The ordinary case of Margaret Luoni
The head of the laboratory turned to Dirk for help in the investigation of the murder of his employee. What happened to one of the greatest minds in the Cat Head Nebula? What color do the Sumlings hate? Where can I get carbs for my secretary? And in what order did the great Blork Gnarbs draw his pictures? Why me?
You will find the answer to these and other obviously important questions by helping Dirk in the investigation.
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World: In a world where teleportation and robots are as commonplace as a cup of coffee, there are almost no living plants left. Humans are a lower caste and they are doing the work that hardly anyone else wants to do. For example, to investigate murders. The Margaret Luoni case is one of detective Dirk’s many investigations. There will be others! Learn new details of the futuristic universe and meet new galactic races.
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Plot: Travel between planets of the Cat Head Nebula, interrogate witnesses, and find new evidence. Solve puzzles and approach different witnesses with Galactic Handbooks. There are no obvious solutions here, find your own way to solve problems and get 2 different endings.
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Graphics: Everything from locations to the smallest of objects is hand-drawn, as well as painstakingly created character animations
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Music: amazingly atmospheric music
Read More: Best Hand-drawn Atmospheric Games.
Letter Vetter
I’ve never played anything like this before! It has so many different parts to the puzzle and leaves you on your own more than I expected which I think is actually really satisfying and engaging to work through. Being both stimulating and calming I feel I can play it any time of the day and similarly it would appeal to all ages. It’s handmade artwork and graphics makes the fantasy land of Pipshire come alive. Finally, it has all the thrill and immersion of a whodunnit combined with the calm that life can lack - I would definitely recommend this game.
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Hand-drawn Mystery Games.
A really enjoyable game. Nice relaxing atmosphere. Can be played at your own pace, alone or with friends. Could easily be made into a tabletop/dinner party game. You can see my more in depth review here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uImL-d6eKH8
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
Overboard!
I never expected getting away with murder would be this fun! I thought Overboard would be a straightforward piece of interactive fiction, a few different routes to a few different endings, a great story along the way. Instead what I found was a deceptively simple game with a ton of moving parts. Everyone you share the ship with has their own routines, agendas and information, all of which are stacked against you. When you start this game, you will almost certainly fail. It’s through multiple (very quick!) playthroughs that you’ll begin to piece together what’s going on, what everyone’s hiding and what gaps in their knowledge you can exploit.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Hand-drawn Puzzle Games.
In the past few years, Inkle has really won me over as a fan by putting out interesting and inventive narrative games like Heaven’s Vault and Pendragon, giving interesting an informative talks on game design at narrative-focused game conventions, and maintaining their popular trademark design tool, Ink, which is available for anyone to use. Overboard, their newest title, is a surprise release, completely unannounced prior to dropping on the storefront yesterday.
In Overboard, we meet an attractive young femme fatale who, in the opening scene, impulsively seizes an opportunity to get rid of her crappy husband by pushing him off of the deck of an ocean liner. The next morning, we step into her shoes, and have one in-game day to help her cover up the crime before the resident Poirot-like detective connects the dots and sends her to jail. To succeed, you will have to lie convincingly and keep your lies consistent. You must search the ship to locate and dispose of evidence without drawing suspicion onto yourself. Meanwhile, find out what your fellow passengers know about the crime and bribe, blackmail, drug, or seduce them into silence. If that doesn’t work, find a more violent way of getting rid of any witnesses. If you are really skilled, you might be able to pin the crime on someone else to collect that sweet, sweet life insurance money.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
Just Take Your Left
I super wanted to give this game a positive review, but it’s not quite ready for prime time yet. Even though I ultimately felt I had to give this game a thumbs down, please still consider supporting the developer by picking it up, perhaps on sale, especially if it looks like the kind of game you might be into.
Just take your left is a very short mouse-driven game by Mehrdad Rezaei, who seems to be a solo Iranian developer. Your character is an agent of some sort who is sent to steal a diamond from a castle, but is antagonized along the way by a small mouse who is determined to stop him.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
this game has nice artwork and great character animation, a lot of though has gone into how the character reacts to objects, which is great to see.
I managed to get stuck a few times but not so stuck you’d give up or start hunting down a tutorial,
A little moan is quality control and grammar but English isn’t the guys first language, and considering its the cost of a burger the character animation is so much nicer than some dearer games, no aimless wandering about and dodgy “use” animation here!
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Mask of the Rose
Welcome to Fallen London: a darkly hilarious gothic underworld where death is a temporary inconvenience, the rats talk, and Hell is only a stone’s throw away.
Thanks to an unknown bargain, London now resides in a vast cavern under the earth. Down here, the sun doesn’t shine, and Parliament has sunk into the Thames. Queen Victoria never emerges from her palace. Cats spy on their owners and whisper their secrets abroad. The fabric of strait-laced Victorian society has begun to fray.
New Masters are in charge. Why are they so… tall? And always cloaked? And why are they so interested in love stories?
