BROK The InvestiGator

Category

Description of App

BROK is an innovative adventure mixed with beat 'em up and RPG elements. In a grim world where animals have replaced mankind, what kind of detective will you be?

In a futuristic "light cyberpunk" world where animals have replaced humans, privileged citizens live under a protective dome from the ambient air pollution while others struggle to make a living on the outside.

Brok, a private detective and former boxer, lives with Graff, the son of his deceased wife. Although he could never elucidate her accident, recent events may shed some light on an even more tragic outcome... one that may be linked to their own existence. Will they be able to withstand the threats of this corrupted world and face their own destiny?

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FEATURES
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- Solve puzzles with your wits... or muscles!
- Make choices impacting gameplay and/or story
- Relaxed mode for pure "Point & Click" gameplay (fights can be skipped)
- Level up to beat enemies and bosses
- Combine clues to uncover the truth!
- In-game hints
- Two playable characters, switch at any time
- 15 to 20 hours long on first playthrough
- Multiple distinct endings to unlock
- Fully voice acted (23,000 lines)
- Optimized for touch screens (fight using touch swipes or virtual buttons)
- Compatible with most Bluetooth controllers
- Text fully translated into 10 languages

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ACCESSIBILITY
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BROK is the first full-fledged adventure game to be fully playable by blind or visually impaired players!

- Fully narrated via quality text-to-speech and audiodescriptions (characters, locations and scenes.)
- Puzzles adapted for blindness.
- All puzzles and fights can be skipped.
- Adapted tutorials.
- Ability to repeat the last voice speech and instructions.
- Positional audio for fights.
- No online connectivity required (after the download).
- No specific device required
- Additional options: larger fonts and increased contrast (backgrounds and enemies.)

To enter the accessibility menu, press two fingers on the title screen, then follow the audio instructions.

IMPORTANT: Accessibility speeches are only available in English.

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MONETIZATION
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- Chapter 1 is entirely free (2 to 3 hours of gameplay)
- Each additional chapter is $1.99
- An alternative Premium option to buy all chapters at once is $7.99 (the game has 6 chapters)

Version

1.0

Free or Paid

Free With In-App Purchase

Apple Watch Support

Not Known

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

17

Accessibility Comments

I am the accessibility consultant who worked with COWCATGames on the entire accessibility in BROK. The game is fully accessible on all platforms (PC, Xbox, PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch, IOS and Android).

For returning players it is great time to get back to this fantastic adventure game with redefined controls which works brilliantly. For newcomers? I hope you will spend a lovely time with it as it is super engaging and fascinating adventure!
PS. Just turn off VO to play

VoiceOver Performance

Not applicable for this app.

Button Labeling

Not applicable for this app.

Usability

The app is fully accessible without the use of VoiceOver

Developer's Twitter Username

@COWCATGames

Recommendations

7 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by matheus rheine 8 months 3 weeks ago

Options

Comments

By Jonathan Candler on Friday, February 16, 2024 - 19:11

Even though I played this on PC, I'm looking forward to this being on the phone too!

By Stoo on Friday, February 16, 2024 - 19:11

Just wanted to say that I played this all the way through for multiple endings on XBox and it's great.

Big shout out to all involved for making the game so accessible, it's a real triumph of how games can work for us VI.

One note of warning though, it's quite dark in places, with some of the endings covering some very heavy subject matter.

If you are expecting a lighthearted game that's suitable for the younger generation then it might not be for you.
But if you want a thoughtprovoking game with a bit of existential angst, then it's a winner.

By Tristo on Friday, February 16, 2024 - 19:11

I'm in Australia, and it says in the app store that it comes out on the 24th of Febuary.

By Brian on Friday, February 16, 2024 - 19:11

US release date is the 21st of Feb. So, we feel your pain. If you click "Get" it will give a message that you have preordered it, and it will auto download when it is publicly available.

HTH.

By ming on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

well,
I think the explorer by touch to choose the menu and interact with the game is....
kind of difficult for some people.
and I hope that we can use 2 fingers swipe to choose the menu and single tap by 1 finger to activate is more better...

By DMNagel on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I wish I could simply scroll by swiping through options. Exploring the screen with my finger doesn't work for me. Thank goodness the first chapters are free. It allowed me to get a feel for the game, but sadly I don't think I'll buy the rest. Having to explore the screen is tedious and literally puts me off. By the sound of it, it would've been a great game otherwise.

By Brian on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I will give this a try over the weekend when I'm not in class. If its not enjoyable in a mobile format, then I will just grab this on my Xbox. 🤷

Thankfully the first chapter is a freebie. . . .

