Criminal Case (more commonly referenced as "CC" is a detective-themed hidden object game that was released on November 15, 2013 for Facebook (which must have an updated version of Adobe Flash installed) and on August 28, 2014 as a mobile app for iOS devices (iPhone and iPad). Criminal Case was developed and published by the French indie studio, Pretty Simple. Currently, Criminal Case has over 10,000,000 players worldwide.
Criminal Case has been one of the most popular and addictive Facebook games since the beginning of 2013 and has been highly competitive with Candy Crush Saga. On December 9, 2013, Criminal Case has been crowned the Facebook Game of the Year 2013, beating its competitor, Candy Crush Saga. Criminal Case has also been ranked 4.5 out of 5 stars on Facebook by its players.
| Criminal Case | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developers: | Pretty Simple |
| Platform: | Facebook iOS |
| Release Dates: | November 15, 2012 (Facebook) August 28, 2014 (iOS) |
| Genre: | Hidden Object |
| Monthly Users: | 10,000,000+ |
| Locations: | Grimsborough Pacific Bay |
| Website: | http://www.criminalcase.com |
Setting[]
The game is set in a fictionalized version of modern-day United States of America.
Grimsborough[]
The first City that is accessed is Grimsborough. Grimsborough is laid out like New York City and has a total of six districts and 56 Cases. The six districts in Grimsborough are the Industrial Area, Financial Center, Historical Center, University, Maple Heights, and the Airport.
Pacific Bay[]
After the six districts are completed in Grimsborough, you are sent to Pacific Bay, which is modeled after Los Angeles, California, has ten districts, and 59 cases. The ten districts in Pacific Bay are Ocean Shore, Bayou Bleu, Inner City, Jazz Town, White Peaks, Ivywood Hills, Rhine Canyon, Innovation Valley, Paradise City, and The Wastes.
World Edition[]
Eventually, after you receive another promotion from Pacific Bay you will enter season three of Criminal Case and enter World Edition. With World Edition, you'll travel the world doing nine new districts (which will be real life continents) for a total of 56 new cases. The eight continents (two of which are split into multiple segments) are Europe, Eurasia, East Asia, South Asia, Oceania, Sahara Region, Africa, South America, and North America.
Mysteries of the Past[]
While Armand Dupont is in the hospital, The Bureau reads Dupont's notebook, which was written by his great-grandfather, Charles Dupont. While reading the notebook, it takes the player to the past where the player enters season four of Criminal Case, Mysteries of the Past. In Mysteries of the Past, the player is required to investigate murders across the fictional city of Concordia in the United States. A Victorian city in the late 19th century, it is composed of ten districts: New Haven, Elysium Fields, Century Mile, Sinner's End, Coyote Gorge, Crimson Banks, Wolf Street, Grim Chapel, Ivory Hill, and Capitol Peak.
Gameplay[]
In Criminal Case, the player acts as a detective to solve murders in order to progress through the cases. The players must locate relevant clues at the Crime Scenes of each case by clicking the items in the scene. Greater scores are awarded by completing the scenes quickly. The player can also earn stars that can be used later as a type of currency for performing necessary tasks, such as examining the evidence and questioning the suspects. During this process, the player will also have to come across necessary autopsies and analyses that'll be done from the labs which will have a time limit for which it'll be completed. Futhermore, as the player progresses through each case, they acquire clues as to who the victim was, how they were killed, and what relation they had with the case's suspects.
At the conclusion of the case, the player is presented with these suspects and must arrest the suspect that fulfills all of the criteria gained throughout the investigation. If the decision is correct, the case is solved and the next one is unlocked, you will receive a medal, which you can three types of medals for each case, such as one for arresting the correct killer, one for completing the Additional Investigation, and then one for getting five stars in all crime scenes. You can revisit past crime scenes and even repay them using Elite Mode. However, to unlock the next case, the silver medal is required. Upon receiving the silver medal, you'll be able to ask friends for reports to unlock the next case. In a few of the beginning cases, the process varies from a majority of the other cases.
While investigating cases, the player must go through a variety of puzzle elements, such as puzzle-style hidden object scenes, such as complete the picture, time attack, and spot the differences bonus scenes, as well as a few simple mini games where you can uncover evidence in your forensic kit to find more information on the suspects, such as shuffling through garbage or clothes, unlocking cell phones and laptops, and piecing back together torn up papers and documents.
Other gameplay features include changing your avatar in the avatar shop to already unlocked attire or attire rewarded to you by suspects that were innocent after helping them during the additional investigation, purchasing police pets to earn random goodies, such as coins, energy, experience, or lucky cards, utilizing special boosters to help increase your score and using snacks to give you more energy to investigate crime scenes, and also to obtain collectibles, such as trophies and lucky cards. You can also gain experience which will be used for you to level up and at certain levels you can be promoted to a new rank. You can also earn three types of medals during each scene, as well as earn three different types of rings when redoing each crime scene in Elite Mode.
Like many other Facebook games, Criminal Case utilizes the energy system which requires energy to investigate crime scenes during each case.
