The Painscreek Killings

Sehr gutes Detektivspiel das nicht zu leicht ist. Setzt mehr auf Realismus, weshalb man natürlich viel herum läuft und sucht, aber gerade das hat mir sehr gefallen.

It's one of the best detective games I've ever played. Anyone who enjoys solving criminal cases will definitely get their money's worth here!
As a journalist, you are sent to the abandoned small town of Painscreek to solve the murders that have taken place here for the newspaper. What begins with an exploration of the town develops into a challenging investigation in a convoluted story about love, deceit, revenge and dangerous secrets.
The exciting story is anything but easy to uncover, you have to work your way up - nothing is served up on a silver platter here. We have to investigate every corner, find and photograph evidence and clues, combine facts and make assumptions on our own - better get your pen and paper ready! At first, you will often be faced with locked doors that need to be opened as the game progresses, so there is potential for frustration here. But if you stick with it and don't let yourself be put off, you'll have a captivating gaming experience. Alone in the deserted city, you can't help but feel like you're being watched from time to time. The game creates a pleasantly uncomfortable atmosphere and manages to build up suspense with little spooky moments. But this is not a horror game, there are no jumpscares.
I finished it in one weekend, with my husband watching the whole time, as he was also captivated by the story and the puzzles. So, the game is also well-suited for solving puzzles together. I very recommend this thrilling written murder mystery game and hope that the developers will release more games of this kind ♥

Sehr schönes Spiel, bei dem man puzzlemäßig eine Geschichte zusammensetzt und dadurch einen Fall lösen soll.
Anfangs etwas überfordernd, da es viele Personen und Orte gibt, die man sich erstmal merken muss, um Zusammenhänge zu verstehen. Sobald man das aber gemeistert hat, setzt sich die Geschichte immer besser zusammen und man kann auch überraschende neue Geschehnisse aufdecken und verstehen.
Manchmal hängt die Steuerung ein wenig - es empfiehlt sich, immer doppelt zu kontrollieren, ob man alle Objekte angehoben/gelesen hat, da man manchmal die Übergänge der Interaktion mit Objekt A zu Objekt B nicht sieht und somit denkt, man hat mit allem interagiert, dabei lag da so halb drunter noch ein weiterer Gegenstand - upsi...
Klare Kaufempfehlung für Fans von Detektivspielen :)
PS: Habe bei diesem Spiel wiedermal gelernt, wie wichtig es ist auch zwischendurch zu speichern *haha*

Im Endeffekt ist es ein Walkingsimulator, der Gameloop ist wie gewohnt bei solchen Games.
Die Geschichte wird in Häppchen als Notizen und Tagebucheinträge präsentiert, man läuft viel von A nach B
und löst mit gefundenen Gegenständen und Informationen Rätsel und treibt die Geschichte voran.
Die Story an sich war sehr gut und das Ende bis zu einem gewissen Grad überraschend.

Ich kann jedem dieses Spiel an Herz legen, der mit Walkingsimulatoren was anfangen kann
und dem die altbackene Grafik nichts ausmacht

Oookay, so I finished this game in two days, back to back.
First: I absolutely recommend it. It is a fantastic game for everyone like me, who loves research/detective games (The Roottrees are Dead comes to mind!). You will not regret buying it at all.

I do have some critiques though, which will contain spoilers. I believe they are justified, even if they get nitpicky. Good job!

Major crique that I do not want to spoiler tag though, because it requires fixing asap:
THE GAME DOES NOT HAVE CLOSED CAPTIONS FOR THE VOICEMAILS, I BELIEVE! Please fix this and auto-enable them for everyone!

Critique
Graphics
+ Beautiful and kind of remminiscent of older games.
+ Mostly effective uses of techniques to mask the non-high end graphics.

- The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ blur that takes a few moments too long to focus when crawling or zooming in (not hardware related).

Design Choices
+ Creative use of composite/collage style Photoshop imagery, I believe AI was not used (correct me if I am wrong so I can withdraw my recommendation immediately). It looks uncanny in places where it was used, which fits the style of the game.

- Here we go, my biggest design issue: Sofia's Ghost and everything about Matthew's model.
It is very obvious that humans are not the 3d artist's strong suit (which is fine, the rest of the game is beautiful). I believe that giving Sofia's ghost a face was one of the biggest mistakes made. The player is introduced to her three times in the game before the end sequence, and I was lucky enough for my first two instances not to have been the time she appears in front of Andrew's house, but the photo found in Steve Moss' car of her standing on the hospital roof as well as seeing her apparition on the roof in person. And, wow, I almost pissed myself! It was so scary.
The fact that you couldn't recognize her at all and didn't know whether this is her or Trisha's ghost was one of the strongest ways to introduce the paranormal into this, in my opinion. And then it was fully destroyed by the model and how it looked, which was just...stereotypical and lame. Also strangely designed, she died in the hospital, not at work, why the maid's uniform? It was just really disappointing.
Now, onto Matthew. As mentioned, I am very sensitive to horror. I would have appreciated a warning that this game contains a chase sequence, but I won't complain about that too much since it was extremely easy. However, when I looked out the attic window and saw him move...I lost my ♥♥♥♥ laughing. He isn't scary at all, his movement speed doesn't match the walk cycle, why is he holding an axe when the axe he used is laying right there? It all comes together unfortunately during the scene where Sofia helps you kill Matthew, which just looks terrible. You should have gone with dark/shadowy outlines without eyes and workshopped the walking sequence for a little longer.


