Dead Secret Circle

I've played the game for about 4 hours, and I have to say, it's a treat. I've really enjoyed it so far. I loved the first Dead Secret game, and this takes what was great about the first game and improves on it 10x. You can move your character with WASD instead of the pseudo-point-and-click controls. The voice acting is SO much better. There are more locations, more characters, more puzzles, more secrets... It's good stuff. Check it out!

Fans of the original Dead Secret will remember its minimalistic charm, its endearing story, its gripping 'whodunnit' which made way to some 'out there' 'supernatural' plot turns. But not completely supernatural - perhaps more 'spiritual' infused with 'technological'. In short the original was a lot of fun, even though it was arguably a little overpriced for the length. Well, the sequel, Circle, takes that same charm, ramps it up to cloud 9, and turns the story from mystery thriller to psychological mystery adventure horror. If you liked the original, you will like this, it's that simple. The mouse controlled train track controls are replaced by wasd and the game is now free roaming. You are once again investigator Patricia Gable but things haven't gone too well for our intrepid heroine since the original and her life is now a struggle with her past and her mind. I'm not going to give away an ounce of the plot beyond that, but this one is absolutely intruiging, just like its predecessor. It is probably still marginally overpriced but the story will grab you if you let it, although I'd strongly suggest playing the original first. One real downside, which doesn't TRULY affect your enjoyment, is the absolutely horrible graphics. This thing looks no better than a PS2 game - it's truly dire to look at and incredibly low-budget. But I'm the world's biggest graphics snob and I don't care - I'm having a real blast with the story, the investigation, the puzzles and the psychological intrigue. If you love your thrillers, your mysteries - you could do a lot worse than this.

I absolutely loved the first game, so when I saw that a sequel was out, I bought it without a second thought. Let me just say I'm glad I got it while it was on sale. This game is a conundrum, as narrative-wise, it is brilliant. A tense, suspenseful, grim detective story filled with secret collectibles and visual tricks that will leave you terrified to continue. Mechanically, though, it's a mess. Glitches every ten minutes, black screens forcing you to restart the game, a game-breaking bug that occurs at the very end which skips you around and has the potential to spoil the ending for you; it's pretty bad. PROS: -As I said, the narrative is brilliant (up until the ending, but, I digress). It will keep you guessing all the while, and although it doesn't particularly end in a satisfying way, I definitely enjoyed sleuthing and poking around. The ideofocal plane in this game is also an improvement narratively from the first game, as you can see not just spirits pointing you in the right direction, but each room will give you an insight into the mental state of recent guests, including the player character. It's simultaneously heartbreaking and intriguing. -The voice acting is far improved from the first one. -Using WASD to move is a definite improvement over the first game's point-and-click style, and really helps to provide a sense of 'being' in the game's environment, as opposed to just being a head on rails. -The atmosphere is incredible. I was terrified the entire time, not knowing when the killer would show up, never knowing when I would turn around and experience a hallucination, never knowing when or where I was safe. CONS: -As I said, this game does not function well mechanically. The screen will constantly glitch into a black abyss when switching scenes, the dream world seems ot be especially glitchy, leading to players getting stuck in it with no way out, and upon quitting the game and trying to continue to maybe reload from an earlier point, the game will instead throw you into a part of the game that you shouldn't be in, leading to spoilers, and having no idea where to go to find your next objective. -The environment is so cluttered and messy that it becomes difficult at times to figure out where you can and can't walk. -The puzzles, while some of them are decently made, are for the most part just big time-wasters that both are not fun to solve, and make absolutely no sense why they are where they are in the game. For example, why in the world does one of the tenants keep the door to their art studio locked? Why would a different tenant construct a macguffin hunt in order to find a key to one of the rooms in his apartment, when in that room is a dying family member who regularly has seizures and could die at any moment? There's suspension of disbelief, and then there's wasting the player's time. -Good GOD could the player character move ANY slower? There's no sprint button either, so you are stuck at a freaking snail's pace the entire time, making chases uninteresting and movement from one place to another absolutely dreadful to go through. -The ending sucks and leaves you unsatisfied after 5+ hours of trying to deduce who the killer is, only to not have you solve it but rather have it solved for you. CONCLUSION: Skip it. Play the first game. It does everything good that this game does without the cons of game-breaking glitches and ungodly slow movement speed. If you've played the first one, you are not missing much. 3.75/10

