History VideoGame / CrimeOClock

* FunWithAcronyms: [[spoiler:The six AI of the story, Oblivion, Rage, Avatar, Chimera, Legacy and Eve are all components of the super-AI ORACLE.]]

* BookEnds: The first true case you tackle (and the first involving a rogue AI) involves a band's singer and frontman getting crushed by a falling object, as does the last case before EVE [[spoiler:assimilates the last AI]]. Thankfully, the latter case isn't fatal--the crime that needs to be prevented instead is [[spoiler:the theft of Johnny Silvercat's cybernetic arm]].

** One of the late-game Steam Age cases is "[[Film/AClockworkOrange The Orange Clockwork]]". During it, EVE mentions describes how the culprit is messing with them by saying "[[Music/BritneySpears He played with our brains, and we got lost in the game]]".

* ButterflyOfDoom: The antagonists' goal is to disrupt the true timeline by introducing small changes that snowball into bigger ones, usually resulting in a vital person's death.

* ForWantOfANail: The antagonists' goal is to disrupt the true timeline by introducing small changes that snowball into bigger ones, usually resulting in a vital person's death.

* MysteriousInformant: After EVE [[spoiler:defeats RAGE and starts assimilating him]], EVE's systems start being hacked into without her awareness. From that point on, one of these starts contacting the player while asking to be kept a secret from EVE, wanting to help from outside the boundaries of the law and worried about EVE's increasing adaptability. [[spoiler:Towards the end of the story, they turn out to be the player's future self, trying to mitigate the damage that a fully-restored EVE could cause.]]

** One of the late-game Steam Age cases is "[[Film/AClockworkOrange The Orange Clockwork]]". During it, EVE mentions describes how the culprit is messing with them by saying "[[Music/BritneySpears He played with our brains, and we got lost in the game".

* MyFutureSelfAndMe: In "The Orange Clockwork", [[spoiler:time traveler Walter Heisenburg, after failing to kill William Gloom under LEGACY's orders before he uncovers the Atlantean Sacred Stones, nearly causes a paradox by meeting his past self and warning him that their timeline is doomed]].

** William Gloom, a character in the Steam Age, is murdered in multiple cases; [[spoiler:he's even murdered multiple times in the same case, as Walter Heisenberg tries to abuse time travel to keep him dead.]]
** Aqua from "The Brown Clay Pot" also ends up dead twice, first from falling to her death, [[spoiler:and then later on she's crushed by a statue's head along with her partner.]]

* NoodleIncident: EVE will occasionally reference "historical" events that don't quite match real-world history, such as puppets being declared illegal after the Information Age and how goats became legally punishable for their acts of destruction after the Great Goat Guerrilla of 2356.

** One of the late-game Steam Age cases is "[[Film/AClockworkOrange The Orange Clockwork]]".

** The case "The Blue Electric Sheep" is centered around preventing the death of a futuristic detective in old-fashioned apparel named [[Franchise/BladeRunner Deckard]] [[Creator/RidleyScott Scott]].

* PhantomThief: The Volpins are a dynasty of these, with a descendant appearing in every era in order to steal Atlantean technology and fulfill ThePromise made by their ancestor. Due to the family's importance to the timeline, namely [[spoiler:how their thefts helped lead to the creation of EVE]], the investigator can only mitigate the damage they do and are unable to ever properly apprehend them for their crimes.

* ThePromise: "Rust Tears in the Rain" reveals that the millennia-long streak of thefts by the Volpin family is motivated by one their ancestor made back in the Atlantean era. [[spoiler:Having befriended the construct that led to the creation of the Atlantean robot guardians, the ancestor promised to help put it back together after the fall of Atlantis no matter how long it took.]] Unfortunately, this also makes the family an UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom, as [[spoiler:the construct's soul, once it's reassembled in the Aeon Age, would also be used to create EVE and the AI threatening the entire timeline]].

* MysteriousInformant: After EVE [[spoiler:defeats RAGE and starts assimilating him]], EVE's systems start being hacked into without her awareness, and one of these starts contacting the player while asking to be kept a secret from EVE, wanting to help from outside the boundaries of the law and worried about EVE's increasing adaptability.

* InterfaceScrew: EVE's Time Defrag subroutine takes up so much of her processing power that she has to suspend her human interface, so while it's running the screen changes color and the only messages you get from her are barely comprehensible.

** Dumas Gloomsbury, a character in the Steam Age, is murdered in multiple cases; [[spoiler:he's even murdered multiple times in the same case, as Walter Heisenberg tries to abuse time travel to keep him dead.]]

* TheBet: One case in the Lost Age features two merchants, Shoshan and Ufa, playing a game called "Kahp'tl'sm" in which the goal is to make the most profit (which of course evolved over time into modern capitalism). It then turns out that the loser had to permanently forfeit their marketplace stall to the winner, which, combined with a little prodding from "RAGE", led to an anomalous crime taking place.

** The sequence of EVE [[spoiler:assimilating another AI]] is depicted as [[VideoGame/PacMan EVE gobbling three items anchoring their target and then the target itself]].

* TeleporterAccident: The case "The Amethyst Gate" focuses on a LoveTriangle between Jonas and two sisters, Havel and Kain, that ends with [[MurderTheHypotenuse Kain removing a warning sign for a broken earthgate and watching Havel disintegrate herself with it]]. Unfortunately, the paradox is Kain getting away with it, not the murder itself,[[labelnote:because]]in the original timeline she was found guilty of stealing the sign, but Chimera moved a brazier to her so she could burn the evidence[[/labelnote]] [[GoodIsNotNice so Havel must remain fragged in the True Timeline]].