The Painscreek Killings

I love the setup, but this game has issues. I can overlook some jank, like poorly implemented audio loops and samples resulting in obvious popping, or the very rudimentary quality of pretty much all of the audio/visuals/controls, or weird little control foibles like having an "unlock" action prompt that doesn't actually work and tells you to separately open your inventory and "use" a key instead of just having the prompt check if the key is in your inventory. What I can't overlook is the universally poor quality of the writing. This type of game is built on reading a lot of notes/articles/clues. When every sentence I read in-game has errors or is just written very awkwardly, it's immersion breaking at best. I read a journal in the sheriff's office that seemed like it was written by a child, but it turned out the actual sheriff wrote it. Every article or flier I've read has had obvious mistakes. There are already some confusing narrative inconsistencies (everyone started leaving the town as a result of the murder a few months ago, but also it had already been happening for years?). And when it isn't immersion breaking, it is actually detrimental to the puzzles. For instance, the first proper puzzle that I found was a dartboard, and not only did it immediately strike me as an "escape room" style of puzzle that didn't make sense in a more diegetic mystery game about exploring an abandoned town, but the explanation that came with it was misleading and confusing about what the developers wanted you to do. A quick check on the Steam forums showed wide agreement that this puzzle was badly designed overall and messed up by the way they wrote the "darts rules" poster next to it. If the first proper puzzle I run into is this bad it does not bode well for the game overall, especially when I'm already wading through low quality jank. I'd love for a game like this to work, but this just isn't it.

Melhor jogo de investigação que eu já joguei em minha vida. A história é super envolvente, e desde o início você desconfia de todos os personagens envolvidos, não há como adivinhar o desfecho logo de cara. É um misto de felicidade, tristeza, medo e angustia. Queria encontrar mais jogos assim, envolvente, mas está difícil. Nota 10/10

This is one of those times I wish there was a "neutral" review option, because this game isn't bad. Some might even really enjoy it. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people. I really enjoyed The Roottrees are Dead and that led me to Painscreek. I got far enough into the story to figure out a good deal of the plot, but some of the clues are just too obscure, complex or well-hidden that there's just no way to do it without the help of a walkthrough. What makes the Roottrees enjoyable is that all the information is right there at your fingertips, whereas Painscreek involves a hell of a lot of walking around the town trying to find clues. Again, some might enjoy this. I didn't. Ultimately, I liked the idea, I liked the story and the mystery and the characters, but it was just too hard, too slow and ultimately caused me to give up after 10 hours invested. I wanted to like it, but I just didn't.

TLDR ; Really good game worth the price if you're the kind of person to take time to read and understand the mystery. it has a little problem of having "missing one piece to further the story" but I've made it far without any help at all. Definitely a one of a kind experience, definitely for someone who barely runs horror/mystery games its amazing how the 0 help from anywhere instantly immerses you into the game like the first few minutes of you testing things out and seeing the map quickly turns into a detective flick the moment you start picking up clues and getting progress in which was honestly amazing. It does have a couple difficulties with progress but that's a problem the way the "0 help" has on its side hence resulting in missing a small piece to open up the story basically, but as to how everything is made it feels honestly very satisfying getting to each discovery.

Небольшая игра на поиск предметов для продвижения, нашел ключ ради ключа чтобы понять что убийца садовник. "Спойлера в отзыве нет, не бойтесь" :) В игре есть атмосфера заброшенного городка-призрака после случившихся умертвлений граждан данного города, вы играете за журналиста которого наняли для раскрытия преступления, убийства жены самого мэра городка. Весь сюжет основан на письмах, фотографиях, дневниках и вырезок с газет. Для такой игры достаточное количество "секретов", сюжет если сидеть обдумывать кто же убийца по найденным предметам может на самом деле привести к ложным обвинениям если не найти маленькие доказательства. Мотивы есть у всех, скелеты в шкафу в той или иной мере есть у каждого в этом городке. Но меня больше интересует не сколько главное задание "раскрыть убийство Вивиан" а то сколько еще произошло бед в этом городке. Если так посмотреть, убийство жены мэра это лишь верхушка айсберга которая маячит перед глазами. Всю игру вы будете бегать туда-сюда, в поисках ключей, предметов и текста. На самом деле игра приятная, есть мини скример даже, атмосфера этому способствует) В общем хоть это и не Агата Кристи но своего внимания заслуживает. Любителям данного жанра советую поиграть, всеж у игры не плохо написан сюжет, я даже проникся всей тленностью ситуаций в игре хотя есть сомнительные моменты в поворотах сюжета. Я до последнего был уверен что убийца либо либо а тут вон оно как)

gotta be my favorite investigative game ever ngl. played it with my friends watching and taking notes, we had a lot of fun talking about what was going on and our theories etc, it was rly awesome!

This is NOT a detective / deduction game. It is a linear adventure, where you freely walk in a big location while looking for keys and notes. Not worth it.