Review for Frog Detective 3: Corruption at Cowboy County
The Frog Detective trilogy serves as a beginner-friendly entryway into the adventure-mystery genre. The previous games offered short, digestible experiences and silly yet enticing mysteries with quirky characters to go along with them. Frog Detective 3: Corruption at Cowboy County maintains that lineage while providing an enjoyable finale for the series.
Developed by Grace Bruxner and Thomas Bowker while published by worm club and SUPERHOT PRESENTS, Frog Detective 3 continues the adventures of the optimistic Frog Detective. This time, the protagonist collaborates with a colleague, Lobster Cop, to investigate hat thefts in Cowboy County. The story resembles the earlier games: Frog Detective takes on a humorously ridiculous problem, goes around town questioning suspects and fulfilling favors, then solves the mystery. However, it takes a turn that none of the other stories have presented. Frog Detective veterans will be baffled and wondering what this will lead to. Well, it leads to a whole second act that is relatively short but breaks from the game’s usual routine. The second act will make sense to those who have played the last two games, paid attention to specific environmental disturbances, and remembered a few prior cast members. Those who are just starting with this game may feel a trifle lost.
Like the previous two games, the writing is reminiscent of a children’s television show. All of the characters are wacky and are exaggerations of the cowboy aesthetic. One of the developers even chimes in, warning players not to give their addresses to strangers. The story has objective lessons about transgressions, forgiveness, and the dangers of an optimistic attitude. Still, the writing is consistent with what has come before, and the eccentric characters fit the aesthetic well. Some moments even manage to elicit a laugh or two. However, one of the flaws the writing maintains is the long, drawn-out conversations before the player makes a dialogue choice. The lack of voice acting exaggerates this problem occasionally to the point of tedium.
The children’s TV show aesthetic extends to the overall presentation. This third game maintains the polygon environments and the simple colors of its prior counterparts. However, most of the way through, the setting is much more bright and vibrant, which makes it stand out from the darker and somewhat bland (first game) or moody (second game) atmosphere. It also uses similar character designs, which all look like children’s toys with tiny black eyes or large googly ones. Players either get used to -- or become uncomfortable with -- gazing into the giant, sometimes expressionless stares. There are minimal sound effects and animations, used only sparingly throughout the game. The music itself matches the cowboy aesthetic. The most prominent is the looped open-world theme, which starts with single, long-paused bass notes, followed by reggae shakers, a couple of drum beats, and guitar melodies. This music track and a few others blend well in the background or, at other times, are noticeably upbeat.
The gameplay retains both the accessibility and repetitiveness of the first two games. The player controls Frog Detective primarily through a first-person perspective, going around and questioning suspects. You can interact with and pick up objects to give to other characters or to use in the environment. A journal keeps track of your items, suspects, and what every person wants from Frog Detective. One new addition -- the scooter -- helps traverse the game world, which is somewhat larger than its previous counterparts. Riding around is entertaining, featuring funny collision physics with some polygonal cacti. You can even use it to jump over hills and several sizable gaps. It is not a necessary addition, but it is a welcome one. Besides that, however, asking characters what they want and retrieving items for them is monotonous. The tasks are more exasperating because there are more characters than in earlier games. Besides the surprising second half, nothing else breaks up the gameplay or diverts the player’s attention. Still, this means those new to the mystery adventure genre will not face anything obstructive like tricky puzzles or complicated clue collecting. The gameplay will feel relaxing or like a slog depending on your tolerance level for fetch quests.
Despite the repetitive gameplay, Frog Detective 3 is still an enjoyable beginner-and-casual-friendly mystery game, following in the footsteps of its predecessors. It wraps up the trilogy nicely and adds quite a bit of fun with the scooter, its Western-inspired soundtrack, and vibrant environments. It’s best to play this game after the other two because of how the trilogy’s narrative connects. Its runtime is about two hours long; the previous games lasted around one hour each.
