Tails Noir introduces itself as a dark mystery using storytelling tropes of anthropomorphic animals and grizzled detectives that make its audience aware of the genre and cliches. Tales Noir directly challenges these tropes with acts that are paced in a way to slowly introduce you to its true themes.
While lacking in depth of gameplay, Tales Noir only needs its visuals and dialogue to create urgency and satisfy exploration, both in the physical world and through its many characters. By the end, you get a feeling of shock and horror without the confusing head-scratching left to more poorly-paced stories.
*Note: This article contains spoilers.
Act 1 – The Tone
While tails noir relies on its genre to establish a dark atmosphere, leading with the classic trope of the desperate wife entering into the PI’s office, it doesn’t solidify until the end of the first act. Here, Howard is broken, and his ego shattered. The question of what constitutes “the self” first comes into question.
Despite the shift in tone, the player has yet to be unveiled to the true horrors, and is paced to follow the story of murder as a business. This hook draws you into the roleplay of a grizzled PI while holding back from alienating you.
This act establishes the pacing that is used throughout the remaining acts. Tales Noir constantly is escalating the stakes, tone, and drama that is felt before it is seen. If certain pieces of information were revealed earlier or later, then it would only damage the overall theme.
Act 2 – The Bridge
The introduction of Renee as a looped-in reporter gives you agency to fully roleplay as Howard. This gives mechanical weight to the overall question of the story, what does it mean to be defined?
Like the events of the story, the meaning of these choices are yet to be revealed, but prepares you for the climax behind the scenes. However, this act unfortunately falls prey to the slowest section of the game, which weakens the pacing if not for the computer entries on Rose’s computer shedding light on the larger scheme.
Yet, the end of the act expertly redistributes the story’s stakes while balancing on the knowledge you have acquired. This is Tails Noir’s strong suit in its storytelling, always grabbing you before you get a chance to lose interest or get lost.
Act 3 – The Climax
At this point, no matter how you define Howard through roleplay, the wool has been removed and his ego is strengthened. Armed with a weapon he never thought to use, Howard believes his knowledge makes him invulnerable.
By the end of the act Howard is nearly destroyed, and forever changed, bringing back the question of self through an ever widening and horrifying lens. This also represents a tone shift into cosmic horror, shrinking the importance of the noir theme. With this the story no longer holds itself on the trappings of its genre and can prepare the player for ending.
Act 4 – The Question
At this point of the story, Tales Noir has license to narratively floor it, and holds you to answering; is it true that “We change, but we change nothing?”
Tales Noir never directly answers this, and to some the ending might be abrupt, but it was never the Apes, Clarissa, or the many crimes Howard witnesses that the game wants you to explore. It’s what it means to define the self in a world that is destined to pre-define you. Each step in the story that revealed a darker plot was a means to an end, and by the end it expects you to have an answer. Is Clarissa’s actions justified by her intentions, Is Renee allowed to side with her, and does Howard’s terrifying transformation accurately reflect the city that shaped him first?
Matthew has been a lifelong lover of video games since he could first hold a controller, and among his favorites are narrative-heavy, singleplayer games like; Divinity: Original Sin 2, Elden Ring, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Hollow Knight. Matthew also plays tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder and Call of Cthulu. He graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor’s in Sociology and minored in English.
