Sockpuppet Noir Review – The Game’s A Foot!

Covert meetings with hitmen in smoke-filled nightclubs. Corrupt producers covering up on-set fatalities. Illegitimate children of government officials revealed while their murderer is still at large! And all of this… with the characters portrayed by socks with googly eyes.

Sockpuppet Noir is a recently released game from LizardFactory, originally created for a 2021 Game Jam. Now with three cases to solve, you take on the role of Frank Sockowski, private detective in New Drawer, gathering clues and interrogating suspects before you take your accusation to the courthouse and deliver your accusations before Judge Toetenstein.

The gameplay is reminiscent of Ace Attorney, primarily presenting itself as a visual novel, with specific dialogue branches during investigation unlocking new pieces of evidence, locations, and lines of inquiry with witnesses. During the accusation/trial sequence, the player has the opportunity to get a bad ending by accusing the wrong person, but this is easily undone with an option presented to “Rewind Time and Try Again”.

I believe the three cases are technically meant to be played from left to right as they are displayed, although the only recurring characters are the bartender, lounge singer, and judge, and you don’t miss much by playing out of order as the detective introduces himself, his office, and the method of gameplay at the start of each case. The only basis I have for the intended order is that the lounge singer’s name is given in the first case, she is referenced on a client list in the second case, and she is a supporting character/sidekick in the third case.

The designs of each character are distinctive and unique, with some characters even mentioning fabric type in your detective notes. I appreciated the effort the artists went to, creating facial hair, different period hairstyles and outfits, little eyeglasses. The only thing I really didn’t like was the one character in the second case that had visible cleavage. While I get the sexual dimorphism that shows up in a lot of anthropomorphic character designs, I felt the visible sock boobs was a step too far. Other than that, I loved the sockpuppet part of Sockpuppet Noir.

I also didn’t mind that the plots played pretty close to standard noir murder mysteries, simply exchanging people for socks. The three cases created had, if not unique twists, narratives that fit well within classic architecture and were very enjoyable to experience. I think the biggest flaw is that Sockpuppet Noir does not do what Mouse: P.I. For Hire does and fails to commit fully to the cartoonishness of its premise. While the police are taking “fabric prints” instead of fingerprints, the chalk outline of a body is just a standard sock shape, and there are a spattering of pun names like Police Chief Guhmsho, the tone never really settles on silly or serious.

Part of this may be some inconsistencies in what may be coding issues, with place and character names appearing differently in dialogue than in your detective notes. There are also a couple of places where the dialogue needs to be edited slightly, for example the use of the word “maticulate” instead of “meticulous”. If this is intentional, with the detective misusing words as a bit, it’s not a characteristic that came across clearly. The third case also sprinkles in a couple of concepts very casually, namely a character with an eating disorder and a closeted character, neither of which impact the plot whatsoever. I think some minor changes could either make this a more effective, serious satire or a more lighthearted parody, but as it is, there’s something of a tonal whiplash, worse in some cases than others.

That being said, I did appreciate the humor included in a lot of the dialogue and narration, as well as in the achievements. I did get the Red Sock achievement, which I got by accusing a dog I met of murdering the district attorney. If a sequel with more cases were released, I would be interested to see if they continued to improve on the gameplay and dialogue, potentially expanding on their worldbuilding. If you’re a fan of the genre, this is an inexpensive addition to your library and it’s worth checking out.

Alyssa played Sockpuppet Noir on PC with her own bought copy. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing and our score will not be changed.

Editor’s note regarding AI content: some of game assets which were purchased or commissioned with the intention that no generative AI was to be used in their creation were later identified to be AI-generated. The developers have disclosed this on the Steam listing and committed to removing this assets as they are identified.