The Incident at Galley House

Saw another review suggest playing with the "show connections" setting turned off for a more immersive experience. So that's what I did, and as such, I have no idea what "show connections" would have done. The gameplay loop is essentially using a machine to enter a scene from the past, listen in on what people are saying, and try to figure out who is who, where they went next, how they died, etc. The main puzzle is finding every scene and working out how everyone moved between them. In that regard, the game is certainly an "Obra Dinn"-like deduction game, but its focus is more on keeping track of everyone's movements to find out where they went next. Their identities aren't that hard to find, though, since you listen in on their conversations. You still need to roughly know who is who to find every scene, but putting the correct name or picture on anyone doesn't seem to actually matter. The game never appeared to verify any of that, so it seems to be mostly for your own benefit. I think I got everything mapped correctly. I got all the achievements, saw the credits, and the post-credits scene. So I assume I "beat" the game, as much as one can. The story just ends once you've found all the scenes, rather than giving you any final verification that every name, picture, and other detail was filled in exactly as intended. I did get stuck a few times, but whenever I properly focused on the game, I could usually find at least one more scene to go to. There are a lot of subtle hints about where people are going next, who they are going to interact with, etc. Failing that, there would normally only be one or two people left to account for, at which point I could look for mentions of them in earlier scenes or brute-force their location. For example, I once had one person left for a time slot, so I just tried them in every room until I found the correct one. Maybe there are enough clues for every single location, but I didn't spot them... It's more than possible that I missed some. Overall, I found the game interesting, but much easier than Obra Dinn. Assuming you don't abuse the "three correct answers" mechanic in Obra Dinn, which makes it a lot easier. But if you only fill in details you are certain about, then Obra Dinn is harder and more engaging. The story wasn't as impactful as I would have liked, either. There are mysteries to uncover, but those mostly add to the puzzle of figuring out what happened rather than making the story itself more interesting. For me, finding every scene was more engaging than the actual events being revealed, although the story still plays a large part in making that puzzle work. The Incident at Galley House is more of a visual novel with puzzles sprinkled in to find the next scene than an investigation-type game. I'd give it an overall score of 7/10. The concept was interesting, but the story and deductions didn't execute it well enough for a higher score. Still a good game, though.