Developer: Megalixir Games
Publisher: Sometimes You
Platform: PC, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Tested on: Switch
Sol Dorado Heist – Review
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Sol Dorado Heist is a title akin to the Pretty Girls games, based on its key art. We weren’t quite sure what to expect ourselves, as the image of an anime woman surrounded by playing cards and coins wouldn’t be out of place as the cover for a poker-like game. As it turned out, Sol Dorado Heist is “just” a visual novel. We wouldn’t have minded a go at a Balatro ripoff featuring anime girls instead of jokers, but we’re more than happy to get stuck with new reading material too. If you, like us, had no idea what to expect from Sol Dorado Heist, then read on, as we’ll tell you all you need to know.
Story
The central character of Sol Dorado Heist is Alex Thorn, a young woman who recently suffered an amnesia-inducing head injury. She has a recurring dream in which she robs a vault alongside a mysterious accomplice. Initially, Alex is unsure if it is actually a dream or a fragmented memory, until a chance meeting with Drake Carrigan, a detective who is on the trail of the so-called Silent Ace, a heist mastermind. Alex suspects that the Silent Ace is the mysterious accomplice from her dreams, and that he may have clues about her past. Upon learning that the next target of the enigmatic robber is the Sol Dorado Casino, Alex decides to stop him in his tracks to get some answers. She’s not the only one on the Silent Ace’s trail, however, and she’ll need to avoid ending up on the radar of law enforcement herself.
Over the course of three chapters of roughly an hour each, Sol Dorado Heist delivers a choice-driven narrative with four possible good endings. Of note is that in order to get the full picture of what’s going on, you’ll actually need to unlock each ending, as they all explain different aspects of the conclusion. We’re being as vague as possible here to avoid any major spoilers. What we can tell you is that Sol Dorado Heist delivers a light-hearted, comedic mystery adventure. The main plot is perhaps Sol Dorado Heist’s weakest point, as there are quite a few glaring plot holes. However, this is made up for by the game’s charming cast of characters and the genuinely funny humor.
Graphics
The casino setting of Sol Dorado Heist is the main inspiration for the novel’s aesthetics. The menu borders have a sparkly gold colour, and iconography featuring dice and cards is prominent in Sol Dorado Heist’s branding. The cel-shaded character sprites are hand-drawn in an anime style. Their designs are over-the-top, and they wouldn’t look out of place in an Ace Attorney game. By nature, visual novels are static affairs when it comes to graphics, but Sol Dorado Heist at least tries to bring some life to its illustrations. Character portraits move around during dialogue, and effects like screen flashes further add visual depth.
Sound
For a visual novel, Sol Dorado Heist has a surprisingly expansive soundscape. There’s an appropriate instrumental soundtrack that fits the mood of the different story scenes, and most of the cast have their own unique leitmotif. Various sound effects befitting the novel’s anime aesthetic add further dramatic flair. What really stands out here, however, is that Sol Dorado Heist features voice acting. Granted, this is limited to only a handful of key lines, but it’s a neat addition that helps with rounding out character personalities.
Gameplay
The vast majority of modern-day visual novels are made with the Ren’Py engine. As such, we’ve come to expect certain basic functionalities built into Ren’Py as standard features. Sol Dorado Heist is one of those rare titles that was made using a different engine, namely Visual Novel Maker. This engine was created by Komodo, the developers of the RPG Maker series. For something as relatively simple as a visual novel engine, the differences between Ren’Py and Visual Novel Maker are very noticeable, and we’d say that the latter is inferior. The most egregious example is Visual Novel Maker’s lack of a ‘back’ feature, which lets you return to the last few lines in the text. Granted, there is a text log, but navigating this is clunky, and any text found there is limited to just the scene that you’re currently reading.
Other annoyances include that you’re not given a warning when overwriting an existing save file, and that any changes made to the settings, like text speed or skip preferences, aren’t saved and will have to be changed manually every time you boot up Sol Dorado Heist. Granted, these are issues inherent to Visual Novel Maker, and we can’t blame Megalixir Games for them, but they’re still worth mentioning. At roughly three hours for a read-through, Sol Dorado Heist isn’t going to eat up a whole lot of your time. While you need to return to the story at least four times to understand the ending in its entirety (and a fifth time if you get the early game “bad” ending), subsequent read-throughs are a lot shorter if you use the skip function. There is a CG gallery to unlock, but ultimately, there is very little to motivate you to return to the novel after completing it. This does make the Switch price point of €9.99 difficult to justify, especially since the Steam RRP is a mere €3.99, and the novel has been on sale for as low as €0.79. We normally advocate picking up visual novels on the Switch because of the portability factor, but in this case, we’d recommend waiting for a sale if you absolutely want it on the handheld platform.
Conclusion
Ultimately, Sol Dorado Heist is a mixed bag. It’s an enjoyable read for sure, thanks to its strong cast and audiovisual presentation. However, some suspension of disbelief is required to overcome the plot holes that plague the main story. Additionally, there are some annoyances we had with Sol Dorado Heist’s visual novel functionalities, but those are related to the engine used. Sol Dorado Heist isn’t a must-have addition to your library, but if you can pick it up at a discount, it’s worth considering.
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