The Last Case of John Morley review – A moody mystery morsel

In these cash-strapped times, everyone wants more bang for their buck. That said, when it comes to video games, that mindset comes with an inevitable downside. Faced with option after option of vast open worlds and 40-hour-plus time investments, it can get a little overwhelming. Sometimes you need a “palate cleanse,” something short, immersive and impactful.

If that’s where you are mentally right now, may I direct you to narrative mystery game The Last Case of John Morley, out today for multiple platforms. Published by JanduSoft, The Last Case of John Morley is the latest release from Spanish developer Indigo Studios, which specialises in interactive stories with a dollop of puzzle-solving.

Set in 1940s Britain, you play as brilliant private detective John Morley, who nonetheless has suffered terrible bad luck in recent times. A case landed him in hospital for months, his beloved assistant left him, and he’s desperately short on cash. Then a solution appears on his doorstep in the form of Lady Margarette Fordside, a countess who promises Morley an obscene amount of money if he can solve the 20-year-old murder of her daughter. That means heading to the scene of the crime: Lady Margarette’s long-abandoned manor house, where Morley is faced with the disturbing prospect that the killer may still be lurking. 

I was fortunate to play The Last Case of John Morley in perfect conditions for a noir-style mystery: alone in the dark and quiet of a soggy Saturday night. A three-to-four-hour game, it can be devoured in a single session, although the experience is never a rushed one. The Last Case of John Morley encourages you to take your time, trawling decayed environments for clues that will help you recreate events, advance your exploration area, and fill out your case file. Think a bloody hand print on a door frame, or a security system invoice with a scribbled access code on the back.

The Last Case of John Morley isn’t especially challenging on the puzzle front. All you really need do to equip yourself with necessary knowledge is ensure you carefully examine every interactive point in a level. However, it’s mentally stimulating enough to keep you engaged, and it’s an extremely atmospheric game, with richly detailed Unreal Engine visuals, and clever use of light to guide the player’s journey. The Last Case of John Morley could have been a little more intense on the fright front, but it certainly sucks you into its dark, moody world full of secrets and the echoes of explosive violence.

I don’t want to oversell The Last Case of John Morley. The game’s character interactions, despite being marketed as interrogations, don’t have much depth and complexity due to the cold case nature of the core mystery. Inconsistent name spelling can also be a distraction. Still, there’s no denying that the game scratches an itch for something simultaneously straightforward and stylish.

Is The Last Case of John Morley a one-play-and-done title? Yes, in theory. If you’re a completionist, though, you may want to replay if you missed any of the clues and related achievements. Then there’s the great mystery genre tradition, across all media, of re-experiencing something to see, with hindsight, if you can make any new discoveries and spot the plot twists ahead of time. In that sense, The Last Case of John Morley’s brief length is to its benefit as this is a game you can easily revisit, like a beloved book, if you need a shot of brooding intensity.

The Last Case of John Morley releases today, 27 November for PC, Steam Deck, and PlayStation 5, with Xbox Series launch at a later date.