Steam Just Added A Surprisingly Chill Supernatural Mystery Game

"There are few things less cozy than a murder investigation, especially one that involves bizarre rituals and seemingly supernatural circumstances. But add nice, relaxing puzzles to the mix, and suddenly you've got a game that's great to chill out to, despite mostly taking place at a crime scene. Released in mid-December, Mosaic of the Strange combines Minesweeper-inspired puzzles with a story straight out of , making for one of the most satisfying genre mashups of the year."

"Starting with Mega Mosaic, Mark Ffrench has made a series of "mosaic" games, which combine elements of the logic puzzles Minesweeper and Picross. In each mosaic game, you're presented with a massive game board grid divided into smaller sections. Throughout the grid are numbered tiles telling you which squares to fill in. Each number tells you how many adjacent squares should be colored in, while the rest should be marked blank."

"Finishing a puzzle with these Minesweeper-like rules results in a picture like you'd get from completing a Picross level, just at a much larger scale. Like any good Picross game, Mosaic of the Strange is oddly relaxing for just how tough its deductions can be. Its puzzles can only be solved with careful logic, which is at first tricky to wrap your head around."

Mosaic of the Strange pairs Minesweeper-inspired mosaic puzzles with a supernatural murder-investigation narrative set in Pinehaven. A body found in a locked firewatch tower presents unexplainable injuries and sends two federal agents across town to consult scientists, psychics, and conspiracy theories while tracing cryptid and historical supernatural occurrences to reconstruct what happened. Developer Mark Ffrench extends his mosaic series from Mega Mosaic, combining Minesweeper and Picross mechanics on large segmented grids. Numbered tiles indicate how many adjacent squares to fill, and completing puzzles reveals big-picture images. The puzzles demand careful logical deduction while retaining a calming, methodical pace.

Read at Inverse