The Incident at Galley House

Really enjoyed this mode of storytelling. Usually visual novels are boring to me with lots of just clicking through endless dialogue, but I enjoyed the mystery of piecing together when things happened and where they happened. The 3rd Act was also very satisfying as it answered a lot of questions I had at the beginning of the game. This isn't really a detective game, but you do have to do a lot of logic/reasoning in order to unveil more of the story. There aren't any puzzles other than the main game mechanic of using a special machine that unlocks more scenes in the story. Overall about 7 hours of interactive storytelling entertainment for me for less than the price of a movie ticket these days!

Excellent mystery. I really appreciated the quality of life features to help track people and events over time.

I enjoyed this game and would recommend it, but with a caveat: as some other reviews mention, this is more of a visual novel than a true puzzle game. I loved the first several hours, but once you figure out the character identities and what's going on (which for me was maybe about 1/3 of the way through), you're left to watch the rest of the story play out without much to do. I didn't really feel a sense that anything I was doing was progress- there's basic deduction required to access and watch each scene, but it's pretty straightforward. For the first 1/3 of the game, I used the notebook quite a bit, but once I hit the turning point and felt I'd "solved" it, I barely touched it again. There's also no real confirmation system like there is in Rootrees (or something like Obra Dinn/Golden Idol) which is a bit unsatisfying. With that said, as a visual novel, it's an interesting and compelling story. I really enjoyed the last act as a change of pace. The characters have depth, and its enjoyable to learn more about them as the story goes on. [spoiler] I'm not sure when everyone else figured out what was happening and the mechanism of the 'curse,' but for me, it was very shortly after the 2nd death. Which left a lot of time spent watching everyone else die one by one, as the characters run around, unable to understand or do anything about it. Which was kind of a bummer, honestly. [/spoiler]

A very tight, consistent experience that stays within a constrained format and makes the most out of it. Mechanically it reminds me of "Her Story" and "Return of the Obra Dinn", in both of which the player receives a few clues for free and then needs to figure out where to look for more. A nice touch is how the start of the game feels like stumbling through a very poorly designed tutorial, but the ending explains very exactly why and how that was the case. Even though the main theme is supernatural, the logic of the events is ironclad. Thematically, the game is more of a spooky mystery than a horror story, in case that's your worry. It does feature more than a dozen of casualties, but at the same time is an audio drama with static imagery. It's honestly impressive how much it gets done with such a modest palette of means.

Une idée de fou, un scénario digne d'un Triple A. Une belle découverte en cette année 2026. Captivant dans son concept et son histoire qui m'a mis la larme dans certains cas. Les points de vue est intéressant des deux côtés et on réfléchit encore après avoir fini le jeu. Une claque digne des meilleures histoires, quand on pense que cela s'essouffle cela repart de plus belle.

Forget everything you think you know. This game is a brilliant, Agatha Christie caliber exercise in non-linear investigation, storytelling, and mystery. While it has many of the foibles of detective games (like people being unnaturally specific in casual conversations and a few frustrating red herrings) the low-graphic approach is incredibly effective. It explores the core conceit just far enough without getting bogged down in making it make sense beyond what is needed for the story. How does this machine work? Does it even matter in the end? While I did end up brute-forcing a few of the leads, it didn't do much to derail the tension or spoil the SEVERAL big twists as the mystery unfolded. This game will surprise you, and then surprise you again.

Quite a good piece of nonlinear storytelling. The puzzle/deduction stuff ends up being a bit light, but imo the game would be worse if it were packed with head-scratchers.