It’s 1940, and you play as a detective named John Morley. After spending a lot of time in the hospital, you are released and go back to your office. You are approached by a woman who wants a case solved. The problem? It happened twenty years ago! Locations must be explored from where the events took place. You are in first-person perspective, and must evaluate your surroundings, digging up clues from the past. Similar to Sherlock Holmes games, you try to reconstruct what happened through the details in your environment until you come up with a possible story of what had happened. But during your investigation, you are being followed. Someone with a knife is stalking around. Maybe it’s the murderer who wants to keep the case a mystery. Or maybe it’s someone else entirely. Solve the mystery and bring justice to the events of the past.

Here’s what I liked:

Back in My Day — I love a setting that takes place in the past. You don’t have any real technology to do the problem-solving for you. It provides a lot of grit and can create more tension. When you think you’re being followed, you can’t just call emergency services. You’re on your own. I’m glad that’s not how it is anymore, but it doesn’t mean it’s not an enjoyable experience to have in digital form. Trying to solve a case from twenty years ago is just a new set of eyes. It’s not like today, where we have DNA testing and can bring up unsolved cases again with existing evidence. As you may have figured, there are a lot of cool old things to look at. There are tons of details, and the graphics don’t disappoint. The only thing lacking is the windows. While in the office, you can’t look out into a busy city street; it’s just a blank filler grey color that makes you want more.

Sounds of the Past — Along with seeing some things from the 1940s, you can expect your listening experience to be the same. Music is inspired by that time period. You won’t find any modern-day sounds or even dialogue. I don’t believe I heard any slang from the modern day used by mistake. Details are even more important when covering a specific time period. It allows you to experience the atmosphere. Even the story itself feels like it would have taken place back then. A murder that in today’s time period would have been solved within the week.

Your Own Pace — There are a few puzzles that may stump you. You just have to make sure you read and examine everything. But you aren’t under any time limit, nor do you need to fight anybody. The only time you have to worry about is your own in the real world. There’s a novelty in not feeling rushed. This is definitely a casual game for people who like to read and examine items. But it’s not just a walking simulator, the things you examine give you more story as well as clues to progress the game.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

My Finger Hurts — Let’s get this out of the way. Running with the analogue stick pressed in is not great for your thumb. A lot of games use this, but it seems you have to press extra hard in this game in order to run. You aren’t even that much faster and will constantly be using it. I would have much rather used a trigger button or even been able to click the stick to enable auto-running. You walk slow enough to make running seem like you’re just walking faster. I did check the control options, and I could not find any way to change it. I actually put the game down once for a while because it was bugging me.

Reconstructing the Past — There are some scenes where items have a green glow, and you must interact with them in order to figure out what likely happened. There isn’t much puzzle involved, just find the green color and examine it. It’s what you’ve already been doing the whole game, but it can show characters and their actions. There’s a really cool scene of the actual murder taking place. However, I clicked on the item on the wrong side, and was blocked off from going back into the room to further the case. I was extremely lucky and was able to eventually get around the imaginary figure, but I was worried about having to reload the last checkpoint.

Hard to Put Down — This game isn’t hard to put down in the sense that you are so engaged with the story, and you have to find out what happens next. It’s hard to put down because you don’t know where your last checkpoint was. One example is when I arrived at a new location. The car was next to me, I wasn’t in my office anymore. I figured, hey, this is clearly a checkpoint. So I quit the game. When I loaded my save, I had lost some progress. I was supposed to go inside the building, I guess. So it’s hard to put down because while the game is okay, it’s not good enough to replay scenes you’ve already done. Especially with the run button!

Wrap-up

The game does a wonderful job of capturing the past. From the visuals to the music and dialogue, it’s all very well done. The story is okay, but the ending seems a bit far-fetched. The pacing wasn’t bad, but I do think this game could have had a few more puzzles. I do wish there were some more areas to explore, instead of being in the same places for so long. The running button and lack of checkpoints were annoying, but the game is fairly short, and you likely won’t be playing a second time. The gaming world is full of fantastic games and amazing stories. While this might not make any of those lists, if you’re looking for a decent detective game with a very twisted ending, you may want to give this a few hours of your time.

Score: Reader’s Choice

The Last Case of John Morley was published by JanduSoft and developed by Indigo Studios on Xbox One. It was released on January 13, 2026, for $12.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.