Review for The Crimson Diamond
The Crimson Diamond is set amidst what seems to be Northern Ontario’s diamond rush. The possibility of valuable gems lying dormant in the sleepy town of Crimson reaches the Royal Canadian Museum. To quickly verify the rumors, they send an amateur geologist to the scene - a young lady on her own quest for mineralogical glory.
Text parser games haven’t gone completely out of fashion and continue to have a passionate fanbase, but new titles are exceedingly rare. While everything expected from a Laura Bow title is present in Julia Minamata’s adventure offering, some quality-of-life additions clean up the quirks of that era of gaming. There’s something so charming about typing and trying out commands – a challenge not many modern-day gamers have experienced.
In true Agatha Christie fashion, our circumstantial detective is trapped in the middle of nowhere with a group of interesting strangers. Different alliances and animosities reveal themselves as you investigate each one further. The story’s pacing allows you to get to know the characters and setting. The characters fulfill certain tropes, but they are unpredictable enough that you are eager to follow the threads they leave behind. It's a lot of fun to connect the dots of how each Crimson Lodge guest fits into the growing mystery.
.jpg "Screenshot for Crimson Diamond, The 1")
To succeed in The Crimson Diamond is to embody the spirit of its heroine, Nancy Maple. You must be spontaneous, intelligent, and so, so nosy. I mean it – you need to eavesdrop on conversations, rifle through private boudoirs, and ask everyone many questions. The inn’s other inhabitants and guests do mind, or so they say – but you’re pretty much free to check out everything in and around the Crimson Lodge.
While privacy may be disregarded, subtlety is still of utmost importance. You’ll need to pay attention to certain testimonies, relationships, and schedules to catch all the clues and line up your suspicions. You have to be savvy in approaching a conversation or some evidence, lest you lose them forever.
The breadth and depth of The Crimson Diamond’s mysteries are a pleasant surprise for a game of such length (it takes seven to eight hours to reach the finale). At the end, there’s a reckoning of all mysteries, and I was amazed at the loose threads I allowed to unravel under my watch. When I thought I was being thorough, the game made me realize I didn’t stick my nose in far enough. The system also doesn’t accept any assumptions and pushes the importance of cold, hard evidence in your investigation.
.jpg "Screenshot for Crimson Diamond, The 2")
It’s an effort to keep all of these little details and trails in mind, and the “Notebook” feature does an excellent job of keeping everything in check without giving away the joy of the “Eureka” moments. In combination with the strict evidence requirement, there was a sweet balance that made every puzzle feel possible to solve. I appreciated that the game does its best to make sure that you, the player, feel like the detective solving the mystery.
In my investigations, I used the “Look” and “Examine” commands liberally, but some key items were not described in the computer’s responses. Given its text parser style, I thought that using the commands mentioned above would give me some clues instead of pixel-hunting something that might be a clue. This is a similar system that’s in early graphical text parser adventures, but it still presented itself as a kink in the experience and may hinder some accessibility.
In connection with that point, at times I found it difficult to analyze items on-screen – despite being enamored with the graphics. Given the period setting, I wasn’t sure if the items and solutions I was building up in my head were anachronisms or just plain silly. Sometimes I had a hard time getting the correct word or terminology to pick up the right item, but I guess that’s now part of the puzzle!
.jpg "Screenshot for Crimson Diamond, The 3")
Visually, The Crimson Diamond is a striking EGA pixel-art game with a vibrant color palette and charming animations. Hues that would clash in theory harmonized in cutscenes that evoked so much emotion and character. The beauty and creepiness of the town of Crimson jumped off the screen thanks to the jarring colors and vintage stylings.
Aurally, the game is also carried by great background songs, which highlight special scenes. I do wish there had been less complete silence for much of the experience, and would have appreciated more music and sound effects as I ran around the Lodge
Overall, The Crimson Diamond is a wonderful game that prompts you to use your little grey cells, snoop like a bloodhound, retrace and revisit rooms, and find all the silly, fun ways to die. Beginners to the genre will find more to enjoy than novelty, and veterans will want to break out into a play session of The Colonel’s Bequest once more.
Our Verdict:
The Crimson Diamond is a gem of a 2024 release – a convincingly vintage, but also refreshingly modern take on the text parser game. The overall package is a modest but fulfilling mystery that doesn’t overstay its welcome and leaves a fantastic impression of what adventure gaming was like in its golden era.
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