BROK the InvestiGator is a great looking and fun point and click X beat ’em up from COWCAT Games. Check out our BROK the InvestiGator review!

This is a double review for BROK the InvestiGator. Ceidz and ThaRaven403 played the game, and this review presents what they both had to say.

 

Narrative-driven adventure game that blends action and investigation in never-before-seen ways. Will you use your brain… or your brawn?

In a futuristic “light cyberpunk” world where animals have replaced humans, privileged citizens live under a protective dome from the ambient air pollution while others struggle to make a living on the outside.

BROK the InvestiGator is the newest game from COWCAT Games, which released point and click Demetrios: The BIG Cynical Adventure a few years ago. This time, Brok – an alligator in an animal world – will lead this game by being a private detective and solving crimes. This story-driven game is half point and click and half beat ’em up, in which you often have the choice between solving a situation or punching your way through the situation, which is an enjoyable mechanic. It can also slightly change the outcome of your investigations, as you might miss some clues that way. In each zone, you can press the Square button to add an overlay to all the elements that can be interacted with, which is a great addition. When you switch to beat ’em up mode, Brok can now jump and break doors or battle his way through enemies.

I didn’t think much about it as I began playing, but as I progressed through the game, the story became more interesting, and I eventually got pretty invested in it and wanted to press on to see how it would unfold. When you have collected enough clues about a case, you’ll enter into an investigation phase, allowing you to determine what really happened in a case by combining clues and presenting them. I also liked how if you missed some clues, you could use the hint system, which uses consumable ads that are found in each zone. Alternatively, you can go back into the different areas to collect missing ads.

As for the puzzle difficulty, most of them were accessible, and figuring them out without any external help was definitively doable. If you need help, you might run out of ads since they’re consumed after each use, but you can backtrack to any area already visited to collect them. I do have to mention one puzzle: the prison one, which felt too hard, even with all the hints unlocked. I was still unsure what to do and struggled for about half an hour before finally getting out of my cell.

The art style is neat, and each character has a distinct style. The animations are also top-notch. The game uses the DualSense features, with some sound effects being sent to the controller. The voice acting is also great, and I liked the soundtrack. BROK the InvestiGator was definitely a highlight for me on PlayStation 5, so hopefully you check it out!

 

As Ceidz mentioned, BROK the InvestiGator features different gameplay elements to make it quite unique. When you’re in Adventure Mode, it plays mostly like a point and click adventure game. You can either move your character around with the left analog stick to reach a point of interest or move the right one that acts as a cursor to those same points of interest, which you can investigate with the X button. The items you gather will be accessible in your inventory, which you can access by using the Options button. In traditional point-and-click fashion, you’ll be able to combine those either with another item in your inventory or with something in the scene you are in to enable you to proceed further.

The Triangle button will allow you to switch to Action Mode, where things change a bit. The X button will now allow you to jump, while the Square button will be used to punch. Punches can be thrown at a lot of things or characters and can have either good or bad effects on how your playthrough goes. Depending on who you punch, or in certain moments as part of the story, you’ll enter some fight sequence where it basically turns into a beat ’em up game. While in those fights, the Circle button will allow you to block and pick up weapons, and you’ll also be able to hold the R2 button before pressing Square for a powerful attack.

I remember playing COWCAT Games’ Demetrios more than five years ago, which I enjoyed quite a lot, so I was eager to jump into this new game from this single-developer studio. I was pleasantly surprised by my time with the game as I found a fun storyline with lots of branching paths or decisions that could alter a lot of things. In the same manner as Demetrios, this game features a lot of ways in which you can get to a game over screen, which makes it fun to try to discover them all. For example, at one point, I decided to beat up someone – for no reason, really – only to see Brok filled with remorses about becoming a murderer before being shown the game over screen.

The addition of the beat ’em up aspect is a great feature for me, as it changes the pace from being strictly about finding items, combining them, and solving puzzles. Getting into a fight here and there, with a simple combat system, was enjoyable and was well blended into the game nicely since you can enter Action Mode just to be able to reach a place by jumping. And for the people who might not like this aspect, the game has a difficulty setting in which you can skip fights with the press of a button, which allows you to put the focus strictly on the adventure side of things.

As for the trophies, Brok doesn’t require beating the game on its Hardcore difficulty for the Platinum trophy, which is certainly good but might still warrant a few playthroughs. You’ll need to get all the game’s endings, and similarly to Demetrios’ cookies, this game features three ads in each scene that are well-hidden and that you need to collect. The full list includes 9 Bronze trophies, 15 Silver trophies, and 6 Gold trophies. Other than that, the majority of the trophies are uniquely missable things that could easily be overlooked, although the trophy descriptions provide some great details that should help you prepare to get most of them along the way.

We liked playing through BROK the InvestiGator and particularly loved how the game story unfolds and how you can either solve some situations or punch your way through them as needed. The art style is also beautiful, and the voice acting was great. We definitively recommend this game to players looking for a great experience. BROK the InvestiGator is available as a Cross-Buy title, so your $24.99 purchase will give you access to the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost.

Disclaimer
This BROK the InvestiGator review is based on PlayStation copies provided by Cowcat Games.