Okay. I just watched the whole review. First of all, Ross, thanks for the great video! My initial motivation of playing the game was: “Okay, let’s play that one, so I can finally watch the second part of the episode”. Now I’m happy I played this masterpiece.
I think the idea of Vic's father being a killer is interesting, but has a few contradictions of its own. Yes, he probably would have access to the morgue since the log says he is a district attorney or something (that would also explain why he has such a nice house, I guess). But... you can see the killer has dark hair in the video. Also Clare states that in her report. Unless Vic's father was wearing a pretty realistic wig, it kinda rules him out sadly.
Richard could have access to the police station because, as we know, Browning is also in the club, so he could easily get him access. However, the club journal also kinda rules Richard out too. Remember Victoria saying to Browning: “A-ha, I know you’re in that journal! Gotcha!” Wouldn’t she really notice her own *boyfriend* or her *father* being in that journal? I doubt so.
The log though explicitly says that killer spared Vic's life on the roof (which is not clear from the video itself). So it must be someone who knows her and likes her. It's not Browning then. I think I would rather concentrate on the MO of the killer. Yes, he copies Ackerman’s style, yet he has his own feature — drowning instead of slashing a victim's neck.
Also... Who’s the crow man in all this? He’s giving me Jack the ripper vibes, yet being quite nice with McPherson and even giving him back the ring. I guess he’s not really happy with somebody else copying his style, huh.
As for the game, the contrast you mentioned makes it feel so much alive, I'd say. People cannot always be grim and dark or talking about the job all the time. And cops do celebrate Christmas and eat cookies like other people do. I know a few people who worked in the law, and... they tend to be rather fun and joking. Maybe it's a defence mechanism or something?
In the game, when they are discussing personal stuff without really giving a context or exposition to the player, makes it look like a real conversation. Very well done. It's more 'conversation-like' approach rather than 'movie-like' as in many other games.