5 Years Later, There's Still Nothing Like This Bizarrely Beautiful Detective Game

"The leaders of the world's most exclusive resort lie dead in a locked room, and a detective exiled from the community years ago is the only one who can solve the case. That's not a particularly unexpected setup for a mystery story, except that everyone involved is immortal, the resort is an entire alternate plane of existence, and the slayings happened on the eve of a ritual that would see mortals sacrificed to further the victims' ends."

"Where some detective games are content to guide you by the hand to their solutions, Paradise Killer sets you loose and trusts you to put your theories together on your own. Most of the game consists of walking back and forth across paradise, speaking to the island's inscrutable residents. Masked cultists, bartending skeletons, and goat-headed gods are the most ordinary residents you'll find here, and they've all got their own agendas and secrets to keep."

"Released on September 4, 2020, Paradise Killer follows detective Lady Love Dies, armed with her trusty laptop, Starlight. The case she's brought in to solve is straightforward in some ways. The victims have all been murdered with no attempt to cover it up, and the only possible suspects are the fellow residents of their island paradise. Other parts of the case are a little more complex, like the magically locked door outside, the demons haunting the island, and the fact that absolutely nothing anyone says can be trusted."

An exiled detective returns to an exclusive island paradise to investigate the ritual-murder of its immortal leaders. The environment exists as an alternate plane populated by masked cultists, bartending skeletons, goat-headed gods, and an elite Syndicate with conflicting agendas. Investigations rely on dialogue, exploration, and clue gathering using a laptop named Starlight, with virtually no hand-holding from the game. Mysteries include magically locked doors, demonic hauntings, and pervasive dishonesty. The title emphasizes player-driven theory-building and interrogations, intertwining a murder mystery with questions about constructing a so-called perfect world.

Read at Inverse