The Painscreek Killings
WHO IS THIS GAME FOR This game is for anyone who likes to read, loves good stories and enjoy whodunit detective games. The game plays 10 to 20 hours on average, depending on the player's playstyle. STORY As Janet, a young and upcoming journalist, you have 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. GAMEPLAY The Painscreek Killings borrows mechanics from a walking simulator but goes beyond it by making the players think. It mimics real world investigations with logical puzzles that do not hold your hand, allow you to explore wherever your investigation lead, and a captivating story waiting to be discovered.
Steam User 42
10/10
Get this game. Don't read any walkthroughs, feeling stuck? Go back to the places you've been, search for more clues. Take notes, you'll need them. And good luck, soon you'll know everything about Vivian and her story.
Steam User 19
As a former Nancy Drew game lover, this game offered the best sleuthing experience I've had in a while! I thoroughly enjoyed the need to take notes (I took about 6 pages!), and I thought the story was well done. My one suggestion to any future gamer is DOUBLE-CHECK DRAWERS. Make sure you're not leaving anything behind! I spent a lot of unnecessary time retracing my steps because it is EASY to overlook clues/helpful tools. That said, I HIGHLY recommend others get this game, especially since it's on sale.
Steam User 14
As a person who was stuck in the game for 3 fruitless hours because missed 1 ******* bench but complete it and love it anyway, I take a risk to suggest why you could like/dislike this.
You could be a fan for following reasons:
You like scrupulously exploring each room and alley in a search of clues and you are ready to make notes about it because you definitely need it here. As I said, I missed 1 thing, but what an incredible feeling it was when I finally found it!
You prefer stories about complicated relationships and skeletons in the cupboard, because your main goal here is to build a full picture of each character’s circumstances and probable reasons for killing. There are not so many straight answers, but if you find all the information, the story in your mind will look very clear and complete (thanks authors).
You are searching for a story and an atmosphere because the tense that you are not alone in this town and harmonic storytelling are strong sides of the game but not puzzles and…
Reason why you might dislike this game:
You are waiting for puzzles. Here are two types of riddles: guess where a key is and guess what a safe code is. Sounds boring? Trust me, you will want to know who the killer is so bad, that you will explore each town corner in search of keys harder than the pockets of your winter coat in search of coins. But this is not about puzzles anyway.
You are that type of person who have a butthurt when you are stuck and need to explore the same location for the fifth time, but thoughts about hints on the internet cause moral outrage. Sooner or later you will be in a deadend, and in that case you will leave the game and never return, because you need to keep in mind all things for investigation.
You prefer ambiguous storylines with the possibility to make a mistake like in Sherlock Holmes for example. This is a direct story without any option. You can choose a door that you want to open, but the main line stays the same.
Steam User 18
It is one of the best detective games available. You are largely left on your own in a walking simulator-style game, with little to no hand-holding. If you have ADHD like I do, you'd need paper, a pen, or your trusty iPad to keep yourself on track. I had to restart the game several times because I was so distracted with the details in this game that I forgot an important detail or two!
I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. This is the most detective game out there, and at times it made me feel that I was the detective wandering the streets of Painscreek, attempting to solve the murder mystery at my hands. Without a doubt, my current favourite detective game. This is not to claim that the game is without flaws. Sadly, this game's accessibility issues are the only things that bother me. It is so unbelievably bright that I had to make multiple tweaks to my monitor and NVidia control panel in order for it to stop burning my eyes. Still, it was difficult because the combination of brightness sensitivity and motion sensitivity left me with unpleasant migraines and motion sickness on multiple occasions.
It was definitely the most single-player game that I couldn't modify to my needs. Playing in the mornings as soon as I woke up was the only strategy that worked for me, and it is what I relied on to complete this game. If you're anything like me, I recommend taking frequent pauses for your eyes. I know I struggled with it, but I still highly recommend it.
Steam User 12
A decent mystery game that is rough around the edges.
Be prepared for a lot of backtracking and the "investigation" aspect of the game essentially boils down to reading diaries and looking for keys/combinations, but the underlying story is pretty good (although a little spoon-fed in the final act).
The "true" ending consists of an action section which feels disconnected from the rest of the game and there are a few things that should probably have been patched like the game's sprint speed being far too slow and actually changing between locations.
Overall I would rate the game as a 7/10. While it starts strong and falls away near the end, the game has a certain charm to it that kept me engaged. Well worth the price if you get it on sale.
Steam User 14
This is one of my favourite games that I've ever played. The story was great, full of twists and turns. It took me a while to figure some things out. The puzzles were challenging at times but not too challenging. I got obsessed with this game and finding out who the killer was. The game and clues were really well paced and I had so much fun exploring all of the locations. If you like mysteries, thrillers, and enjoy being a detective, this is the game for you.
Steam User 10
Janet Kelly is a journalist taking on an assignment on behalf of her co-worker to investigate a cold case in a ghost town that's soon to be auctioned off and re-developed. Before any evidence is lost for good, Janet makes way to Painscreek to try and solve the mystery of why, Vivian, the wife of the former mayor, was butchered in her own driveway. Things go downhill when she comes to a bone-chilling realization; news doesn’t get very far from town – and there is far more to this murder than it initially appears.
8-10 Hours to Complete, The Painscreek Killings is an Investigation walking sim where you slowly explore a ghost town to solve a murder. An semi open-world with many explorable areas, investigate people around the victim by exploring their homes and workplaces; reading newspapers, articles, journals, and notebooks left behind and take photos for evidence. Break into cars and investigate the hospital, there are a lot of places I’m surprised the game let me get into. There is one jumpscare at the hospital when the electricity suddenly cuts out (no enemies, and you can turn it back on.) and another at the end of the game, but otherwise, it’s very relaxing and go-at-your-own-pace. You can continue playing the game after you beat it, so backtracking is an option if you missed anything. I'm surprised at how much I loved playing The Painscreek Killings, and I hope to find and play similar games in the future.