Righteous Kill HD desperately wants to become your next C.S.I. game but fails at just about every step along the way ultimately becoming just another soon-to-be-forgotten HOA game on the growing heap of iOS games coming out this holiday season. The fact that it launched in October means it has probably already been forgotten.
Attempting to lure the female audience the game has you playing a female detective as she tracks down a vigilante killer by traipsing around the city to various locations (sometimes multiple times) to locate a laundry list of items, some random and some clues that require further analysis back at the crime lab. You’ll get to dust for prints, analyze crime scene photos, reconstruct jigsaw-like puzzles, and even use a UV light to scan for clues you may have missed.
While all this looks and even feels like a poor version of some 90’s TV cop drama, it definitely gets repetitive and even boring at times. The backgrounds are far from impressive and they are all littered with so much junk it’s almost not even fun trying to find the stuff you need. The puzzles aren’t all that challenging and the whole game ends up merely occupying your time rather than providing any entertainment. Even the attempt at telling a story about a vigilante killer gets lost in the humdrum gameplay.
The presentation is rather bland with minimal music, lame sound effects, and a super-annoying series of bullet hits that accompanies EVERY load screen. For some reason these are at twice the volume of the regular game sounds, which will have you scrambling for the volume or yanking your ear buds out every 5-10 minutes.
I suppose there is some minor enjoyment to be had with the game. There were one or two unique puzzles, but given the asking price and the sheer number of other…better HOA games out there, you can probably skip this case or at least wait for a sale. By the time I had finished Righteous Kill HD I set my iPad down and did my best Danny Glover Lethal Weapon impersonation, “I’m getting too old for this sh…”