[b][i]Review copy provided by developer[/i][/b] Dead Secret was a pleasant surprise, a solid murder mystery that managed to ramp up the creeps despite a touchy interface and simple graphics. It was the kind of one-off game you wouldn’t really expect to get a sequel, much less one that improves the formula as much as this one does. Indeed, Dead Secret Circle takes the most interesting parts of the first game’s plot and builds a new mystery around them, as well as refining the systems that allow you to unravel the tale. If not for some bugs and a weaker ending this would be an ideal follow-up, but even those small points leave it a big improvement over the original. Patricia Gable’s part in revealing the truth behind Harris Bullard’s death got her the ticket out of small-time reporting she wanted, landing her in Chicago at a major newspaper. But her adventure at that remote homestead changed her in some very dramatic ways, and we catch up to her in 1971 during a leave of absence from her gainful employment. She’s having trouble sleeping, haunted by visions of the Laughing Man, the current serial killer du jour in town. Realizing her dreams may have a tangible connection to the case, she begins investigating a condemned apartment building at the center of the grisly murders and quickly finds herself caught up in a new conspiracy tied to her old terrors. Dead Secret Circle is very much a continuation of Dead Secret, so much so that the first scene will spoil the murderer’s reveal from the original just a matter of minutes in. If you want the full experience, by all means put this one aside until you finish Dead Secret because I can assure you it will be worth it. This sequel gets a lot of mileage out of Patricia’s traumas and the peculiarities of the original case, and you’ll get plenty of big, revelatory moments if you’re equally familiar. It’ll also help you appreciate the growth in design shown here, because the comparison between how the two play is stark. Dead Secret was a first-person point-and-click adventure on rails, heavy on puzzles and reading but less so on exploration. The biggest step Dead Secret Circle takes away from that is making the game freely first-person, allowing you to explore the apartment building at your leisure. The other big innovation is the presence of NPCs to interview and negotiate with, something the the first game didn’t need but feels like a welcome addition here. Those folks foolish enough to inhabit a condemned building with a serial killer are colorful indeed, with larger-than-life personalities and plenty of secrets to uncover. The conspiracies run deep, and you’ll be unearthing loads of details that aren’t even needed to nail the killer. Speaking with the cast takes up a significant portion of the game, enough that I think the puzzling may have suffered as a result. You’ll still have plenty of brain-teasers to get past, but they’ve definitely been de-emphasized compared to the first. Instead there are loads of absolutely charming collectibles to find, most parodies of 70s-era pulp novels and magazines. These provide extra incentive to explore and make the game world feel more lived-in. It’s not a perfect facade though, mainly because of some major graphical issues that pop up from time to time. It’s not uncommon for ceilings to vanish and reveal the shapes beyond, or interaction points to get impossibly finicky. At least one scripted sequence broke for me and had to be reloaded, and the sound would cut out every once in awhile. Stability’s really the only big gripe against the game, except maybe words about the ending being a little too jarring and concise. I thoroughly enjoyed my investigations here from start to finish, wandering the decidedly 70s halls and piecing together clues. Don’t misunderstand, it’s not a serious detective title like The Painscreek Killings or something, but it’s absolutely a fun journey to work through. With improved graphics and voice acting, wonderfully creepy NPCs, and a solid story to tie it all together, Dead Secret Circle is a great choice for a thriller with plenty of lore and scares to bounce between. Did you enjoy this review? I certainly hope so, and I certainly hope you'll check out more of them at https://goldplatedgames.com/ or on my [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/11322459/]curation page[/url]!