By Victor Dima on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

The developer alongside Lirin did a fantastic job here. I reviewed this game for PlayStation and I will purchase it today for iPhone.
In case you want to read my review, here is the link:
https://victordima.net/review-brok-the-investigator/
I highly recommend that you try out the first chapter, especially since it is free.

By ming on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I use a ps5 controler to play it on my IPhone...and it works fine...

By DMNagel on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I'm definitely not going to buy a PlayStation or Xbox control just to play this game. The mobile experience isn't all that great. Don't get me wrong, the game itself would've been legendary, but finding menu options by exploring with one's finger is no fun. It makes the menus harder than the game itself. Now i'm open to changing my review, should they decide to work on this issue. I can definitely see how a PlayStation and Xbox control will work smoothly, but for people using their phones, this may be a nightmare.

By ming on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I play PC games using my PS5 controler... so, it's fine for me anyway...

By Jonathan Candler on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I don't mind explore by touch as I do that on a day to day bassist with VO anyways so for all who usually do that with VO, yall really shouldn't have an issue. I mean, this is a point and click anyways so I don't see any issue here. Now, with that being said, I do understand that some people have issues holding and dragging on a screen for a long period of time so in that case, I do understand the need for swiping and tapping. Perhaps optional methods can be introduced? I don't know. Hmm... I wonder if my xbox controller will work with my phone haven't tried it yet.

By Firefly on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

So I have a question. When I get to the code panel or whatever it is, which is where I’m at now, how do I enter the code. All it says is left button middle button right button. Don’t want to say too much to spoil it, but I have to go to this guy’s apartment.

By Faerie on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

This is true at least sometimes. Found this out by accident. It doesn't work in the menu, but seems to work when you're looking through objects. It was still necessary to explore by touch to find the button that would let me move to see more of the things in the room--which I'm still a bit confused by--but this may help some who are struggling with the explore system. I hope this is intentional as it really does make things much easier.

By Missy Hoppe on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

Unlike Dawncaster, which I am still totally obsessed with, I feel as though I may have jumped the gun in purchasing the rest of the story in this app. So far, I haven't had any luck navigating; it had to do a separate download for the speech, and so far as I know, everything is enabled, but it doesn't seem to be working. I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to turn off vo before playing or leave it on. I'm thinking about requesting a refund, but on the other hand, I want to show my support for accessible apps, and would like to give it time so that perhaps the accessibility will improve. As others have said, I have no interest in buying a game controller. The only games console I have is a Colecovision/Atari 2600. I get that there are a lot of blind folks out there who have learned how to play mainstream games, and that some mainstream games have even become accessible, but it's just not an endeavor I feel comfortable spending money on. Anyway, to get back to the subject of this specific app, I will keep trying to figure it out, and if there's a demo out there of how to play it with speech, I'd love to check that out, but as I'm writing this, I feel as though I wasted my money by being so impulsive in purchasing this one.

By Jonathan Candler on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

Works fine here. Yes, you do need to turn VO off in order to have things work the way they are suppose to. You do have to move your finger round the screen and your phone will use haptics to let you know that you're on an object of a menu or similar things of that nature.

By DMNagel on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

They were pretty meh, claiming that I'd get used to it. Oh well, I hope they'll get used to my 1 rating. That being said, after turning on accessibility, you also need to activate some options in the options screen in order to get the game working exactly as you want it to work. I just wouldn't be so sour if it wasn't for the bloody finger exploration.

By ming on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

well, I think...
it is a good game anyway...
but, ifwe are playing using explorrer by touch...
sometime it will go to the contro cneter or notification center.
so, hope the next update will fix it!
you know the developer is working very good in it..
and I like it so far .
even I need to connect my controller to play it.

By Quentin on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

For me explore by touch is totaly useable.

By lirin on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

For me it is not a problem to use my finger to explore the screen. There's two fingers swipe gesture so you can move through game objects with it. Will suggest to the dev to add this feature to the menus too.

By lirin on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

Hi,

Interesting, need to send this feedback to COWCAT. The puzzle works for me and instead of these buttons you should see the numbers.

Interesting is everything is turned on in accessibility menu like puzzles adapted for us.

By Firefly on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

It was on my end. Accessibility for puzzles was turned off. Wow they have so much or so many Accessibility options rather you can customize this game right down to the last detail.

By ming on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I just finished the first chapter last night my time.
and going to upgrade to the full version.
thanks the developer anyway...
to make this game accessible.
and we need more this kind of accessible games..

By Firefly on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I’m on iOS for this game, and I am stuck. I just get done talking with Shay in the garage, and then when I’m looking around, it says what there are and then it says there’s an exit. I can’t seem to find the exit with my finger. Is this an exit that leads out of the garage map area? If so, what part of the screen is it located in near the top?