Story/writing
+ Comprehensive and well-thought out for the most part
+ I actually loved the detail that Derrick is experiencing PTSD symptoms from witnessing Sofia's death, creating a red herring for the player. Amazing detail, though it should have been introduced much earlier.
+ Berhard's writing regarding his strong resentment and at the same time infatuation with Vivian was realistic and scary.
+ There were many good little details, such as being able to rule out Derrick as the writer of the threatening letters almost immediately because you can see him having written something on a typewriter in his room that you can't even officially inspect. It's very good.

- Does EVERYONE keep a diary? I feel like they took a bit of a shortcut there, assuming everyone is just keeping a diary in the exact same format and for no reason. I feel like they could have been a little more creative there, such as maybe Andrew being asked to keep a diary as part of his treatment and him mentioning that.

- It is not clear what actually ended up happening to Scott. Did Derrick actually kill him? His confession is not really a confession, so I would assume it was Bernhard, who has a bloody knife and a reason.

- Sofia's story has so much potential, but not giving her a real voice at all is just - and excuse me if I sound super woke - a painfully bad and borderline misogynistic choice. Yes, she has a voice in that she writes a short diary - but even this diary serves more for us to learn about Matthew than herself. Why did Wanda dislike her so much? Why is she so okay with carrying a baby from a man who is married, her boss, and also actively hiding her away? What was that relationship like, considering their power imbalance and the fact that Charles was so weirdly nonchalant about it in his own writing? Not giving her dimension could have been a powerful choice, considering the situation, an avenue that was sadly not taken. Instead, she appears shallow. What was her relationship to Matthew, truly? They were childhood friends, and he fancies her, but there isn't much to it other than that. Which is crazy, considering the twist of the story is HER AIDING IN HIS KILLING - TO AVENGE THE KILLINGS HE CONDUCTED TO AVENGE HER! That was also certainly a choice. I understand pushing him off the roof was thematically sound, but...was it? She broke her neck during a fall, but we only know that Trisha jumped off the roof, not her. Was the implication that the bannister broke because SHE was pushed against it in the first place, giving Trisha the opportunity to jump in the first place? Why was it never fixed? Why was that part broken, otherwise? Why kill Matthew in that manner? To avenge Trisha?

-Matthew being thrown under the bus by a town that both relies on his spiritual guidance while keeping the circumstances of Sofia's disappearance from him could have been an avenue that would have been very interesting. We are never really shown just how deep the realization of who did what to Sofia cuts, he just decides to kill Vivian after writing a few mean letters. Give me religious struggle, the man was a pastor(/priest, something tells me the writer(s) don't have a good grasp on clerical terminology lol). Give me the pain of seeing Sofia in Scott. Just give me anything. I also dislike the unrealistic idea of multiple people just murdering others without regrets. I feel like he would have experiences much worse guilt considering his actions created a chain reaction that killed his adoptive son and Trisha. He appears to be nothing but compassionate in how everyone is speaking about him, as well as his actions. But the killings were obviously premeditated and calculated, including writing random hate letters to the involved. I believe him getting caught up murdering people when confronting them with what he knows would have made much more sense; his anger and grief taking over instead of just running around killing people after inviting them to meet at the well (which is also a funny choice considering they MUST have gotten the reference and thus been aware this was about Sofia).

- The paranormal could have been introduced more creatively and in more/earlier places. Sofia just being there is kind of random lol, I feel like there could have been more places where the implication would have fit. Why did she not haunt HIM for what he did, being obviously aware of it?

- Janet Kelly. She is us, but also not us. She is a distinct character we play as, but never offers any sort of input. Why not make "us" actually "us" by never specicifying who we are apart from occupation etc.? The letter of her editor by the end as well as her letter to Dorothy also come out of left field and are very funny to me. Sir, we just solved five deaths and killed a man, and all you are telling us is that you are happy we are back at work? Come on! The letter to Dorothy was nice and all, but it was also tonally inappropriate and unempathetic lol. But that is more my personal taste.

Hat richtig Spaß gemacht! Das Ende war etwas enttäuschend, da man viel Mühe ins Rätseln gesteckt hat und es dann einfach aufgelöst wurde. Trotzdem eine sehr unterhaltsame und spannende Erfahrung ~ danke dafür!

Die Orte zu erkunden, hat richtig Laune gemacht. Die Story schmiegt sich hervorragend an die beklemmende, düstere Atmosphäre. Ich war sehr überrascht, dass es so viel zu entdecken und enthüllen gibt.
Schnappt euch Zettel und Stift und begebt euch auf eine investigative Reise...