Can you solve Detective Bennett’s final case?

Immerse yourself in a psychological thriller with narrative adventure elements and unsettling details. Join Detective Bennett on his final case and uncover dark secrets in a world where reality bends and sanity wavers.

The Empty Desk is a first-person mystery puzzler with optional jump scares. You play as Detective Bennett who has one last case to solve, you find yourself in a building to begin with that ends up on a PT-esque feel as you go through an office that is ever changing, looking for clues that you can take with your camera to push the story forward. Elements can change from a room suddenly having tons of boxes when it didn’t on the past loop as an example.

The story is told through textboxes, but it would have been nice to have some voice acting. The dramatic moments lose their effect and the overall tension as a result. The overall game took me around 2-3 hours to complete, though there are 80 coins to be found for trophy hunters. These can be in quite obscure places, so good hunting if you’re going for the Platinum.

The visuals are decent and there’s a good level of detail to be found. The music is well done, but again voice-acting would have elevated the overall experience. I didnt come across any glitches during my playthrough.

The Verdict

The Empty Desk is a short psychological thriller that has some good ideas, though the puzzles are fairly simple and the lack of voice-acting cuts the tension of the atmosphere.

Score: 6.0