Yes! Absolutely, this is an excellent detective story with paranormal elements. But wait a moment - did you play the first game? If you're reading this but haven't yet played [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/402260/Dead_Secret/][i]Dead Secret[/i] [link][/url], [b]stop reading now[/b] and go check out the original game first. [i]Dead Secret Circle[/i] is a direct sequel and flooded with spoilers. The solution to the first mystery is recapped out loud during the protagonist's opening monologue! Don't ruin a brilliant story by looking at the sequel too early. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/and_stay_out/recommended/402260]My review of the first game [link][/url]. (tl;dr: it's great.) --------- You've played the first game? Great, let's proceed. What do we have here? A darn good sequel, with substantial improvements. Mechanics. The most obvious difference here is in the control scheme. [i]Secret[/i] has been upgraded, from the first game's VR-centric "click to move" system, to a nice comfortable "first person shooter" WASD style. Although it has no impact on the game content, the general feeling of freedom and control is much appreciated. Conversation! Unlike the original game, which focused entirely on heroine Patricia Gable's observations and internal musings, [i]Circle[/i] has a lively cast of characters who aren't shy about inviting you in for tea and a nice long talk. Previously, you could only get to know people through diaries, laboratory notes, correspondence, etc. That is all still here, along with the wonderful addition of speaking to them directly. You'll meet a diverse group of colorful personalities in the condemned apartment building: a grumpy maintenance man, an angry single mother, a mysterious old woman, and others, each with their own (hidden?) agendas and talking points. Although you have some choice about what to say, dialogues don't appear to branch meaningfully, and you will likely get the information you need either way. One place where they took a (small) step backwards in my opinion is during the "thrill" scenes, in which you must escape a pursuer. These scenes are just as tense as before, but don't really go anywhere. In the previous game, escaping a threat always meant advancing the story in some way. ([spoiler]Now I'm outside and I have the option to flee the scene or sneak back in through a new entrance. I was chased into the basement and locked myself in; now I have to try to escape. And of course, I hid inside the Lunar Dream Apparatus! What's going to happen to me?[/spoiler]) Here, you simply pick a hiding place and hope it's the right one, then wait for a while. If you picked correctly and don't get caught, you step out of hiding and go back to what you were doing like nothing happened, cheapening the value of these scenes. So what about the story? As before, the narrative is lovingly crafted and doesn't spoon-feed you a solution. You will learn secrets about all the building's residents and be gently guided to an understanding of the whole situation, and again as before, at the end of the game you are called upon to commit to a final accusation against one of your many suspects. To be honest, I was less enamored with the finale this time than in the first game ... I felt that the buildup of the story was more interesting than the resolution. I [i]was[/i] able to correctly guess who was guilty, but it was more by process of elimination than by confident interpretation of evidence. Still, this was my first playthrough, and I hope that on repeat viewings, I will see things that make the rationale more obvious. Speaking of obscurity ... The first [i]Dead Secret[/i] revolved around the heroine's subconscious, partly for thematic reasons and partly as a way to allow the developers to insert gameplay hints without breaking the setting; Gable has bizarre dreams and sees waking visions which help her navigate the mystery. Here that strangeness is cranked up even higher, as we find Gable has been living with this altered consciousness for years - in fact it is a primary plot point - and your voyage through her surreal mental landscape begins quite early. Many scenes are non-literal in nature, which is wonderfully atmospheric, stylish, and thought-provoking. However, this does lead to some frustration when trying to understand the story more concretely. Developer Robot Invader's writer Chris Pruett is rightfully proud of his work, particularly its consistency and conscientious reasoning for everything that happens. He refuses to explain anything, leaving we players to figure out what it all means. On the one hand, it's obviously laudable to intend a work to stand and make sense on its own, and it is indeed immensely satisfying when the audience can figure things out; on the other I feel it is unfair in this case due to the deliberate (and quite forceful) blurring of dreams and reality. Well and good to say that the story is built on a rock solid foundation - but when that foundation is hidden by blatantly magical devices, it's rather biased to expect the audience to be able to penetrate to the truth. "I wrote something on this card and it makes sense to me, and I'll never tell you what it is, and if you can't guess it that's your fault. Start by flapping your arms and flying to the Cotton Candy Valley. It makes sense! Honest!" Ehhhh, OK. I note that after two years, apparently [b]no one[/b] has figured out what it all means in [i]Dead Secret[/i]. One might conclude that the truth of that game will never be known, so setting the bar even higher this time around is a bit disappointing. Disappointing ... and, I have to admit, intriguing. [i]Circle[/i]'s runtime is about twice that of its predecessor; 6 hours of thorough investigation saw me to the end. As before, those hours are absolutely packed with content, and when I wasn't actively solving puzzles, conversing, or reading clues, the excellent music and decaying environment absolutely drenched me in the beautifully sinister ambience. Moment to moment, there is no better way to spend your gaming time. Buy this full price, support these developers, and be prepared to pay attention. If you're smart, maybe you'll make the right decision at the end, like I did; if you're smarter, you just might figure out some of the story I missed.

