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In The Darkest Files we investigate Nazi crimes based on real cases, reconstruct the crime scenes and defend our case in court.
The Darkest Files was developed by Berlin-based studio Paintbucket Games, known for the strategy game In The Darkest of Times depicting the resistance against the Nazi regime. The game was released today on Steam, following its successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in April 2024, which raised €50,001, as well as €110,000 in funding from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, €310,000 from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, and €130,000 from Creative Europe Media.
In the game, you take on the role of fictional public prosecutor Esther Katz, who is tasked with investigating Nazi crimes in post-war Germany. While all names except that of Katz’s boss, Dr. Fritz Bauer, are fictional, the cases are based on true events. Your team consists of Dr. Fritz Bauer, the other public prosecutors Simon Peters and Christoph Wohlmuth, as well as assistant Paula Fischer and office cat Marlene. The first case concerns the arrest of Hans Naumann on April 28th, 1945, in Munich. The late Naumann was accused of climbing a flagpole and removing a Nazi flag. He was killed during interrogation by a group of Nazi officers in the cellar of a former brewery. In the second case, Anna Kazmirek is accused of looting a suitcase following the bombing of Braunschweig on October 15th, 1944, and was executed by guillotine.
Each case is divided into two phases: Initially we’re able to explore the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office from a first-person perspective, search the messy archive for clues, collect evidence such as interrogation transcripts, letters, photos, police reports and background material on the hierarchy and laws of the Nazi regime, interrogate witnesses, reconstruct the course of events using a blueprint and the witnesses’ statements, and prepare conclusions with three pieces of evidence. While Paula summons witnesses and obtains documents for us, we talk to Wohlmuth and Peters about their cases, have a heart-to-heart with Katz’ parents Georg and Frieda and put your relationship with them to the test.
The witness statements are presented in playable flashbacks, in which we can find required and optional pieces of evidence, with the latter improving our investigative rating and incresaing our understanding of the crime. The locations are beautifully designed and are a joy to explore, as we can e.g. search Kazmirek’s shared apartment and come across all sorts of clues that bring us a little closer to the truth. In order to prove all charges in court, we must also find the corresponding evidence. Since it’s often a case of one person’s word against another’s—for example, that of the victim’s friend and a roommate—this case proves particularly tricky. Our portable case file allows us to go through the evidence at any time. The blueprint, however, is firmly anchored in our office, as is the pinboard on which we drape the conclusions. Since both systems are intertwined, it would’ve made sense to connect them. If we receive new evidence and the course of events turns out to be different than before, we have to modify both the blueprint and the conclusions separately. Another issue is that witnesses are sometimes put words into their mouths. For example, the blueprint statement claims that police officer Wagner accused his late colleague Nowak of torture during Kazmirek’s interrogation, even though he didn’t say so in our run.
Once you’ve collected all the evidence and reconstructed the course of events, the trial begins. Here, Katz presents her case, and she must present her investigative findings in the form of a blueprint and conclusions. If the judge isn’t happy with them, you can adjust your conclusions and, in doing so, receive clues that may negatively impact your assessment at the end of each case. While the questions raised in these conclusions often fit to multiple combinations of evidence, clues are often formulated too generally. This lead to us sometimes being unable to resolve individual conclusions. At least the game seems to save you from wasting time trying to prove charges for which you haven’t found the necessary evidence. Depending on the difficulty level, it’s also possible to use evidence directly without conclusions. Overall, the game offers many ways to customize your experience and make your public prosecutor life a good chunk easier.
At the end of each case, you receive a score with a percentage rating for the solution to the case, as well as the investigation and interrogations. Additionally, you will be rated on a scale of one to five for court proceedings, interrogation techniques, and investigative skills, which increases replayability. Once you have handled the case sufficiently to your satisfaction, you can also read the course of the real case. In our version, this description was only available in English. In the archive, we can also view background information on other real contemporary events, such as the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial and the sentencing of Emmy Göring, the “High Lady” of the German Reich, to one year in a labor camp. Frankfurter Stimme and Blatt newspapers inform us daily about real-world political events and also report on the progress of Bauer’s team. Day after day, we witness how society in post-war Germany reacts to Katz’s investigations—for example, with vandalizing the office building, smashed windows, sensationalist headlines and threatening letters.
While we won’t discuss the epilogue for spoiler reasons, it must be included in our review as it’s part of the game. The epilogue breaks with the gameplay of the first two chapters and addresses another essential topic for which Dr. Fritz Bauer became famous. Katz’s personal story also culminates here, but the the events are presented in a much-abbreviated form and they’d definitely deserve at least their own case, if not their own game.
The pulp comic-esque graphic style and the jazz music fit the game’s atmosphere well, although we would’ve preferred more musical variety, especially during the court proceedings, to suit the situation better similar to the Ace Attorney games. While the game features German text, the voice acting is only available in English. There are sometimes significant differences in the quality of the dub. In one flashback, for example, there is a vivid description of Anna Kazmirek being harassed by several boys in Hitler Youth uniforms, and their heavily distorted voices simply seem inappropriate to what’s being depicted. You also have to get used to the different accents of each individual character and Bauer’s smoky, deep voice, which often seems a bit forced.
While we didn’t experience any crashes and the game is extremely well optimized, we did encounter a few minor and bigger bugs. For example, the final score displayed incorrectly, the conclusions were inserted in the wrong order during the trial, the quick-time event for applying the conclusions was occasionally missing and we got stuck after loading save games. That being said, the game lets you save yourself and regularly auto-saves, which can help with these issues.
Conclusion
The Darkest Files is a decent detective game for anyone who enjoys immersing themselves in meticulously researched historical settings. The game contains a fun gameplay loop, lets you explore detailed locations, uses a distinctive look and offers interestingly written dialogue. Post-war Germany and the difficulties Dr. Bauer and his team experienced in investigating Nazi crimes are presented in many facets over the course of the approximately seven-hour gameplay, whether in newspapers, conversations with colleagues and witnesses, intense black-and-white flashbacks or the beautiful motion comic cutscenes. Supporting additional ways to solve each case would’ve certainly helped players to be even more motivated to follow the engaging crime drama. A demo is available on Steam for anyone still unsure whether the game is for them.
Full disclosure: The reviewer backed the game on Kickstarter.
Paintbucket Games provided us with the PC version of The Darkest Files, which we used to create the screenshots.
