Warning: This article contains discussion/depictions of dismemberment and body parts. The trailer and images contain gore. Reader discretion is advised.

I like crime shows, specifically shows involving murder and mayhem. I like getting into the minds of killers and watching the good guys catch the bad guys. However, when I saw the trailer for Body of Evidence I was intrigued. How cool would it be to play a cleaner, cleaning up violent crimes so the cops can’t catch the perpetrator? It turns out there’s a lot to be desired in this experience.

Body of Evidence puts you in the role of a man named Mark who, somewhat unwillingly, becomes a cleaner for a mysterious caller. Waking up with a dead body in the tub is just the beginning and soon he is taking jobs for all sorts of people. The sad part about this is the game has very little in terms of a tutorial.

The first level, which is meant to show you how to move a body and clean up blood, only gives you guidance on picking up the body. It says nothing about how to set the body down. Each subsequent level after that (for a few levels) introduces new mechanics such as dissolving bodies in acid or cleaning up broken glass. However, it doesn’t give you much guidance on what to do or how to do these things.

This becomes more of a problem due to a few issues. The most obnoxious issue is the time limit on each level. Every level has a time limit before the cops will arrive. You have a goal of a certain amount of cleaning you have to do, along with disposing of various bodies/body parts. However, the time limit isn’t long enough due to having to figure out how some of the levels actually work.

Granted if there was an easier/casual mode and then a challenge mode I could see a time limit. Let people try the time limit if they want, don’t make it a requirement. Another thing that makes the time limit a problem is the controls. You have to click on something just perfectly in the right spot for Mark to clean or pick it up. In fact, sometimes if you pick something up, he will drop it and it will become stuck where it is.

I had to restart levels multiple times due to objects and body parts becoming inaccessible. Add that to the lack of a total tutorial and it makes the game pretty frustrating. Granted, some of these things might be addressed in future patches, but currently, the game is unfair and barely playable.

The options available to you are limited as well. There is no way to remap controls. Instead, all you have for options are various volume sliders. The voice acting rarely actually happens, and with the subtitles being white and on a light background they are very hard to read. The font is also very small, which I could easily see giving me (or other people) a migraine after a while.

I don’t like bashing games like Body of Evidence. I think the premise is solid and I even kind of like the minimalistic graphical style. The sepia tone to everything is bland, but I think it was done intentionally so that the bright red blood stands out more drastically. It is a decent enough visual style, even if I’ve seen other games do it more effectively.

Overall, Body of Evidence disappointed me greatly. If you’re looking to pick it up on Switch, I’d wait until it goes on sale. Maybe by then, it will have some updates that make it better. Otherwise, when the game launches on Steam perhaps it will be a bit less of a mess.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Body of Evidence was provided by No Gravity Games for this review.

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Body of Evidence

$9.99

3

Score

3.0/10

Pros

• Interesting Premise

Cons

• Seriously Buggy
• Small Font For Dialog
• Time Limit Too Short
• Not Enough Guidance/Instructions