Take this as a cautionary tale about getting what you wish for. After playing the first game everybody probably thought that they wanted free movement instead of point-and-click positioning. Now the whole thing feels like you're swimming underwater. I've never seen anyone move so slowly. That girl from Through the Woods would be up and halfway back down a mountain trail by the time this one made it to the second floor. Does it work better in VR? Not for me of course, because I'd be throwing up; but maybe for other people. They've also opened up the cast of characters. Instead of just you and the killer, now there are about half a dozen people involved. Like the walking, it's not necessarily an improvement. They range from annoying to really annoying and don't bring much extra depth. Sure, they all have some connection to the plot, but most of the information they provide is peripheral to the main issue of stopping the killer. Unlike the first game, which kept you guessing for a long time about what kind of story it was going to be, this one is more of a straight-up whodunit from the start. Problem is, the answer is pretty obvious. I'm the worst at figuring these things out and even I saw it coming a mile away. Other than that it's pretty much the same. The reporter element with the notebook and all that is still there even though you're not officially a reporter anymore. It was strange that the transformation the main character underwent in the last game didn't come into play here very explicitly. I figured she'd be hallucinating constantly and have her head in the spirit world half the time, but it seems like she's mostly just haunted by dreams. Seeing as this is a direct sequel, they do a decent job with the continuity overall. Understated little touches, like the taped correspondence with your psychiatrist or the books on the shelf written by that kid from the previous game, bring you up to speed without beating you over the head with too much exposition. You do feel for this girl and what she's going through, which is maybe why I'm charitably disposed toward these games despite their flaws. It's sad to see her reduced to a paranoid shut-in, considering how fundamentally brave she is. I don't know about you, but I'd have made it to the first time that thing in the mask was standing behind me in the mirror and then I'd be out the door like a cartoon with a trail of smoke behind me. Oh, that @%#^!*& monkey's back, too, so watch out. You can find more indie game reviews at [url=https://oddlittlegames.com] oddlittlegames.com [/url] or visit my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34514756/] curator page. [/url] Thanks, and enjoy!

I liked this game a lot. It was a mystery with what I would classify as a horror-light theme. It is more suspense thriller with some blood/murders than a gory horror blood splatter fest. I do recommend playing Dead Secret first if you haven’t already. It not necessary to have played it to enjoy Dead Secret Circle, but you play as the same person who is a bit traumatized by the previous story and one of those characters shows up in this one. Though both games involve solving a mystery, Dead Secret Circle is more of a whodunnit and has an oddball cast of characters that you will meet and investigate in order to solve the case of the Laughing Man serial murders. There are a lot of collectibles. You collect clues in each of the apartments, as well as comic book pieces, audio tapes, and a lovely collection of Heather Oats mystery novels. Heather Oats is a twisted version of Nancy Drew and those familiar with Nancy will hopefully get a laugh reading excerpts from books written about what appears to be her evil twin! I liked solving the many puzzles in the game. Some are game related to open doors or caches, etc. and require paying attention to clues you find and applying them to the puzzle at hand. Some puzzles are optional. Whenever you come back to your apartment, you will find puzzle books lying around the house. Feel free to pick them up and solve them if you wish or toss them aside and go to sleep. About those action sequences! If memory serves, there are 4 of them in an 8 hour game. Generally, they consist of finding a good place to hide until danger passes. I think because the game was designed for VR, there is no running. So even though the adrenaline is flowing, the threat is looming, you will casually walk to find a good place to hide. I am not a good action player by any stretch of the imagination, and I was able to conquer all of them in both Dead Secret and Dead Secret Circle. If I can do it, you most likely can too. I really enjoyed this game. It had a combination of tense, scary moments along with some fun ones with lots of things to collect and puzzles to solve. The story held my interest and I would love to see Patricia back solving another mystery in a third game now that she is able to begin writing again. I do recommend this game.

Bought the bundle. First game worked perfectly and loved it. Played in VR on oculus quest 2 with link cable (bought on steam). Second game (secret circle) does not work at all! I have a good setup (Half Life Alyx works perfectly), but the game is just not finished. Opening the game, black screen, only sound, no menu to see (which I know there is after trying the game on flatscreen instead of VR), and after this I float in a lift, glitches all over the place, textures floating... Not playable. And sadly not refundable according to steam since I played more than 2 hours (on the first game of the bundle!!!) They forget to look that I could NOT play the second game??? Hope to get a solution soon.

Let me start by saying I loved the first game, so I came into this game hoping for a lot. I was mostly disappointed. + Essentially a 3d Point & Click adventure game + A few interesting scenes - Lots of graphical bugs -- lots - Story is a mess - 95% of all story is delivered via random diary pages you find EVERYWHERE. Including inside kitchen cupboards. - Dumb ending with a deus ex machina - PAINFULLY SLOW walk speed

Buggy mess. Unfinishable due to terminal bugs around an hour before the end. Good up until this chapter. Not even refundable. Avoid this crap.