For some reason I have a hankering to play a game based around a trial attorney - something where you examine evidence, interrogate witnesses, and appear in court to make your case. I checked out gameplay footage of the Phoenix Wright series, and that’s a little too cartoony for my taste. I’m looking for more Jack McCoy.
There’s something coming out called I Am Your Lawyer, and I have it wishlisted, but who knows how good it will be. In the meantime, is there anything that fits the bill?
I didn’t know there even were any lawyer games apart from Phoenix Wright.
This was really fun, but doesn’t help with the realism angle
For your ‘80s pleasure!
Never played it, but love everything about the concept:
It’s said to be heavily influenced by Phoenix Wright, so it might be too cartoony for your liking. I suspect it might have started as an It’s Always Sunny reference that got out of hand, but that just adds to its charm.
Yeah, I enjoyed this too, although there’s not much to it. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a particularly serious/deep lawyer game.
It’s because they all settle or take a plea bargain before publication.
It would be incredibly difficult to make a good lawyer game. Considering the legion of TV shows, movies, and plays that have been made about the legal profession, yet only a few of those are anywhere near accurate (which makes them interesting from my jaded perspective). Practicing law is like the old saying about serving on a submarine: six months of boredom and six minutes of terror.
The most exciting case I remember in the last few years was one that involved the use of the Oxford Comma in a statute. That was mostly because I’d argued with colleagues for years about it, and now I finally had a judge support my position.
“Press R to redact initial Responses to Requests for Production of Documents.”
Never fear, everyone, I have the answer!
The most “realistic” “lawyer games” are the “law” halves of the old Law & Order adventure games.
How realistic are they? About as realistic as a Law & Order episode, if you added a heaping dose of “video game logic” to them.
So, not very.
But that’s the answer.
(They’re pretty decent games if you’re into that sort of thing.)
Isn’t the best lawyer game just tagging Popehat whenever someone mentions the RICO on the twitters?
And yet there are many submarine sims that manage to make those six minutes into a game. So why not do the same with lawyers?
I suppose the Judgment games are technically lawyer, um, sims, but there’s basically zero lawyering in them.
This board game came out recently and has gotten pretty good buzz. It looks like it’s trying to capture a slightly more cinematic lawyer approach. I think the base box comes with an art heist and a murder case, and there are expansions for The Godfather and a Witch Trial.
Still, it seems pretty meaty and has an interesting approach to modeling arguments. You need to thematically link your arguments and counter-arguments on some continuous thread to be able to play. The cards are multi-use, doing one thing when played by the prosecution and another when played by the defense, and I think they’re drafted at the beginning of each round. I’m super intrigued by it, but currently have too many 2 player games to get through so I haven’t picked it up.
This just appeared on my Green Man Gaming specials lists
https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/the-great-ace-attorney-chronicles-pc/
it looks potentially interesting, probably won’t buy it though.
Yeah, I had high hopes for it, but it’s more Phoenix Wright NONSENSE!!!
I finally played Aviary Attorney for the first time last week after seeing a Switch discount and it’s great. Not realistic at all for the purposes of this thread, but it’s way more than its humble Ace Attorney parody origins would suggest. Cases spiral from a simple whodunnit to morally complex explorations of power and violence.
I play a lawyer sim everyday. And it isn’t that exciting. Except maybe sometimes. And then it is.
So I can’t imagine this is realistic, but it is fun. The game has five cases and I just finished the first one. Once you get to the courtroom, you have pieces of evidence to use with specific pieces of cross-examination dialogue, as well as answer questions with specific answers. If you get all these right you win, if not you have to start again. Took me two attempts to figure it all out but I really enjoyed it. Great writing, really funny, all the voice actors from the show are in there too.
