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Let’s play Murder is Game Over: The Blackinton Curse

5 Mins read

A computer game is perhaps an unexpected addition to Crime Fiction Lover’s feature section. But Murder is Game Over: The Blackinton Curse might just make you reach for your keyboard instead of cracking the spine on a new novel.

The fourth entry in HitherYon’s Murder is Game Over series is a story-driven adventure in which you guide characters through the shadowy town of West Adams, Massachusetts, questioning witnesses and piecing together clues. It’s a standalone mystery featuring Detective Guy and his sniffer dog, Cleo, meaning you can jump in without having played the previous titles.

Those previous Murder is Game Over games have been released for PC, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation. This new one was selected for the Excellence In Narrative category at the Boston Festival of Indie Games in December, and this week, it formally launches on PC, with console releases planned for the future.

The mystery unfolds

The Blackinton family has been cursed for generations, perhaps fitting for a dynasty built on a pyrite mine dug into Wampanoag tribal land. One by one, its members have met untimely and grisly ends.

The story begins with the grand old lady of the manor, Meredith Blackinton, being buried. She was found dead at the foot of the mansion’s stairs, apparently an accident. But who’s buying that? Meredith bolstered the family’s coffers recently by licensing music to video game companies (all the titles in this series make subtle nods to the games industry) and had a strained relationship with her two sons – she had sent away her eldest, Trevor, years ago to shield him from the so-called curse.

As her funeral takes place, bringing the family together for the first time in years, a ghostly figure appears on an outcrop near the cemetery, startling the congregation! In the turmoil that follows, Trevor’s corpse is discovered. Are mother and son both victims of the ancient legacy?

Enter Detective Guy, a homicide cop, accompanied by his trusty hound. They poke around key locations, spotting clues and chatting with locals. It’s a large field of play, but not unmanageable, with locations such as Hill Cemetery, Downtown and Hoosec River Park a short stroll apart, and internal locations like the Blackinton home and the local museum all easily accessible.

It’s what players call an ‘open world’ experience, which means you can go anywhere at any time, deciding who to speak to. There are only occasional prompts to do a specific thing – a phone call at a crucial moment, for instance – and suspects can be found and interrogated in any order.

One neat mechanic is the ability to swap between Guy and Cleo on the fly. Cleo’s got the nose for sniffing out physical items (a cigarette butt here, a business card there) while Guy handles the talking, grilling suspects as needed. It’s a tag-team dynamic that keeps things lively, and you’ll probably spend much of the time controlling Cleo, because those environmental clues are vital.

When you switch to Guy, dialogue is presented at the bottom of the screen. It’s sparse, but full of charm, the suspects all having colourful motives and alibis. You’ll meet folks like Professor Marshall, who hoped to buy some of the Blackinton land, or the neighbourhood kids who overheard Trevor Blackinton making a phone call before his demise. Most will tell you one thing until you present evidence that contradicts them, at which point their stories shift faster than you can say ‘red herring,’ sending you off looking for your next clue.

Form and function

The Murder is Game Over titles are all made with RPG Maker, a development tool that enables indie creators to work in a retro style reminiscent of 1990s classics like Final Fantasy IV or Zelda: A Link To The Past. The engine delivers a familiar, 16-bit, top-down appearance, but within that framework, it permits developers a great deal of customisation. HitherYon uses these capabilities to capture the Gothic New England setting with custom retro music, immersive lighting, and other atmospheric details.

Despite the traditional visuals, it ditches classic role-playing gameplay in favour of focused detective storytelling – you won’t have to do any fighting, for instance; this is a primarily cerebral experience to be undertaken at your own pace. In terms of how you interact with the world, this is more akin to the narrative techniques of Monkey Island or Phoenix Wright, albeit streamlined to a tight three hours. There’s a checklist of case notes, recording who you’ve met and what you’ve collected, and it’s hard to go wrong even for rookie players; it may just take time. Your speaking choices are limited to fixed options, but this makes it easy to follow.

Occasionally, the ‘ghost’ pops up to put the frighteners on you, and it is possible to outrun him if you’re inclined – there’s no real penalty to him catching you – but this is one of the rare occasions you might do anything in haste. There are three difficulty modes, too: Cozy, Normal and Scary. Hints are available, which will point you in the right direction if you’re lost, another welcome feature for newcomers.

In addition to the central murder, there are short side quests – tracking down fossilised footprints for the museum and finding snack bags for Cleo. While searching for dinosaur bones seems oddly trivial during an active murder investigation, these diversions encourage you to explore the map further.

The case closed

It’s a fun, professionally-plotted retro adventure. Crime readers might find Detective Guy lives up to his generic name – he lacks the troubled past or personal quirks that make investigators compelling characters. While he serves as a blank slate for the player’s investigation, his plainness stands in contrast to the supporting cast. Thankfully, his canine partner adds some Scooby-Doo-like colour.

The denouement is a theatrical affair, with Detective Guy gathering the suspects in the mansion for a classic Poirot moment, announcing his findings. This final sequence has its own easy/hard mode setting (where hard mode demands that you make fewer mistakes). The reveal is satisfying if you’ve spoken to everybody and worked out who has the most to gain.

The vibe is Gothic chiller meets cosy crime, with a sprinkle of 1990s gaming aesthetics. The melodrama of the stately home and the spirit leering over the graveyard is offset by the modernity of mobile phones and police tape. The RPG Maker template renders it similar in format to a host of other titles, but the story and tone set it apart. It’s surprisingly immersive, with West Adams charmingly rendered in 2D graphics.

The Blackinton Curse is available for digital download from popular PC platform Steam and alternative online stores, including GOG and Itch.io. It’s priced at $5.99, requires an internet connection to download its modest 221 MB file size, and offers a short demo on Steam if you want to try before you buy. The three others in the series – Murder Is Game Over, Deal Killer, and Streaming Death – are available from the same stores, with The Blackinton Curse planned to join them on consoles soon.


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