Become a reluctant investigator and solve cases across a vibrant Indian setting in the adorable Detective Dotson

Explore, parkour, and wear disguises as you piece together clues to uncover a mystery

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Dotson always wanted to become an actor and star on the Bollywood scene, but after the mysterious death of his detective father he must play a new role to solve the case himself. As seen during theFuture Games ShowSummer Showcase, this adventure will take the reluctant detective through a vibrant Indian setting, where nothing is quite as it seems…

Presented in a cozy 2.5D pixel art style, you have to explore each area to uncover clues for your current case, using parkour and ziplines to access hard-to-reach locations. You’ll also need to speak to the lively cast of characters to obtain new information, but some won’t be willing to talk to Detective Dotson – so you’ll need to use your acting background to don a wide range of disguises and encourage them to open up.

Central to each of your investigations is the evidence board, serving as a puzzle where all of the clues you’ve discovered need to be logically inserted into the correct slots to spell out what happened. Find enough evidence and complete the board successfully to solve the current case and move on to the next one.

Detective Dotson was envisioned by Oscar-winning Pixar artist Shalin Shodhan as a love letter to India, and to increase representation of Indian culture in games as it rarely appears, despite around 20% of the world’s population living there. You can experience this through the episodic single-player story, or team up with a friend to take on two-player couch co-op levels.

Detective Dotson will be arriving on PC through Steam later in 2024, with future releases planned for mobile and consoles. In the meantime, there’s ademo available on Steam right nowso you can take an initial run at solving the case.

If you’re looking for more excellent games from today’s Future Games Show, have a look atour official Steam page.

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Iain originally joined Future in 2012 to write guides for CVG, PSM3, and Xbox World, before moving on to join GamesRadar in 2013 as Guides Editor. His words have also appeared in OPM, OXM, PC Gamer, GamesMaster, and SFX. He is better known to many as ‘Mr Trophy’, due to his slightly unhealthy obsession with amassing intangible PlayStation silverware, and he now has over 600 Platinum pots weighing down the shelves of his virtual award cabinet. He does not care for Xbox Achievements.

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