I was born in 1989, a historic year for many reasons but majorly for the wave of revolutions that occurred that year, most notably, the fall of the Berlin Wall, leading to the eventual reunification of Germany. 90 years earlier, 1899 was a similarly historic year; Spanish rule finally ended in Cuba, bringing to an end 400 years of Spanish control in the Americas. Pope Leo XIII was Pope (yes, the previous Leo to the current Pope), Albert Dreyfus faced his second trial on false charges of espionage, being convicted for a second time and having to wait until 1906 before he was finally exonerated. A civil war raged in Samoa, with Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States all vying for control, resulting in a balkanization of the island chain which persists to this day.
Germany was still a relatively young country in Europe; Otto von Bismark had only unified the country in 1871 (and had only died the previous year in 1898), and was still building its empire with colonial control of various countries in Africa. Leipzig, the largest city in the state of Saxony, was a flourishing centre of commerce and industry, particularly publishing and education, due to Leipzig University being one of the oldest and most prestigious in the country. Indeed, in 1912 the city would become home to the German National Library. Casebook 1899 – The Leipzig Murders casts the player in the guise of a police detective in Leipzig in this heady era, and is wonderfully brought to life via its old school pixel art as well as some great German voice acting.
Casebook 1899 shares most similarity to Lamplight City, a 2018 game from Grundislav Games I’ve previously reviewed and enjoyed. Both are detective games and both are structured around solving a variety of different criminal cases, forming the individual chapters of the game. Furthermore, both allow the player to choose different outcomes to each investigation; you interrogate the facts, but are left to draw your own conclusions. The story will adjust to take this into account, resulting in different people arrested and accused, and eventually leading to different endings. Casebook 1899 does this with aplomb by having you play as Detective Joseph Kreiser from the Kriminalpolitzi, accompanied by the local prosecutor who acts somewhat as the Dr. Watson to your Holmes. Across four different cases you’ll investigate crime scenes, talk to witnesses, collect evidence, and make deductions.
The notebook is an invaluable tool, where all information you’ve learned will be collected together. When you feel two facts are related or could prove something, you can link them together, helping to provide a motive, or an explanation. For example, the first case deals with a car accident where a driver plunged into the river. You find the snapped brake cable, and later on find a pair of scissors in the garage at the driver’s house, which suspiciously match the cuts on the brake cable. Linking them together proves that the cable was cut deliberately, suggesting the man was murdered. You’ll slowly piece together a variety of different plausible scenarios and you’ll need to use the evidence and your best judgement to discover the correct outcome.
However, you can also make the wrong choice; the game will hint that you may have solved the case incorrectly, but it won’t stop the overall flow of the experience. The writing is good and the voice acting is great, all of it in German with English subtitles. Not having an English dub I actually think was a smart choice as it helps to ground you more into the world. You also have a traditional point-and-click inventory which you’ll need to use to solve puzzles, for example, getting past a rather angry dog. These are very tried and tested adventure game staples and are carried out proficiently. Similarly, a couple of minigames help to break up some of the conversations, some of which are a bit simplistic but they can all be skipped without consequence if desired.
Visually the game is going for an early adventure game look, similar to that of early LucasArts titles such as LOOM (ask me about it), or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Lamplight City was a lot more detailed, while Casebook 1899 splits the difference between the extreme low resolution of something like The Last Door with more detailed and painterly styles which emerged in the mid-1990s. It’s an effective style though and all the pixel art is nicely done. Casebook 1899 – The Leipzig Murders is nicely paced, atmospheric and overall is another in the recent line of classic point-and-clicks. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and apart from the deduction element doesn’t do anything new, but its unique setting and time period helps to keep you engaged as you work to crack the case.
