Drops of Death

I’ve only played one route so far but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was second guessing my romantic choice all the way up to the final scene. 10/10 ready to possibly fall in love with a killer again

I really enjoyed it! Interesting plot with different endings. i think the way everything was formatted was well-done. One of the more engaging visual novel stories! :)

I have done two playthroughs of this game and I had fun each time. I love the aspect of not knowing who the killer is. I haven't accidentally dated one YET, but I'm trying lol. I love the art and I do like the ability to have different body types and pronouns. I do think Adrien lacks common sense which can be frustrating. It sucks the few times you are able to act with common sense through choices, the love interests can get upset. I also think the killer reveals are un even. Minor spoilers below: [spoiler]My first playthrough, I romanced Fawn and Edwin was the killer. It made sense and it felt cohesive. My second playthrough, I romanced Edwin and Singh was the killer. The reveal felt rushed and I still don't know why he killed the swimmers.[/spoiler] I still think it's very much worth playing it. Despite my critiques I'm excited to play again to romance both Natasha and Singh!

[i] Drops of Death [/i] is a murder mystery visual novel by Snowhaven Studios with an interesting twist that sets it apart from the rest. The killer is randomly chosen at the start of the game... and you may just end up falling in love with them! With a premise like that, I was instantly intrigued, to say the least (lol). I'd had my eyes on this visual novel for quite some time, with it sitting on my Steam Wishlist long before it actually released... And then, life got in the way and I didn't actually find the time to really delve into this visual novel the way I wanted to. Until now, that is. >:) Overall, I really enjoyed this visual novel. It was definitely on the shorter side, taking ~20 hours to complete all endings and unlock all CGs, along with collecting all possible evidence. Some of my total playtime on Steam is the result of me being AFK and [spoiler] trying to get the achievement for dying during the prologue [/spoiler]. The common route spans 3 days (Monday through Wednesday), where your choices will determine whose route you end up on. Character specific routes start on Thursday and end on Saturday, which is when most of the ending specific choices come into play. So, you really only have 3 days to get to know your (potentially murderous) beau. To be honest, I had to suspend my own disbelief once or twice at how willing Adrien was to jump into a relationship with someone they've barely known for a week - Edwin being the exception, haha. I basically just chalked it up to Adrien having lived through a traumatic experience and then trying to cope with it (mostly for my own sanity). At least the game [i] does [/i] acknowledge this at times by having Adrien muse about seeing how their budding relationship will eventually turn out. And, speaking of suspending my own disbelief... There were definitely some endings where I had a difficult time accepting the way things played out. There's something called a sunk cost fallacy and well, [spoiler] I just have a very hard time believing that the characters (especially Singh) would just surrender and turn themselves in after murdering four people. Natasha being the one exception due to her immense guilt surrounding her actions and involving Adrien [/spoiler]. I still enjoyed every last minute of it, don't get me wrong! But logically, it was a little hard to wrap my brain around, [spoiler] especially in the endings where the killer clearly had the upper hand during the confrontation [/spoiler]. The characters were all interesting (so much so that I wish we got to spend more time with them). My personal favorites were Fawn and Detective Singh. Okayyy, so maybe Fawn takes first place. I genuinely wish that her blog was real - because I would be a subscriber and frequent visitor (lol). Also, I won't lie, these two characters are my favorites in-part because of their guilty romance endings... no matter how unrealistic they may be. What can I say? I liked the premise, haha. Another point I did want to touch on, and I've noticed others have mentioned in their own reviews, is that the evidence you collect doesn't really serve much of a purpose from a gameplay standpoint. Initially, you might be lead to believe that the evidence collected will give you clues as to who the murderer is - to solve the mystery before the big reveal. It... doesn't really do that, though. The majority of the "evidence" functions purely as collectibles, mementos of certain endings and events. Yes, there are some pieces of evidence that hint at the current killer you're up against. But considering you can't really do anything with the items you collect, and some of those items are never mentioned again, they don't really serve much of a purpose outside of collection. :( [hr][/hr] [b] Pros (+) [/b] [list] [*]Character appearance options. [*]Inclusive pronouns (she/her, they/them, he/him). [*]CG gallery. [*]CG variations for each character appearance option. [*]Partial VA; including the player character (*see cons section for details). [*]Option to select the killer on subsequent playthroughs. [*]Many possible