The game is primarily a single-player game, but it has many social features incorporated into it as well. Each crime scene has a leaderbeard where you can be ranked according to how many teammates you have and will be based on the scores you have from each time doing a crime scene and rank you on the leaderboard according to your score compared to everyone else's score that you are teammates with. You may also have teammates to choose to assist you on the crime scenes and each teammate can be used once every eight hours. In Grimsborough, you can also choose Inspector David Jones, in Pacific Bay, you can also choose either Inspectors Amy Young or Frank Knight, in World Edition, you can choose either Jack Archer or Carmen Martinez, and in Mysteries of the Past, you can choose either Madeline O'Malley or Isaac Bontemps with all of them having only one hint to be used, but can be used as many times as you'd like with no eight hour wait time to reuse them. Your teammates will also have hints based on how often they play the game. If your teammates are daily players, they'll have the maximum number of hints which is five and if they haven't played in a long time, they'll then have the minimum number of hints which is one. The teammates you have must also be your friend on Facebook in order to request being your teammate or for you to request them to be yours and they can send you energy on a daily basis and request energy from you on a daily basis (you can ask/request energy once every 24 hours), as well as send them a lucky card for for using them as a teammate. You can also collect three coins from teammates that shared them every 24 hours for advancing in their case, three orange juices every 24 hours shared by your teammates when they level up, and one bag of potato chips every 24 hours that your teammates share when they reach a new rank. In response to receiving and accepting the coins, orange juice, or bag of potato chips, you can send them a lucky card in response as a "thank you".
Plot[]
The game begins with a silent detective that is a representation of you and uses your Facebook's gender and name to refer to you. You, the silent detective, is a rookie detective looking to pursue a career with the Grimsborough Police Department, which is a law enforcement agency in the city of Grimsborough. Partnered with David Jones - a senior detective, who is also lazy and comical. You start to become this extraordinary talent that can easily complete tasks, find evidence, identify suspects, and eventually arrest the killers of each case, as well as bring down dangerous Organizations and get the attention of Grimsborough's mayor, Howard Johnson.
After solving all 56 cases in an amazing fashion in Grimsborough and bringing peace back to the city, you will then be promoted in a major way to Pacific Bay as a new member of the Pacific Bay Police Department, which is the primary law enforcement agency in Pacific Bay. You'll be thrown a farewell ceremony from the fellow Grimsborough Police Department officers before departing with tons of respect, merit, and memories.
After arriving into Pacific Bay, you are teamed up with Amy Young and Frank Knight in the Pacific Bay Police Department, your career continues in the same impressive manner as it was in Grimsborough solving new cases in ten different districts. In Pacific Bay, you are met with more gruesome cases than the ones in Grimsborough, only to know that a mad scientist by the name of Albert Tesla is behind the scenes of the high crime rate of Pacific Bay. Eventually, you will restore the peace back into Pacific Bay. After Andrea Marquez states that Pacific Bay has to start anew with lower crime rates, Jack Archer - an elite force agent of The Bureau - offers you a job at the said international police force, which also happens to be the world's top agency.
You accept his offer, and so, after having proven your worth at Pacific Bay by solving an enormous amount of 59 cases, Jack believes you are skilled enough to investigate crimes all over the globe to continue your determined fight with crime.
Partnered not only with Jack, but also Carmen Martinez, the protagonist is tasked with investigating crimes all over the world as part of The Bureau, which was formed to fight against an international crime organization called SOMBRA. After chasing them all over the globe, The Bureau is finally able to bring SOMBRA down, but not without the sacrifice of Armand Dupont, who, on his deathbed, entrusts his great-grandfather's notebook to the protagonist.
As Jack reads the adventures laid out in the notebook, the protagonist is immersed in the story of the 19th century city of Concordia, where the Concordian Flying Squad operates. The protagonist gets partnered with Madeline O'Malley and Isaac Bontemps as they uncover crimes all over the city.
Characters[]
Characters play a key role in Criminal Case. They may or may not have a serious impact in the game and are classified into the following categories:
Popularity[]
- By the start of 2013, Criminal Case had attracted many users towards it.
- As of mid-2013, Criminal Case attracted more than ten million monthly users and became highly competitive with Candy Crush Saga, the most popular game on Facebook.
- On December 9, 2013, Criminal Case won won the Facebook Game of the Year 2013 award.
- The game has a 40 percent share of users on Facebook.
- Some reasons cited for the game's success include its graphic crime scenes and meaningful narratives.
- On July 15, 2014, the game's official Facebook App Page had reached a milestone with over 50 million "likes".
App Separation[]
Criminal Case: Pacific Bay[]
On February 15, 2017, Pretty Simple announced the official worldwide launch of Criminal Case: Pacific Bay, made available for play on Facebook and mobile devices as an independent app featuring all of the Pacific Bay cases (and other related content) existing in the original game, as well as an exclusive introductory case named Welcome to Pacific Bay. Other noticeable in-game differences include a tweaked color scheme and design, updated soundtrack, and a number of new customization options for the player-avatar.
Criminal Case: Save the World[]
On June 27, 2017, a standalone app for World Edition, subtitled Save the World, was officially released for Facebook and mobile devices worldwide. Similar to Criminal Case: Pacific Bay, it also includes updated visuals and audio, new avatar items, and a new case called The Murder of Amanda Love.