The Painscreek Killings

Let me begin by first saying, I'm a grandfather who is nearly 60 that very much enjoys "cozy" games where there is not a huge amount of pressure on me to have conflicts or quick-time events in games. I do love immersive 1st person games like Cyberpunk 2047, Starfield, and the Fallout series. I do, however, very much prefer games that are heavy with "story" and in which I get to slowly understand through discovery the entirety of what is going on.
This is my second review on Steam and realize I obviously have a pattern. Find a game you can play casually, one where you feel like you can make continuous progress, and one that is very story driven. My first review ever was for the game "What Remains of Edith Finch" and I put this game right up there for the power of it's story telling.
A few things I really enjoyed about this game (no spoilers). You play in first person and get to explore and experience the Village of Painscreek and some surrounding properties. The visual detail of the environment is superb and by the end of the game I knew the streets of Painscreek better than I remember my childhood streets growing up. Who needs a map anyway? :)
What really sets this game apart is how carefully the developers tried to prevent this game from being too linear. They provide you with many opportunities to go from point A to point B through deduction, but they do not hold your hand. I took copious amounts of notes. Much of the information you get is in the form of "diaries/letters/newspapers" which is a great way to do two things: you get to see a narrative spoken with timelines from the point of view of a single individual, and you also get to start identifying with individual people.
There is no surprise here, this game is about identifying a killer and the story does a masterful job of revealing people in the village and their relationships with others, their inner thoughts, their concerns, and gives you deep insights into them. I want more games like this where the hand-holding or narrow game-path design is minimized and you are not forced to follow a linear path to the end, but it's a delicate balance to get right.
I would be lying if I said I always found myself completely certain through deduction how to get from A to B. I think I took 5 hints from the Internet on very specific scenarios to "unblock" myself. All I needed was the barest "hint" and I was unblocked. (Hint to developers: if it were possible, having a mechanic in game that could provide these hints would have made me feel better than going online where it's too easy to get "too much spoiler" information).
In summary, I was blown away by the story telling, saddened by the haunting sadness of some of what was revealed, and amazed at the craft of the team that put this together to do so in such a delicate balance (not too linear, but enough "connective information" to allow you to figure it out). I rarely complete a game completely, and this is the most ambitious game that I've managed to complete 100% achievements for. I don't think I'm done playing though. For every piece of information I received in the game, I created a chronology that included the date/time (in order) what the summary of the event was, and the source I received it from. It allowed me to slowly read from start to finish the entire story line and see the grand narrative play out.
Just like when you have a favorite book, and rereading it does not diminish your enjoyment but only brings up anticipation of things you love and want to re-experience, this game has you.
I don't write many reviews, but when one of them moves me enough through artistry, I want to call it out and this gets my highest approval. Well done.

This is one of my favorite detective games.
What I love most is that the game trusts you to investigate on your own. There are no objective markers or constant hints telling you what to do next. During my first playthrough, I didn't use any guides—I kept my own notebook, wrote down names, dates, and clues, and slowly pieced everything together like I was investigating a real case.
It's not a game for everyone. It requires patience, observation, and attention to detail. But if you enjoy solving mysteries through your own deductions instead of being led by the hand, I highly recommend it.
Even years later, I still haven't found another detective game that gave me the same feeling.

As a *huge* puzzle/mystery/detective game fan, I'm going to put this in a way that my fellow fans would understand best: the puzzles are fun enough to feel satisfying when solved, but never obscure enough to induce eye rolling aka "How would anyone get that" or "I would have NEVER figured that out" after having to look it up online.

With that said, there ARE some very mild horror/scary moments. Granted, I'm a big wimp, I just wish I was warned. I enjoyed it so much, though, I pushed through if that's worth anything!

I love this game. It is truly a detective game. Would LOVE to see more like this! If looking in every drawer and crevice, and looking deeper into notes and recordings for clues excites you, this is for you! Love that it is difficult enough to make you think but not too difficult to make it impossible. Love how you are left alone to figure things out. Love finding pieces of the story to create the full picture. Satisfies my need for discovery, mystery, storyline while being relaxing and allowing me to use my brain to put it all together. MORE PLEASE!

A very well balanced puzzle mystery game with extremely light horror elements.
Almost all the puzzles in the game are logical and intuitive. The game is really engaging and you will be excited to take notes and cross off each clue and question as you solve it. Very fun!
Only 3 puzzles I thought were unfair, and I'm writing them here to warn new players to avoid frustration:
1. The darts puzzle. It's very unfair. You are given a very complex, strangely written mathematical formula and need a spreadsheet to calculate the correct score. However, this isn't even right! You are supposed to know that the inputs shown are "incorrect" and there's some other inputs you find later that is "more correct". I found this really unfair and just guessed every number until I got it.
2. Scott's bedroom safe key. There are tons of dates in the game used as codes. Almost all of them use the format: MM-DD-YY or MM-DD. However, ONLY this ONE date code input uses a totally different date format! I inputted the correct date 10 times and it failed every time. Only later when I looked at a guide did I realize this ONE code is MDYY. I felt that was unfair.
3. The hotel "counter hidden panel". This was extremely unfair for a variety of reasons. First, the clue says there is a hidden panel on the COUNTER. This is a lie. It is NOT on the counter. It is on the cabinet BEHIND the counter. Then, this is also nearly impossible even if you know it, because the click targeting area for this panel is extremely tiny. Even using a guide I had to click around for 5-10 minutes to find it. Not fair.
Aside from all those, however, I felt that the game was excellent and really fun! Play it, knowing these clues, and you won't get stuck and will have a great time.

I adore this game. You have to like challenging investigations, and the game is not going to hold your hand. In the beginning I thought the town map was just for the atmosphere and you would stay in the mansion, but once I realized the extend of the clues and stories, I started to do what the game recommends at the beginning, which is taking your own, physical notes. By the end of the game, I had several pages including a table with all characters and related dates and relationships, a timeline of events, and family trees. You can also always reread any letter or diary entry in the menu, and for everything else you have a camera and can take pictures of any location or items and look at them later.
My favorite thing about the game was that I kept discovering new secrets, passages and hints in places on the map that I had passed many times and never noticed before. A very immersive experience. After the first playthrough, I have half of the achievements and I will definitely go back. Also, after finishing, you can just reload and pick up again just before entering the last location, so I appreciate not having to start again.

A 7/10 detective game with a good amount of genuinely memorable moments. I think everyone complaining about it being too hard might just be stupid, because I didn't find it difficult at all to find where the keys went or where the game obviously wanted me to go next. Honestly I was a little disappointed at how much signposting there was after hearing so much about how supposedly difficult it is to find where to go. Overall though, still very much worth a play.