The possibilities for personal connection in London are different now. Thrown together in crisis, you might befriend or romance many of the characters you meet, from Griz, your assertive housemate for whom the Fall was a chance to break free of Victorian societal norms, to the infernally well-dressed gentleman at the Brass Consulate with the amber eyes.
Even death itself has a twist here: the first murder victim since the Fall is feeling much better, and keen to see justice done. Unfortunately, as the doctor who treated him immediately before he expired, your housemate Archie is the prime suspect…
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(Re)invent yourself: who were you before the Fall? Who will you be now?
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Create outfits from a selection of clothing and unusual accessories to unlock different story options
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Fall in love with a cast of diverse Londoners, each with their own secrets
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Matchmake among your friends, or seek love for yourself (by any definition you like)
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Write love stories in a delightful minigame, and use them to impress the new Masters
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Pick up odd jobs to earn money and gather resources. How are you at rat catching?
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Solve the first murder since the Fall, with the assistance of the victim
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Discover cosy, mysterious and magnificent locations in a dark and delicious version of Victorian London
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Seek deeper and deeper secrets over multiple playthroughs
Will you be a brilliant matchmaker, connecting friends and rivals while remaining unattached? Or are you looking for lasting love? Perhaps you’re open to whatever comes your way? Every major storyline is accessible regardless of whether your approach to love is romantic or platonic.
Use an elaborate, dynamic story-crafting system to create love stories – and murder theories. Are the twists in the tale not to your taste? Then change the motive, the location, even the victim, and see how the stories adapt!
Your past will open different doors for you in London. What was your life on the Surface like? Were your family landed gentry? Or did they own a tailor’s shop, or dabble in the occult?
Your clothing will also make people think differently of you. Your outfits open new possibilities in conversation: be bolder, more commanding, more flirtatious. Ingratiate yourself with London’s inhabitants by changing your style of dress – they won’t be able to resist you in that hat!
You’ll also work odd jobs and collect resources which will open new avenues in social situations. Your housemate Griz has found you work as census-taker for those curious new Masters. Fill your census-taker’s notebook with intimate details about your fellow citizens and you’ll find you can pursue deeper relationships with them, romantic or otherwise.
Griz
For your fellow lodger Griz, the Fall of London has been a liberation – the chance to throw off her corsets, dump the dresses and be taken seriously in a position that would have been forbidden to her when she was ‘Miss Griselda’.
Archie
For your other housemate Archie, the change is terrifying. What is a medical student supposed to believe in when even the laws of death no longer apply?
Harjit
When the Fall struck, Harjit stepped up to help anyone who needed it. Now he’s settling into his role as a man in uniform, but the territory is unfamiliar – and, secretly, he has a missing person of his own to find.
Milton
Milton is the amber-eyed host of a literary parlour with a scalding handshake and a prior address in Hell. He’s an excellent listener, but does he only want you for your soul?
Rachel
Rachel was halfway through her serialised novel when London fell and everything she was writing about was turned upside-down. Her publisher grows impatient. Fortunately (?) meeting Milton has rekindled her passion – for more than just writing.
David
Rachel’s brother, and no fan of Milton, David is also destined to be Fallen London’s first murder victim. When he returns from the dead, you can ask him all about it.
Horatia
For a decade, Horatia has taken in lodgers and turned them into family. Since London fell, people need the security she offers more than ever. So when a man made entirely of clay knocks at the door, offering to pay handsomely for lodgings, she can hardly refuse.
Mr Pages
One of London’s new, mysterious “Masters”, Mr Pages has embarked on the titanic endeavour of conducting London’s first post-Fall census! But why are its questions so concerned with the love-lives of London’s citizens? How do people declare their affection, in this fair city? How lasting are their attachments? Might a Londoner take an interest in a very tall, broad-shouldered, cloaked personage that leans towards the chiropterous, hypothetically speaking?
Explore this unique city in glorious, richly rendered 2D. Experience London through three seasons: the season of Confessions, the season of Yule, and the season of Love. Help establish the first Feast of the Rose, a festival of romance that will be celebrated in London for decades to come!
For players of Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, Mask of the Rose offers a chance to immerse yourselves in the city that founded this deep, dark, and marvellous universe. And for veteran players of the Fallen London browser game, it marks your first opportunity to visit the city just after it fell. But fear not: Mask of the Rose is an excellent introduction to the universe we’ve been building for more than a decade, and you don’t need to have played our other games first. Come on in. Most things won’t bite, unless you want them to.
Explore the locales, lives, and loves of an impossible city. Exchange bon-mots with devils. Investigate the first murder where the victim can testify at the murderer’s trial. Dive into the sunken ruins of poor drowned Parliament. And if you’re truly reckless, fall in love.
Warp Frontier
I do not think the puzzles are good, but overall I find this game compelling, both in the story and for the meta-puzzle of ‘what do I have to do differently to get the other achievement’ element. One playthrough takes very roughly seven hours. I was in the beginning of my second playthrough when I started this review. I think it would need at least three playthroughs to get all the achievements. For full disclosure, I’m an immigrant to Australia. If you don’t like our sarcasm, you may not like the presentation and characters.
