly a book reading and video game player! So, I’ll admit, I was a bit excited to watch a movie for the first time in so long as a “required watch” to a video game. I had access to an early version of the film with English dubbing and so late last week I parked my bum and sat through what I think was a surprisingly well-animated feature film that left me with more questions than answers at times. Put simply, I didn’t know how to describe what I watched for quite a while (and that’s both good and a bit questionable). I’ll do my best not to spoil things, but sweeping hands over plot points is inevitable.
Detective Dotson The Movie stars the titular Dotson, a young man who has lost his father, the only other family member he knew. He was murdered and Dotson was left with little in the way of answers or even direction, because no one involved would tell him what happened. This once Bollywood-hopeful wallows in depression before joining his best friend and currently terrible trumpet player on a drive around town—before finding himself caught up in a plot involving people getting shot, blown up, and a big corporation trying to commit some sort of evil during a big India Vs. Australia cricket match that’s due to take place.
The animation is quite superb. I figure a select bit of game assets were repurposed for the film and vice versa, but that’s no negative as the film uses strong lighting and differing camera perspectives to its advantage. You get some seriously beautiful shots of India and its landscape as a result, with the film’s only fault is that Dotson’s pixel style animation can potentially be headache-inducing due to a lack of frames during action-heavy sequences. I can’t comment on the music or the sound effects as the preview I viewed lacked those, but I got the general sentiment of the film and its themes overall.
Detective Dotson’s strengths lie in its cultural roots and presentation. I found its story to be less-than-thrilling, however. There are a few reasons for this, namely a number of plot points briefly being touched upon before the film hurries the viewer onto the next action sequence. Which doesn’t help the fact that the film jolts from comedy to chaos and briefly dark moments that involve an assassination and a suicide bombing against the will of its participant. Admittedly I’m not particularly enthused by sudden mood swings in stories like this (not that they can’t be done right, but many stories often don’t give reader slash players enough time to settle before such transitions).
Dotson finds himself bouncing from abode to abode as he works with a motley crew to stop this rich conglomerate from trying to stop India’s potential win in the aforementioned cricket game. Said company is responsible for a large number of facilities in Dotson’s version of India, which you can essentially liken to the likes of FAANG. By the end of the movie, I didn’t really understand what the point of getting India to lose this game beyond the CEO of said company’s claims that it’d make the people of India mad. And I felt that Dotson’s character didn’t really get a chance to shine as much as it should as he was shuffled between plot points, as did hit relationships with the other cast members.
Now mind, I did walk away from the film relatively amused. It was pretty, it had some funny moments and surprising moments. But this was one of the few times I’ve seen a piece of media and thought, “That’s it?”. Pacing is all over the place, particularly in the later half of the film where the narrative rushes to tie up as many of the loose ends as possible. It does conveniently ignore the video game’s premise, however, and ironically Dotson’s motivation in the beginning of the film to go out on this adventure.
And this is where the 2D mystery game is supposed to come into play—let’s have a gander at that one.
Detective Dotson – The Game
Dotson’s Misadventures
Detective Dotson’s game takes place immediately after the events of the film. Well, that seems to be the case, as we see Dotson spread his father’s ashes into the river. Like the film, the game adapts the beautiful 2D pixel scheme to gameplay remarkably well, blending in 2D assets with 3D and making for a very lively India. Unlike the movie, however, the game has very little in the way of cutscenes or even any storytelling—with characters you’ve seen from the movie having a maximum of five lines that directly relate to the gameplay mechanics over personality.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Detective Dotson – The Game is a 2D mystery adventure game with some brief platforming and puzzle elements. Your job as Dotson is to continue the mystery of finding out who killed your father. Said mystery involves starting from the simplest of investigations, like finding out who stole that biryani and working your way up. You’ll investigate by finding clues throughout town, which expands as you complete the game’s four cases. Said clues are found by talking to folks, trading monies and items, and eavesdropping in on conversations. Dotson can also don outfits (and dresses quite well for the occasion to boot) which can let him into restricted areas or use special abilities.
All of the mechanics are pretty straightforward. There’s a few minigames here and there that will net you monies and information, which does add to the variety in which the player can fill their clue board, and I appreciate that. There are also no long conversations you need to listen to in order to deduce who did what or what did who—revelations are three sentences long and all the details get tossed into your planner. As a matter of fact, there’s hardly any characterisation at all, which on one hand is a bit refreshing as I don’t mind an almost adlib approach to progression in a mystery game. Sometimes, I just don’t want to reread our protagonist telling us what we already know.
But this also comes at a cost: why should I care about Dotson’s dead father? If I didn’t watch the movie beforehand, I certainly wouldn’t have any reason to do so. Who is this lady on the top right of my screen? Who are these people that seem to know Dotson? And even when I did watch the movie, I observed the whole cast basically giving Dotson the cold shoulder. The cop that helped us out in the film, for example, suddenly seems to know things that we don’t, and he prefers to keep it that way.
I think this approach almost forgoes narrative entirely and, in a way, makes the game more as a piece to Detective Dotson’s movie more so than a game that should stand on its own. And despite some of the more amusing aspects of Dotson’s adventure, I can’t say I was a fan of how this game handled its own story.
But for what it’s worth, the game is a decent part of the IP’s transmedia endeavour. You’ll clear it in three hours, give or take, and all the while get to take in the cultural aspects of India. Now you might have noticed that I’ve chosen to call this piece an “impressions” article and that’s because technically, I can’t quite give Detective Dotson a score yet. That’s because, as of this writing, the second part of the game isn’t in yet. Once you complete the game in its current form (and right at its climax no less), Detective Dotson ends on a cliffhanger. The developer has told me they’ll be implementing the next chapter alongside other bits of content in the future. And honestly, I just don’t think I can give the game a score just yet.
What I can tell you is that both Detective Dotson’s movie and game are unique and even charming ventures. Both are heavily inspired by Bollywood’s popular comedy-drama films and they both boast a beautiful pixel-style of animation. I like the game’s unique and direct approach to storytelling and gameplay, even if the narrative is ultimately fractured as a result. If you’re looking for a trip through India and comedy lane, I don’t see why Detective Dotson shouldn’t be spared an afternoon—just be mindful of its current completion state. ∎
