I grabbed this on sale a while ago when it felt like Don't Nod couldn't release anything that didn't at least interest me. This one caught my attention because it was a murder mystery game in Appalachian coal country done in their formula. Despite being in development at two studios for several years, this somehow still managed to feel rushed and unfinished and I just can't recommend it when better options are out there.

This was originally supposed to be a three episode game before losing its publishing deal and then being released as a single package, which feels like it was done out of necessity because even if you take your time, you'll be hard pressed to beat this in more than 6 hours. The characters all seem like they could be interesting, as does the town itself, but everything moves so quickly, you barely have a chance to get to know any of them or get emotionally invested in them. The investigation sections feel like they originally wanted to take another crack at the really interesting "crime recreation" mechanic Don't Nod first had in Remember Me, but it ends up just being scenes where you find all the clues and after that, try different ways of recreating the scene, only one of which is right and which there's no penalty for getting wrong. Just try again. The narrative is very linear and there's only a handful of scenes and environments, most of which don't have much to do in them, even though they do look quite nice.

I'm usually pretty good at sussing out mysteries quickly and I have to admit that I didn't know for sure what was up or who was doing it until a fair bit into the game, though the ultimate bad guy isn't hard to pick out early if you're paying attention. There are "choices matter" moments that will impact how some scenes play out but in the end, you'll always end up at the same binary choice at the end, which only really impacts others rather than yourself.

If you really like the Don't Nod formula, maybe grab this on a deep sale. However, Don't Nod themselves and others besides have done better games than this, which don't feel like they were pushed out not fully baked to try to minimize financial losses.

I grabbed this on sale a while ago when it felt like Don't Nod couldn't release anything that didn't at least interest me. This one caught my attention because it was a murder mystery game in Appalachian coal country done in their formula. Despite being in development at two studios for several years, this somehow still managed to feel rushed and unfinished and I just can't recommend it when better options are out there. This was originally supposed to be a three episode game before losing its publishing deal and then being released as a single package, which feels like it was done out of necessity because even if you take your time, you'll be hard pressed to beat this in more than 6 hours. The characters all seem like they could be interesting, as does the town itself, but everything moves so quickly, you barely have a chance to get to know any of them or get emotionally invested in them. The investigation sections feel like they originally wanted to take another crack at the really interesting "crime recreation" mechanic Don't Nod first had in Remember Me, but it ends up just being scenes where you find all the clues and after that, try different ways of recreating the scene, only one of which is right and which there's no penalty for getting wrong. Just try again. The narrative is very linear and there's only a handful of scenes and environments, most of which don't have much to do in them, even though they do look quite nice. I'm usually pretty good at sussing out mysteries quickly and I have to admit that I didn't know for sure what was up or who was doing it until a fair bit into the game, though the ultimate bad guy isn't hard to pick out early if you're paying attention. There are "choices matter" moments that will impact how some scenes play out but in the end, you'll always end up at the same binary choice at the end, which only really impacts others rather than yourself. If you really like the Don't Nod formula, maybe grab this on a deep sale. However, Don't Nod themselves and others besides have done better games than this, which don't feel like they were pushed out not fully baked to try to minimize financial losses.