– Real player with 19.0 hrs in game
edit: more save slots available + skippable travel animations.
warp frontier stars space cop and former drummer vince ‘tin man’ cassini, who kicked some ass back in the day when he wasn’t on the turps or gigging with his band, but still has some juice left in him (the non-alcoholic variety). on his way home for a birthday celebration, his ship gets shot down. after some first aid to the ship he finds the attackers, killed by nothing somehow, then runs into a girl who leads him to something he’s been trying to find for a long time.
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game
Mercury Abbey
【1】Retro pixel style with impressive lighting and shading
The game uses pixel sprites, with characters drawn in a classic American comicbook style. Fossil halls, greenhouses, hedge mazes, botanical gardens, underground cave systems…scenes appear one after another, presenting a visual feast. Unique lighting and shading technology creates an engaging atmosphere and a wonderfully immersive experience.
【2】 Classic cultural elements meet a unique worldview
The game embraces the spirit of early suspense novels, interspersing classic cultural elements throughout the story. Adopting an overhead world view, the world is composed of anthropomorphic animal (furry) characters; the social structures, folklore, and ethnic relations of this world are all waiting to be discovered by players!
【3】Engaging story
Strange things seem to happening one after another at the mysterious mountain sanitarium, and the curse of the alchemist family is spreading. Legends, midnight societies and ghostly patrons are just a few of the curiosities to be investigated, but maybe the mystery runs deeper than once thought. Gather clues and delve into the mystery to discover exactly where this story will go…
【4】 Lots of items and achievements to collect
Discover a large number of collectable elements along the way, including character information, folklore, objects, copied notes, photos, and even intercepted gossip. The game also features a variety of achievements, with certain choices and actions unlocking them. Fortune favors the bold.
Mister Burnhouse
I loved it! The graphics are great, and the puzzles are original. I can’t wait for more chapters! :)
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
No. Even at less than a one dollar. No. Just random clicking.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Trouble Hunter Chronicles: The Stolen Creed
Iskonsko Studio has put a lot of hard work into this indie gem and it really shows!
From the starting scene I was instantly hooked and wanted to keep playing to find out how the story unfolded. There’s a lot of puzzles to solve and most of the characters in the game are voiced which I think adds a lot to the immersion.
Don’t be fooled by the demo. The full version is so much better, smooth and fun to play than that early build of the game.
I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys Point & Click- adventures
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
It’s a long path to the truth; good luck getting there.
Though my recommendation is somewhat low, those particularly fond of Point & Click will find more to digest here, if not a sufficient challenge. Trouble Hunter Chronicles: The Stolen Creed is a pretty packed adventure with a lot of dialogue and puzzle-based trials. If one can get past some rather apparent technical visual and auditory mishaps, it’s a perfectly satisfactory mystery title geared towards retro veterans. But I really must stress: good luck.
– Real player with 8.2 hrs in game
Under the Counter
Under the Counter is a narrative simulation in which you run a bar on a local market. Your task is to solve the mystery of its missing people while serving food and moonshine to both city residents and demonic forces from a parallel world.
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Serve your famous stew and drinks to customers. Be careful to do it right so the payment is adequate.
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Help the locals, the resistance movement, and even the invading soldiers (at least the ones who are friendly!) by using your exquisite networking skills and natural charm.
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Test your senses and serve simultaneously. You know, like a good bartender who pours the pint while chatting up his guests.
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Immerse yourself in a wartime story with a supernatural twist. Surely Eastern European urban folklore is not something that you can experience in video games very often?
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Enjoy the alluring hand-drawn graphics and animations that reflect the strange atmosphere of the unfolding story.
You play as Vincent, an ex-sailor who started his stall with food and drink. People still need to eat during the war, and you can cook the best stew basically out of anything. To make things fancier, your second specialty is home-made booze. [And in times like these, people drink a lot.] It is unique not only because of its sheer alcoholic content but also in the way it is served. Most people will drink just as a straight shot, but AT YOUR PLACE they can mix it with cherry juice! Simple, but genius.
The biggest problem that interferes with your business is the Great War that has started a few months ago. So, your city is now occupied, the enemies are imposing their new order, and they don’t treat your people in a good way. But by some strange twist of fate, they do seem to like you and your services. It makes you the perfect double agent and you immediately start plotting with your former friends from the military.
The war is in its prime and the enemy is omnipresent. But that’s not all. The market keeps getting weirder. First, you hear about the disappearances. On top of that, there are rumours about an odd military unit that has just arrived in the city. Since the day you heard about it, you’ve kept having eerie recurring dreams about a monstrous entity slithering in the darkness and gazing at you with its many eyes. And your customers seem to become increasingly stranger each day, not to mention that mysterious woman who carries a faint, yet so easily recognisable scent of the sea…