Game Review: Song of Farca by Wooden Monkeys

 
 

Song of Farca is a slightly intense but fun game in which you play a private investigator / hacker on house arrest in a cyberpunk future. Solve cases from your computer by accessing cameras and drones, gathering clues, questioning people, and making decisions that impact the story.


Song of Farca Promo Image - A picture frame showing two women leaning close and posing for a selfie, one making a kissy face

Official Description:

Intrigue, corporations, lies, criminal structures, a frightening future, irreversible consequences. Welcome to the Song of Farca, a dark and cruel Black Mirror-esque novel.

You are Isabella Song, a private detective, and hacker who has to investigate a series of crimes. Can you uncover them using only gadgets, an army of drones, and your mind?

As your investigation proceeds, the stakes will rise, different episodes become woven into the one story, and decisions will become increasingly difficult.

More Info:

You can get more info and download the game here on Steam or here on the official website!

Long Review:

The way this was executed with all the investigator and hacker stuff was so fun! It made me feel like I was, well, maybe not a real P.I., but like a P.I. in a movie. It had all the flair and drama of articles popping up on your screen after an internet search, blurry videos you have to zoom in on and make clear, hacking into buildings with surveillance cameras, etc.

This looks kinda complicated and overwhelming in screenshots, but the gameplay is pretty easy. At least, the mystery solving is. You essentially can’t fail because it does all the work of organizing clues as long as you find the info, and if you do choose the wrong thing when talking to someone, it seems to let you have infinite tries to get out right. (I gather from some things I’ve seen others say that maybe you can fail a case, but I think any failure is just if you choose to not try again when you make a mistake, or if you don’t find all the clues. Though certain things you kind of have to get right to close the case and continue the game.)

Honestly, I liked that my mistakes didn’t matter (for the most part, I did make one mistake that got a background character killed) because it made the game stress-free. Some of your decisions have some impact though. I’ve done some poking around online and found some different ways your choices can impact the story, but it seems there’s only one choice that really impacts the ultimate ending. There’s also a secret ending, apparently, that requires a few specific choices and outcomes.

There are also puzzles where you have to access cameras and bugs and drones and figure out how to move them, how to distract people so they don’t notice what you’re doing, how to adjust air vent currents, etc. in order to access all the clues, and those took some figuring out sometimes. This is the only part of the game that requires any real-time coordination (e.g. activate an alarm, and when the guard leaves their post to check it out for a few seconds, move your drone to access their desk), but it’s simple, nothing too fast-paced, just a few mouse clicks, and there are no consequences if you mess up and have to try again.

There are some other sorta mini games for clues too. I liked that they always fit with the investigative hacker feel rather than being random puzzles. Figuring out passwords is the one thing that’s sometimes really convoluted (though sometimes fun). A few times I finally gave up and found the answers online, and I still couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to get those answers.

There’s lots of diversity with queer, POC, and disabled characters throughout the game. The main character you play as is sapphic. I also loved that every character has no pronouns listed until you find them out, and the pronouns are always one of the things highlighted as important to add to each character’s profile.

The art is nice. The moving lips are a bit unsettling though.

The collectibles (which unlock concept art and costumes for your dog) are not explained, but basically: With each case, you get a scavenger hunt email with a clue. The answer to that clue will then appear in images or videos throughout the case (usually small, not super noticeable), and you have to click on them. If you find them all for a case, it might unlock something.

Each case is kind of its own mini story, and there’s an overarching storyline that gets a bit intense, but I can’t talk about that without spoilers. But, because there is an overarching story, there are certain times you won’t have choices that you (the player) may want, and there are certain things you can’t change.

The game is vaguely cyberpunk, but not overly sci-fi. There’s lots of tech and some AI. People have tech upgrades in their bodies. That sort of thing.

It took me about 11 hours to finish the game. You can also go back to redo specific cases if you missed collectibles or want to see some different outcomes of decisions.

Overall, this was a cool cyberpunk P.I. hacker game!

Short Review:

– Fairly simple but fun gameplay
– Puzzles and mini games that were really relevant to the game
– Seemingly infinite chances to get things right
– Individual cases and an overarching story
– Certain decisions have impact, but there are certain things you can’t change
– Diversity
– Nice art
– Overall, a slightly intense but fun game that made me feel like a P.I. hacker in a movie!

Accessibility:

(May not include everything)
– Not accessible for blind / visually impaired players.

 
 
 
 

Talk to me!

Have you played Song of Farca?
Have you ever played a game that made you feel like a P.I. or detective or hacker?

 
 
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Your Thoughts

 

8 thoughts on “Game Review: Song of Farca by Wooden Monkeys

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  1. Greg

    Looks low stress and I like that. Solving a mystery should be fun ha ha and I like that you can solve it even if you make mistakes. And any game that makes you FEEL like a hacker- plus the cyberpunk setting, let’s be honest- sounds like a win to me! I don’t always like puzzle games, especially if they slow things down, but overall this sounds like a fun game.

    1. Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight)

      I just really embraced it and started getting really into it, haha. Once I got the hang of it, I’d be all, “Maurice, gimme the address! Ok, let’s do this! Here’s a camera! Ok what’s over here? A safe! I’ll need a password for that. There’s a guard over here, I can distract him with this!” and would try to go as fast as I could with the puzzles cuz it was fun.

  2. Becky @ A Fool's Ingenuity

    This sounds like so much fun! You had me sold once you said you felt like a PI in like a movie or something. Also, you get to have a dog? The diversity and everything is great, I didn’t even need to be told you were a PI, just mention there’s a dog and I’m there.

  3. Roberta R.

    “Honestly, I liked that my mistakes didn’t matter (for the most part, I did make one mistake that got a background character killed)”.
    Didn’t matter?!? That was so evil 😂.

    I’m not much into games (except for Mario clones LOL), but this one sounds fun! Too bad for the lack of accessibility.

    1. Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight)

      It didn’t affect the story though, so it was fine, haha. They were breaking into and stealing from a company, and I was being forced to help. So he was probably a bad person anyway, unless he was also being forced.

      I don’t think this is really a game that could be blind accessible, because the puzzles require looking at things. I just like to mention it because sometimes you don’t know if a game isn’t accessible unless someone explicitly states it.

      I *am* into games, but the only Mario I’ve played is the NES version 😁