Mystery – Stately Play

Return of the Obra Dinn sails onto Switch this October

October 3, 2019 David Neumann 1

PC/Mac, Switch, PS4, Xbox One of the most unique gaming experiences I’ve ever had came from the prodigious mind of one Lukas Pope. Of course, I’m talking about the horror-simulation Papers, Please which I played way back in 2014 when it arrived on iOS. Completely unique and terrifying in how it roped you into hurting others to save yourself as you worked in the slowly grinding gears of an dystopian bureaucracy. It seems fitting that the next game that gripped me as much as that title also came from Lukas Pope in the form of Return of the Obra Dinn. An incredible mystery game that managed to be unlike anything before or since. If you’ve been waiting to play Obra Dinn for some reason, your time has come. On October 18 we can expect it on Switch, Xbox, and PS4.

Return of the Obra Dinn is a goddamned miracle

November 9, 2018 David Neumann 2

PC/Mac • I went into Return of the Obra Dinn with high expectations, stemming from its designer, Lucas Pope. You might know Mr. Pope as the creator of the thought-provoking and terrifying Papers, Please, a game that crawled into your skull and stuck with you well after you closed your laptop. Return of the Obra Dinn does the same, and it’s one of the best experiences I’ve had on my laptop in a long time.

Mansions of Madness coming to digital as standalone game

April 17, 2018 David Neumann 4

PC/Mac • Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition began life as a digital marvel, removing the not-very-fun role of game master and putting it in the hands of an iPad or whatever other digital device you had sitting at the table. Thus, up to four players could play as a team while the mystery, map, and whatnot were held under wraps by a GM that didn’t care if you took a break to eat or talked about the latest baseball game while exposition was divvied out. It even allowed for friendless losers, like myself, to play Mansions of Madness solo, which worked better than I could have ever expected. Since its release, there have been many updates to the companion app, adding new mysteries and expansion packs. Today we learned that Mansions of Madness is getting a new digital form. It has nothing to do with the current board game+app configuration, instead it’s a completely new game that will drop you into the Mansions of Madness world in glorious 3D.

Mysterium expanding with Secrets and Lies

November 22, 2017 David Neumann 3

iOS, Android, PC • Come. Sit. Don’t be nervous. Today we will be recalling our dearly departed who…what’s that? There’s a crack in my crystal ball? Yeah, well, I picked that up at a Ren faire back in ’04 and, after too many leather mugs of Miller Lite, tried to dunk with it on the hoop in my driveway. Still looks kind of neat, though, right? Anyway, we won’t be using the crystal ball today. Join hands and close your eyes, today we will communicate with the spirits of the dead! Think of your loved ones. See them in your mind’s eye. THERE! I see them! Wait…it looks like Asmodee Digital and they’re bringing us a message. What is it, spirit? An expansion for Mysterium? Secrets and Lies? Available now? They’re fading…fading. Ok, that will be $20.

The Witness puzzles its way onto the App Store

September 21, 2017 David Neumann 6

iOS Universal, PC/Mac • It’s been a long time since we’ve had a pure puzzle game worth talking about land on the App Store. The Witness, Jonathan Blow‘s puzzle opus, almost fits. It’s definitely a puzzle game, but it’s also big, beautiful, and mysterious. It feels like there’s much more to do than just solving the maze-like puzzles, but when you get down to it, there really isn’t. It’s kind of weird, but I keep loading it up and exploring the world so there must be something there.

Review: Thimbleweed Park

March 30, 2017 David Neumann 3

PC/Mac/Linux • Nostalgia is a tricky beast. Some creators will use it like bad wallpaper, covering the cracks of their leaky foundation while trying to remind us of the wallpaper in our childhood bedroom as if that would make us ignore what’s underneath. Other creators will use it to enhance the story or characters by dropping us deeper into whatever it is they’ve crafted. Last year’s X-Files reboot was the former, Stranger Things was the latter. Nostalgia can only take you so far, and if the product isn’t good to begin with then nostalgia won’t suddenly make it worth your time. Thimbleweed Park drips with nostalgia. In fact, they could have called it “Nostalgia: The Game” and I would have nodded and thought it was a good choice. Thimbleweed Park exists solely to remind you of classic point-and-click adventures from the 80’s and 90’s, especially those from LucasArts, but it does it with a deft hand and excellent new mechanisms, making it far more Stranger Things than X-Files. This is nostalgia done right.

Stop tormenting us…could there be an enhanced Planescape on the way?

March 27, 2017 David Neumann 4

iOS, Android, PC/Mac • Over the past four years, Beamdog has made it their mission to resurrect classic Bioware Infinity Engine RPGs on both PC and mobile. They’ve already released both Baldur’s Gate and it’s nearly perfect sequel, Shadows of Amn. They’ve even cranked out the combat-focused Icewind Dale. What’s missing is the one Infinity Engine title that everyone [to be honest, BG2 was always my favorite. -ed.] wants, Planescape: Torment. Is that about to change?

Sherlock Holmes gets Her Story-like mystery in Ink Spotters 1: The Art of Deduction

February 15, 2017 David Neumann 0

iOS Universal • One of the most unique games I’d ever played was Her Story released back in 2015. The “game” consisted of a myriad of video clips that you had to piece together in order to figure out the entire story. There was no winning or losing, just learning more and more about this rather interesting woman who was being questioned by the police for…something. Designer Sam Barlow has said that he’s working on a follow-up, but we haven’t heard of when Her Story 2 might actually find its way to our tablets. Yesterday, Three Story House released a game I wasn’t aware of that brings a lot of that Her Story vibe back to our iPads and adds a healthy dose of Sherlock Holmes along the way. It’s called Ink Spotters 1: The Art of Deduction and, as someone who loved Her Story and also devours anything Sherlockian, color me intrigued.