By Firefly on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

Never mind, again, I figured it out, again it was on my end, again I didn’t enable everything in the Accessibility menu. I really need to dive in and just take a look at the whole entire menu. L O L.

By Blind angel 444 on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I turned off voice over and it didn’t work so I just deleted the game instead. I wanted to play it!

By Firefly on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

The thing you have to do upon launching the game for the first time is, tap with two fingers to enable the Accessibility menu from there. You should be able to select all the features that you want. Sometimes when you tap and hold on the screen with two fingers you have to do it for a couple of seconds. So maybe tap and hold. But if you’re launching the game for the first time, you may not get any speech output. Until you go into the Accessibility menu and enable those things.

By mr grieves on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

Firstly, those menus are really horrible to navigate by touch. Trying to find the accessibility menu again was a total pain. But fortunately when I started I was told how to open the menu, and it gave me an option to setup with visually impaired options which was handy.

Exploring by touch in the rooms is OK up to a point. Can someone remind me how to do a jump? It came up, I thought I'd got it but I've now fallen down the hole a few times and when I do make it across I'm not really sure how I made it.

I did find that two finger swipes almost worked occasionally on the menus, but like in the rooms I don't think you can actually select anything that way.

It's a game I'm really wanting to like - the audio descriptive bits are nice and the setup may be fine but so far it is feeling like a bit of a chore to play.

By mr grieves on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

Well I had another go and you absolutely can just tab after a double finger swipe so not sure what I was doing wrong. This makes the game a lot more enjoyable. Spent a little more time with it and it is growing on me. Still hate the menus. I've also found a couple of times the game has stopped being responsive - I can hear the music but can't seem to do anything on-screen. Then it eventually goes quiet and I have to turn VoiceOver back on to bail out. Not sure if the game is crashing.

I like the fact I can put it into relaxed mode if I get fed up with the action sequences. Not gone there yet but it means I don't have to worry about hitting a brick wall at any point. Or also being able to just skip fights or jumps or whatever. I'd rather not have to but it's good the option is there.

By Blind angel 444 on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I heard the speech but nothing happened. I turned voice over on and I was in an edit mode asking me to create a label.
I hope that it is better for pcs and other platforms? I really want to play!!!

Thanks for the help.

By DMNagel on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

First, turn Voice-over off, then tap once with two fingers on the screen.

By mr grieves on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

To answer a couple of my own stupid questions.

Firstly, I think maybe the game isn't crashing but sometimes when I'm swiping I'm just possibly putting it into app switcher mode, but because VoiceOver is off I've just got a bit disorientated. But if I switch it on I can recover. It's annoying though as I seem to accidentally do it quite a bit. This is the problem with not having a physical home button - it's always a bit of a clumsy system.

Regarding jumping, I seem to find the jump spot on the map with the two finger swipe. When there, going into action mode and swiping diagonally up and to the right seems to do it. Again not sure why I struggled during the tutorial.

I really hope they can put the 2 finger swipe into the menus as the game would be a lot more fun without having to randomly swipe everywhere, hoping that you are finding everything.

I like the little sarcastic comments you get when you are clearly stuck and just trying random objects everywhere. I am a little stumped but hopefully the solution will come to me at some point.

By Apple iPhone i… on Friday, February 23, 2024 - 19:11

I've run a group that reviews games that are accessible for The Blind and visually impaired and also interview gain developers who make games that are accessible. I sent an email to your contact information yesterday to see if you were interested in participating in the game developer interview series. If you are interested, please just respond to that email request.

Regards,

Aaron.T

By DMNagel on Saturday, March 2, 2024 - 19:11

I was able to borrow a PlayStation four controller from my brother, and the gameplay much better when using it. However, there is one small bug with skipping puzzles. The button that's supposed to let you skip puzzles only makes my phone wants to do a screen recording. So here's the question to those who have a PlayStation four controller. How do you skip puzzles on a PlayStation four controller? Can anyone manage it?

By DMNagel on Saturday, March 16, 2024 - 19:11

There is one ad inside the jail which I believe may be impossible to get when playing with accessibility. Apparently, it involves the camera, so unless someone already got it and can tell me exactly how to get it, I believe I'm yet to be proven wrong. Otherwise, I think there should be an extra accessibility option specifically for collecting some of those difficult ads.

By DMNagel on Saturday, March 16, 2024 - 19:11

When you are in jail, there is that little screen thingy containing the 999 page jail manual. If you read through all 999 pages, there will be a Hidden page 1000 which will award you with 50,000 in cash. When investigating the murder case, just keep jumping on the body. This will get the poor guys heart pumping again and he will reveal everything. If you don't mind getting into a lot of fights, go to drummer Street and destroy the two vending machines. Each one of them will give you around 2000 in cash. Note that you will be constantly interrupted throughout the sabotaging process.