This one’s been in early access for a while, but it’s finally hitting 1.0. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a procedurally generated murder mystery immersive sim. A murder happens, you scan for evidence, track people by their address in the phone book, and make connections with red string yourself. When I played the demo a while back, someone came home while I was snooping in their apartment, so I escaped in a vent and ended up in the apartment on the floor below them. I waited for that resident to finish preparing their dinner and sit in front of the TV so I could leave through their front door and get out of there. This game is awesome.
This is the first game to truly solve the problem of “criminal investigation” as a game mechanic. There’s no detective vision, and the character doesn’t automatically spout off conclusions when you scan enough clues. When you find a fingerprint on the murder weapon, it’s just that; a fingerprint. It’s up to you to figure out how to connect that to a suspect. You have to actually think about what you’re doing, there’s no handholding. You can peruse security cameras footage, canvas for witnesses, follow leads that will dead end sometimes, stake out a person’s home or job, track down the sales records for a murder weapon, identify a suspect by their footprints… The array of tools at your disposal is incredible. And the murder board is just the best thing ever; you even get to scribble your own notes and make connections with different colours of string, and it’s not some game mechanic, it’s literally just a tool for you to assemble the evidence like a real detective would, so that you can figure out your next move.
I wish talking to people wasn’t all the same canned question/responses. Trying to find witnesses is basically impossible. And security systems turning themself back on after set amount of time. Only two big issues I have with the game
You hit the nail on the head. This is exactly what intregued me about this game. It’s giving the creative and intellectual freedom to solve the mysteries, with no handholding was very refreshing.
I am going to bang on so many apartment doors until the old lady that lives inside doddles over to answer and when I hear the key rattling in that lock I will flying kick that door off the hinges, blasting her unconscious, so thar I can take everything out of her wallet and her safe.
What was that? Is she a suspect? …Suspect in what? Hey did you see my cool apartment? I can afford a new sofa now!
I was just thinking about how much I’d like to play the full release of this last week! good to hear I won’t have much longer to wait.
I found it a little too confusing. Hopefully the full release will be more noob friendly.
I had a fun time playing in early access, even with the bugs. I should check it out again when it hits 1.0. I recall generating a new location and immediately falling through the ground to my death and deciding i would wait a bit to play more.
