Can you mix a cocktail while eye-to-eye with a criminal? Find out in Best Served Cold, a murder mystery set in a bustling speakeasy where you serve customers, make friends and enemies, and solve crimes. At the Nightcap bar, prohibition is a killer… and so are some of your customers!
Developed by: Rogueside
Played on: Steam
Length: 13 hours (19 hours for completionists)
A review key was provided by Rogueside.
What does a dead body and a good drink have in common? In this bartending detective visual novel, the answer’s in the title. Best described as Coffee Talk meets Ace Attorney, Best Served Cold places you in the shoes of a bartender working at the last speakeasy in town. The only thing standing between you and permanent closure is becoming an undercover detective, pouring the drinks while your customers spill their secrets.
The premise of solving murder mysteries from behind a bar is already an enticing concept, but Best Served Cold serves up a meticulously crafted experience that goes down smooth. Each time you clock in for your shift at The Nightcap, it’s hard not to sink into the warm ambience of the speakeasy, from the jazz playing softly in the background, to the rattling ice in your shaker as you mix up your next cocktail.
Over the course of five cases, you become intimately familiar with the interior of The Nightcap and its rotating cast of twenty unique characters. Where games that confine you behind a countertop can feel claustrophobic, the city of Bukovie manages to come alive through conversations with its people. From eccentric upper class elites emptying their wallets on cocktails, to the immigrants and the impoverished escaping from political unrest, each conversation immerses us further into the world outside our doors.
But as the shadow of war looms over Bukovie at large, your role as the resident bartender cum detective is far more intimate. Each chapter begins with a murder case which you have sixteen in-game days to solve. From there, you have to identify suspects, uncover motives and evidence, and ultimately narrow down the culprit that committed the crime. With only your wits and a menu of prohibited alcohol at your disposal, the clock is ticking as you gather clues to solve the case.
Your job as a bartender is more than just loosening tongues. Based on the drinks you serve, you can get your customers in a good or bad mood, tipsy enough to let their guard down, or drunk enough to let a few secrets slip. Each customer has their own drink preferences and personality quirks, which presents its own challenge when you’re trying to get the intel you need. In an interesting twist on its mechanics, the “good” answer isn’t always the immediate solution. Sometimes you have to capitalise on a bad mood for them to spill the beans.
While the game introduces plenty of cool mechanics early on, the difficulty scaling leaves something to be desired. From the excessive amount of days to solve each case, to characters like Hugo and Elena serving as built-in guides, Best Served Cold ends up stifling its impact by holding the player’s hand a little too tightly. The game even indicates when you need to upset a character to get a new clue, instead of allowing the player to experiment for themselves. While it’s a good initiative for those who are new to the genre, it left me feeling in need of a greater challenge.
That being said, Best Served Cold does hit its stride in the later chapters. Mostly due to its unique approach of having a returning cast, allowing you to build relationships with characters over the course of several cases. While its 20-hour playtime can feel daunting at first, it gives you the time to get to know your regulars like the back of your hand, much like you would as a real bartender.
By the end of the game, it’s hard not to develop a real fondness for this cast, especially when they become directly involved in the case at hand. It’s a testament to great writing when the game shines the brightest in the grey areas, when your relationships with these characters are put to the test and your moral compass can’t figure out which way to point. There’s even the option to play matchmaker with some pairings and pursue your own romance in the final chapter, if you needed the additional push.
Note: As a minor aside, we did encounter performance issues when playing on Steam, which were quickly resolved after turning on VSync in the settings.
Verdict: Goes Down Smooth
What does a dead body and a good drink have in common? In this bartending detective visual novel, the answer’s in the title. Best described as Coffee Talk meets Ace Attorney, Best Served Cold is a delicious mix of good writing, unique mechanics, and impeccable ambiance. While it may hold the player’s hand a little too tightly at times, it still presents a compelling anthology of murder mysteries that will delight fans of the detective genre.
Wishlist Best Served Cold on Steam, and top up your Steam Wallet on Codashop to earn bonus rewards.
