Bom jogo, gostei da trama, mesmo sendo bem genérica.
O jogo ainda tem seus problemas, tipo a obsessão com objetos pequenos e que não se destacam, na teoria é mais realista assim, mas no gameplay não ajuda, tipo um cartão em cima de um banco aleatório que eu passei reto 30 vezes só por que ele não se destacava. Na vdd, na vida real seria muito mais fácil perceber o cartão do que foi no jogo. Tem os puzzles de datas que também me deram um ódio por que a maior parte do mundo lê dd-mm-aaaa, mas Estado Unidense tem que ser especial.

E um dos tópicos divergentes é a sequência final do jogo, que eu fico do lado das pessoas que não gostaram. Achei barato de mais.

Uma experiência incrível de investigação e mistério, Painscreek Killings me despertou uma vontade enorme de jogar mais jogos do estilo.

Amei a forma como o jogo não segura sua mão em absolutamente nada, ele te explica o básico e o resto cabe a você descobrir. Não existem indicadores na interface ou marcadores de objetivo te dizendo aonde ir, o quanto você descobre acerca dos misteriosos assassinatos depende inteiramente da sua capacidade de notar cada detalhe e de relacionar uma coisa com a outra.

Painscreek Killings até mesmo te recomenda fazer suas próprias anotações da investigação (seja num caderno mesmo ou em algum aplicativo de PC) e eu particularmente acho isso uma excelente ideia, foi uma das experiências mais imersivas que eu tive com um jogo nos últimos anos.

Enfim, bom demais, ir juntando as pecinhas aos poucos do que aconteceu no condado de Painscreek te prende de um jeito absurdo, e a atmosfera quieta e tensa do jogo te deixa alerta o tempo inteiro (a sensação de que tem alguém te observando tá sempre presente, não conto as vezes que fiquei de coração acelerado).

Só não dou 5 estrelas porque teve um puzzle ou outro que a solução era meio estúpida e quase impossível de descobrir sem ser na tentativa e erro, mas de resto é maravilhoso, recomendo demais.

I think this is the first time where I've wanted to give a game a 4.5 star rating, but feel that a 3.5 is probably warranted. For eleven and a half hours of my playthrough, I was having an absolute blast with The Painscreek Killings. Exploring the ghost town, taking VERY detailed notes, and working through the backstory of each character/event was some of the most fun I've had with a game all year. The mystery was consistently engaging, and the game was open enough to allow you to discover things at your own pace, while also giving a bit of guidance so as to not feel aimless.

However, the last half hour of the game has some incredibly stupid design choices that unfortunately hamper the experience as a whole. It adds a needless plot hole/complication to the narrative, and botches multiple gameplay ideas. And it's just so frustrating, because I think the end would be extremely easy to fix with the slightest bit of reworking. I honestly think if you simply remove THAT part of the ending (anyone who's beaten it knows what im talking about) then the game goes up to 4 stars just from that change alone. And with some other simple tweaks that would only take a few days of dev time to implement, it could go up to the 4.5 star I want to give it.

That all being said, I absolutely loved the vast majority of my time spent with this game, and I refuse to let the conclusion sour how much fun I had leading up to it. We don't see many games that aim to tackle a cold-case with such little hand-holding, so for that I can easily recommend it to those interested. It's a shame the devs made as many bad decisions as they did in that final stretch, because this was genuinely seeming like it would be one of my favorite games. But hey, they got a lot right leading up to the end, so im definitely looking forward to what they do next.

"Murder Mystery Gamified"

For a title that is built using Unity engine, I expected this game to be a lot worse than it actually is. The visuals are solid, but the gameplay built around it is enough to keep the player engaged through this game's narrative. Now there are some weaker aspects of the gameplay and story that do start to intrude on the experience by the 10-ish hour mark, but it was still an interesting adventure.

The gameplay is this game's most simple aspect, and I think it was done fairly well. Actions are mostly limited to interacting with objects and walking, but because of this the pacing of the game's story was solid for about 75% of the playthrough. I do wish that there was more to do on the puzzle side of things, and some of the puzzles are a bit wonky and lack real guidance in terms of how you're supposed to solve them.

The story is the much better aspect of this title, and I found the tale of Painscreek to feel semi-realistic and engaging. The characters were mostly established well through the multitude of writings throughout the game, and the town (while being empty) had a sense of forelonging. The atmosphere was consistent and showcased elements of America's lost townships, broken dreams, and buried secrets.

The ending was a bit too clunky to be very enjoyable, and it sort of takes a nosedive in believability. The killer also ends up being fairly obvious about 75% into the game, yet you have to still find a bunch of clues that point you in the "right" direction that sort of kills the pacing. The last 20% of the game is a bit bloated, and the puzzles also felt like they were waning in quality.

Overall, it's a solid mystery title. The puzzles could have been tighter, and the pacing smoother, but the story is interesting, and you feel pushed to figure out more information.

Final Verdict: 7/10 (Good)

A great detective game that really shakes up the walking simulator genre by giving you a relatively open town to explore filled with puzzles to solve and doors to unlock. There is no fast travel and no quest markers. You have to navigate the town on your own (with the help of a static in-game map), take notes to keep track of timelines and characters (if you play the game, make sure to start writing down a timeline of events early on because it helps a lot in keeping the story straight. I had a big revelation when I realized that 1 event took place the same day as a certain diary entry.) Admittedly, beating the game depends on finding a number of keys which can sometimes turn into a bit of a pixel hunt (I got badly stuck on two occasions because I had forgotten to open a drawer). In addition, puzzle solutions are sometimes spelled out for you in some notes (as well as an important revelation later on in the game).

On the whole, this is a great game that really showed what is possible with the walking simulator genre...until the ending. Without spoiling anything, many things about the ending didn't make sense and felt at odds with the tone of the rest of the game. On the whole, I really admire this game and can't wait to see what the team at EQ studios puts out next, and as a debut title this is an outstanding game. It's just the ending (which has proved divisive amongst most players) didn't quite work for me, even though I admire the ambition of the team for trying something unexpected.

If it weren't for the fact that this game was developed by an independent studio who were learning the basics of game development while they were making the game (you can check out their development diaries on their blog), I might have rated it a bit lower. However, as a debut title this is amazing and it is rare for a first-time developer to make a game that is able to mostly deliver on what it promises.

In theory, I like a lot of what this is doing in terms of not holding your hand and letting you immerse yourself in the clues, but a lot of it amounts to key hunts and deciphering lock combinations. The end is the biggest let down, throwing the answer in your face and switching genres to something less grounded and kinda silly. Don't go expecting complex human motivations here, either, there's plenty of clichés about mental health and jealousy to throw around here. Still not bad overall, considering the novel structuring and an indie dev's limitations.