endings. [*]Skip to unread function (*see cons section for details). [*]Evidence tab; to view your collect- I mean evidence :) [/list] [b] Cons (-) [/b] [list] [*]VA for the player character is tied to the player character's appearance. [*]Skip to unread function doesn't always work as intended. [*]No endings list. [*]No quick access to history/backlog option; must be accessed through the options tab. [*]Viewing evidence while in game can sometimes cause dialogue to progress in the background. [/list] [hr][/hr] As you can see, most of my nitpicks with [i] Drops of Death [/i] were related to the minor bugs I encountered with it's UI during my 100% playthrough. The skip to unread function had a tendency to stop on text I had already viewed. This would usually happen during scene transitions or when the character sprites would move around. Once I realized this, I started clicking the skip button multiple times until I was sure the text on-screen wasn't actually skippable. It wasn't that big of a deal and I wouldn't necessarily say that it took away from my enjoyment or experience, but it did become annoying as I was constantly having to re-click the skip button while searching for all the endings. And oh boy, speaking of endings... this visual novel had a lot of them! I actually enjoyed that aspect. However, I [i] really [/i] wish the developers would have included an ending list to help players keep track of which endings they've achieved. I literally sat down with a pen and notepad, made a list (using a very helpful community guide), and crossed out endings as I completed them... just to keep myself on track. Not a big deal for a casual player, perhaps. But for completionists (like myself) who want to collect all CGs, all evidence, and see every possible ending, it can be quite the task to keep track of everything across 4 love interests and 4 killers. Another small critique I had, that was more of a personal preference, and therefore, didn't make it onto the cons list, was that some of the endings were rather short. It would have been nice to see some of the aftermath or potential consequences that followed certain endings. For example: Edwin's guilty romance ending. Spoilers ahead if you're curious... [spoiler] Adrien and Edwin flee together. The final scene is of Edwin telling Adrien that they'll live "happily ever after". He already has a place for them to live together, far away from everyone, and that it will be their own little paradise. The scene closes on a CG of the car they're in driving down the street. And that's it. We don't get any more details on what happens once they arrive at their destination; no epilogue scenes whatsoever. Based on one of Edwin's other guilty endings (the one where he drugs and kidnaps Adrien) we can deduce that this is the location he was talking about, but we never actually get to see what life would have been like there for them with Adrien as a willing participant. [/spoiler] As I said, my desire for endings with a little more substance comes down to personal preference. Considering the overall length of this visual novel [i] and [/i] the sheer amount of endings, I recognize that this probably wasn't feasible for the development team. I guess I just would've liked for the major endings (the ones that unlocked steam achievements) to be a tad bit longer than the others - just to make them feel a bit more significant. [b] Do I recommend this game? Yes. [/b] All-in-all I would give [i] Drops of Death [/i] a solid 6.5/10. It was a short but very fun visual novel. I would definitely be interested in seeing this premise expanded upon and turned into a longer, more fleshed-out experience. [i] Perhaps with a bit more emphasis placed on applying the evidence you collect. [/i] ;)

Cute game, I like the random selection element to it in regards to the killer. That makes the game feel a lot more fun and engaging. If you like dating sims and true crime this is one to check out

Such a fantastic games! Short and sweet but each play through allows for opportunity to see different lines alterations and behaviors for different characters and seeing the different route when romancing them mixed with familiar soundtracks! A pleasant time to enjoy!

If you're looking for a compelling crime story with depth... this isn't it. The writing is simple, the investigation feels like it was written by people who don't know how investigations work and for some characters, motives seem a little shaky. I laughed so hard when they [spoiler] made Adrian, a witness who only saw a hooded figure, do a police lineup. How can they determine a suspect when they never saw a face!? [/spoiler] Still, the romance aspect is cute and fun, and I did find myself sitting on the edge of my seat after making somewhat difficult choices. The ending felt a bit abrupt, but I guess that's because the killer was someone I wasn't really investing time in. I REALLY love the ability to select the killer after completing one random run, though. Also, don't expect to do any real mystery solving. Everything in the "evidence" tab is just achievements and it seems the mystery will unfold whether you aid the investigation or sort of hinder it like I did. In conclusion, if you're just looking for a cute romance game with some dark elements, I recommend it. If you're looking for Disco Elysium-tier writing, maybe pass this up.