The visual novel "Mystery at Stonyford Bridge" is a well-written, emotional conspiracy / teen detective story with a focus on friendship and human relations. You play as Grey, who returns from his first university term to celebrate Christmas with his family and friends in a small, peaceful town where nothing bad ever happens. Two days later he learns that his closest friend, a girl with a cheerful and optimistic personality, has apparently committed suicide. Grey and his friends have doubts and investigate on their own, which gradually spins out of control.
I found the plot very interesting. There is constant suspense and mystery due to two conflicting notions - one is the suspicion about a conspiracy to cover something up, and the other is that Grey might just be going crazy. There is clear evidence that there isn't everything right with Grey, but there are also many indicators that there is indeed something odd going on in this town. I developed several theories during my playthrough, but still got surprised by how everything fit together in the end.
The game's biggest strength is its writing. While I (sadly) find most visual novels rather boring due to broken English, vapid writing, unimaginative stories, and lack of choice, this one really shines. The writer shows excellent command of English, the dialogue (especially between the friends) flows naturally, and the tone is skillfully changed between thoughtful, sad, humorous, suspenseful, and emotional. The characters have (mostly) believable feelings, motivations, and depth.
Several of the more emotional scenes affected me quite deeply, which I mean as a compliment to the writer. Unfortunately though, I can't really talk about the details without spoiling parts of the plot. On the flipside, in some moments the plot progression felt a little forced, and the game's two main premises could be seen as not very realistic. But personally I didn't have any problems to suspend my disbelief - some parts of the story felt a bit far-fetched, but they do form a coherent whole.
There aren't many choices in the game - I haven't counted, but there may be about 12 scenes where you have to decide between up to 3 mutually exclusive options in each. The choices felt meaningful to me, but after only one playthrough, I can't say for sure. The game also gives you several "fake choices", i.e. scenes where your choice does not seem to matter, or where you can use all the options consecutively. Additionally, the game gives you a few "investigative" scenes, where you point-and-click on various interactive objects until you find the one that progresses the story. Those I found rather weak since they don't require any thought - you just move the mouse around and click on everything that lights up, until the story continues.
There is a nifty "undo" function that can take you several scenes back if you regret a choice you made, and you have 8 save slots available, which helps to explore different outcomes.
The game's graphics look a bit amateurish, but not bad. I really appreciate when a visual novel depicts people as, well, people instead of grossly disfigured creatures bound to collapse under the weight of their mammaries. I didn't like the oversized eyes of several characters, but at least they have noses, which is more than many other visual novels care to deliver.
All things considered, I think Mystery at Stonyford Bridge is a captivating, serious, well-written story that deserves much more attention than it is currently getting. Unfortunately it's hard to explain why I liked it so much without spoiling important parts of the plot, but I do recommend it to people who like stories about the human condition in relatable settings. At the time of this writing it's on sale for just $1 - at that price, if anything of what I said appeals to you, there's really no reason not to give it a shot. ;)
