Sol Dorado Heist

Developer: Megalixir Games
Publisher: Sometimes You
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $9.99 USD – Available Here

Overview

When it comes to a good heist movie, some of the best parts tend to be the build-up to the actual heist. Putting together an eclectic crew with the right set of skills to pull off a job without a hitch. Well, what if things were backwards and most of the heists had already happened and a potential heist member forgot nearly everything about it besides that she is right in the middle of what is meant to be their biggest payoff? That’s where Sol Dorado Heist comes in, a short visual novel from Megalixir Games that recently arrived on consoles following a PC release a few years ago. Delivering a couple hour experience at a fairly cheap price, does Sometimes You’s latest port hit the jackpot or is it a bust for this visual novel?

Story

Alex Thorn wakes up in a swanky hotel room with absolutely no idea how she got there. Besides a massive headache and a few foggy memories that may place her right at the scene of an imminent crime, Alex has very little to go on until she ventures out into the lobby where she meets detective Drake Carrigan who questions her about why she has been appearing so frequently near the locations of so many recent casino robberies. Despite not naming her a suspect, Carrigan reveals that the police suspect that the perpetrator is targeting the popular Sol Dorado Casino next, the very casino she has vague memories of. She also learns from him that the media, and the police as a result, have taken to calling the thief the Silence Ace.

With the police already closing in to surveil the target, Alex must conduct her own investigation despite her memory loss if it means saving her own skin and potentially someone else’s, because if she can’t figure out who the Silent Ace is before they pull off the heist or is arrested, not only will she be left with nothing, but also complicit with their crime, landing her squarely behind bars. This leads to a short but fairly satisfying three chapter investigation filled with colorful characters and Vegas references that takes roughly two hours to completely complete which unfortunately doesn’t quite give many of them too much of a chance to shine.

Keeping a story short and sweet is far from  a bad thing but in the case of Sol Dorado Heist it might work well for its core storyline, keeping things rather brisk and delivering a couple of expected but fitting twists here and there, but it does something of a disservice to its characters that are unfortunately relegated to being one note cliches or mysteries until the last few minutes of each of the game’s four primary endings. There is a fifth one though that isn’t quite the ending one would aim for. Ironically, despite offering choices throughout the storyline most of the actual choices simply provide extra tidbits of information or in a few instances show off a CG or interaction that might have otherwise been missed. Instead, the only choice that actually matters is the final one that dictates which of the aforementioned four endings players will receive

As mentioned before, Alex’s interactions with the various members of the cast such as the mysterious but charismatic Rebecca Mendoza, Drake Carrigan as a fresh detective looking to make a name for himself, Jack Viper the enigmatic magician or even Bennie Hart whose dad puns rival only his downtrodden aura and even a few characters that only have a few appearances feel as if they could easily have been fleshed out more throughout the storyline. This is especially true since many of these developments would have made Alex much more of an interesting main character as a result since here amnesia storyline isn’t the most gripping.

Instead, as mentioned, most of the actual major revelations and developments happen only in the game’s multiple endings. In fact players will want to see at least a few of these as the core storyline remains the same regardless, including the actual culprit, meaning every new piece of information about the characters is welcome even if it does mean that there is unfortunately no actual way of “solving” the case yourself or providing variety by changing the culprit depending on player choice. This means that once players complete Sol Dorado Heist, there’s very little reason to return to it.

Gameplay

Considering this is a visual novel there really isn’t much in the way of actual gameplay involved. In fact Megalixir Games even went a bit light on this as well compared to the usual visual novel. Players have the standard option to simply press a button to continue reading, skip dialogue that is oddly default set to everything rather than previously read only, and being able to re-read the dialogue log. 

There is surprisingly no method to set the game to auto-continue dialogue despite there being a setting for it, though considering there is even a setting for voices that is also absent, perhaps this was meant to be included and just never made it in. Other than that, players will find that a CG gallery will slowly unlock for every CG players have seen in the game, though as mentioned before a few are locked behind non-consequential choices.

Audio & Visuals

It is nice to note that all of the artwork in Sol Dorado Heist is originally drawn and there is quite a bit of detail to both the backgrounds of various parts of Vegas as well as inside the casino. The character portraits are something of a mixed bag, with some characters almost appearing as if they were drawn by a completely separate artist than others and it must be said that Alex desperately needed either more pose variations or far fewer “shocked” reactions as the she will often flail randomly during scenes, looking both incredibly strange in comparison to other characters and flashbanging players as well as these are often accompanied by so many rapid flashes of light it felt like a photosensitivity test.

As mentioned before, despite there being a setting for voice volume, there is no actual voice work in the game besides crowd sound effects and other standard sound effects. The background music is made up of fairly standard sounding tracks that work well enough, with the background track often changing to match the character Alex is currently interacting with.

Overall

Sol Dorado Heist is far from a bad visual novel, but it’s not really a good one either. Thanks to its short length the storyline keeps a brisk pace at the cost of sacrificing potentially enjoyable character moments that could easily have been fleshed out or developed far better given a longer run time. While the title may feature multiple endings, they almost all boil down to one choice at the end and while the backgrounds are nicely drawn and some of the character portraits are nice, the lack of voice work, generic background music, and overuse of flashing effects makes it feel like this visual novel stayed when it should have hit at the blackjack table, even for its low cost.

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