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This year at PAX South, EQ Studios is showcasing their new murder mystery game called The Painscreek Killings. The game is centered around collecting clues and hints to help your investigation and find evidence to expose the truth about the killings. Unlike many murder mystery titles, The Painscreek Killings doesn’t hold the player’s hand whatsoever - there are no quest markers and no hint system to aid in your journey. You will be forced to think, to connect the dots and to piece things together, making you feel like a real investigator.
The player assumes the role of Janet, a young and upcoming journalist. She’s been asked by your editor to investigate the mysterious abandonment of a once lively town. Based on the information released by the media about the deaths of the townspeople, you set foot into the town thinking you would find an interesting story to publish, only to uncover secrets that were meant to stay hidden forever.
The Painscreek Killings is a semi-open world game, meaning there is no set path to follow, and you get to explore wherever you want based on the clues and hints found during your investigation. A really neat feature in the game is the ability to end your play-through at any time. If you think you’ve found out who Vivian’s killer is, you can leave Painscreek and submit your findings to the editor. The results you chose will be published in tomorrow’s paper.
In traditional murder mystery fashion, you will be recording all of your findings, photographing evidence in-game and even writing down notes outside of the game, making for a truly immersive game. As mentioned, The Painscreek Killings is a seriously hardcore “whodunnit” mystery, where you will be not be coached in any way or pointed in the “right” direction. The game features many puzzles for the player to figure out, and many even have more than one way to solve them. Players will find that the puzzles are what quickens your investigation time, and there is no linear way to solve them, making for many different, unique play-throughs.
The Painscreek Killings is available on Steam for $19.99.