Detective Dotson is far and away one of the most charming games I’ve played this year. It’s as if you were to throw Ace Attorney and classic Monkey Island games together, wrap it up in a Bollywood film, and then set it in modern-day India. That should give you an idea of what independent developer Masala Games is trying to achieve, as Detective Dotson is fast approaching its April 24, 2025, release date for Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC with support for Xbox Play Anywhere.

The developer, which houses talent that has worked at studios like Pixar, Electronic Arts, and Prana, was one of the featured teams at this year’s ID@Xbox Showcase during GDC and it was a standout experience for me at the show — I also had a chance to speak with Director Sharlin Shodhan separately about the game’s support for Xbox Play Anywhere.

In Detective Dotson, you take on the role of the title character, an aspiring actor turned amateur detective who is trying to track down who killed his father. That’s the high-level pitch. But the fun of the game are the wild adventures he’ll embark on as he becomes a more honed gumshoe, taking on unexpectedly riveting cases like who shunned someone from attending a prominent tea party, or who’s responsible for stealing someone’s lunch to ruin a film production.

These lighthearted quests play out in a traditional adventure game style, where you guide Dotson across a 2D plane with a brightly colored, Indian-influenced 3D backdrop, talking with other characters for clues, picking up objects for your inventory, scanning the environments for hints, and taking down notes to later piece all your evidence together.

Once all your notes and clues are assembled, you’ll then head to an evidence board to solve the active case. Here you’ll effectively move sticky notes with clues on them like, “Broke Up With,” “Trained by,” and “Hides in,” to then draw lines between all your suspects to solve the mystery at hand.

What I enjoyed the most during my time with the game is that it taps into classic adventure gaming, a genre I love. It’s not quite point-and-click, but it’s similar enough in its functions that it scratches that adventure game itch. It also feels like an incredibly accessible, cozy experience that gamers of all skill levels will be able to enjoy.

It also looks like nothing I’ve seen before, with its brightly colored world, diverse characters, and dance-offs. I’m not proficient in the realm of Indian customs, but the game does a good job of easing you into the experience with its terminology, presentation of characters, as well as the cases you’re given. There’s a reason why being shunned from a tea party can have a dramatic impact on someone’s social standing, which makes it the kind of thing Dotson would want to solve for – who seems to not only be a better detective than advertised, but also a standup dude who is just trying to do right in his community.

Even though my demo was short, it’s clear there are many more layers to explore within Detective Dotson, ones that I’m eager to uncover. This lighthearted story of a reluctant hero has already moved to the top of my “Can’t Wait to Play More of This” list – which thankfully isn’t a long wait: Detective Dotson is set to launch April 24, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC with support for Xbox Play Anywhere.