Wolf Peak: The Case of Ruth Choi

This is by and far one of the best mystery games I've ever played. I've been trying to find another game that brought me the joy that titles like "Painscreek Killings" and "Paradise Killer" gave me and this scratched that itch and more. This game is a LOT of reading. It is basically a mystery novel that you read in any order you want. There are interrogations, search warrants, witness statements, newspaper clippings, journals and more. All in all, I'd say there is probably the equivalent of a 200 page novel here. The best part is, it's really good. Outside of a few very minor typo's (I saw maybe 3 or 4), it's all written very well and each character is consistent with their traits. The gameplay loop is very simple. You're in a room at the police station. You're investigating a cold case about the murder of "Ruth Choi" from 30 years ago. There are 6 primary suspects and it's up to you to look over the evidence to figure out who did it once and for all. You'll need to pin evidence that you find to be relevant on a board, link the evidence to people of interest and piece it all together. There is also a room full of objects seized from suspects homes that you can test for DNA, Impressions, Ballistics and more to see if there is something that was missed in the original investigation. Be careful though because there are 6 different types of testing and you can only do a max of 3 per item. There is a lot of thought required. You can end and try to convict someone at any point, but if you haven't linked enough evidence to the person you think did it, they will walk away free. This is NOT a game that you can casually just skip through and see to the end. It requires a lot of focus and note taking. I had over 135 lines of notes in a notepad file to help me piece things together and a Twitch chat full of people trying to help. Even then I still didn't quite get all the evidence I needed. This is probably the most hardcore detective sim I've ever played in the best way. Buy this without hesitation if you really want to feel like a detective and want to get absorbed in a story, there is nothing else quite like it.

Highly recommend to all my fellow true crime enthusiasts! If like me you spend your spare time listening to true crime podcasts and watching murder suspect interviews on youtube this is 100% the game for you! I really really enjoyed sitting down with a cup of tea, watching all the tapes and analysing the body language of the suspects. The font / font size / amount of text on screen at any given time is really easy on the eyes and it never felt like I was being overwhelmed with information which is an amazing achievement in this genre! The writing also does a great job of making you get tunnel vision and you really do have to sit down and look at ALL the evidence and question your own biases for your convictions which I loved. Even after convicting the correct suspect (it took me two goes!) I found myself loading up the game again and going through the evidence of all the other suspects in order to convict them and see their endings because I enjoyed the writing so much. I don't know if a game about a murder should be considered a comfort game but Wolf Peak is my new favourite cosy game for sure! :D

Good concept but messy. Writing is constantly bloated, full of errors/translation flubs?, and you get annoyed by the volume of text quickly, especially as characters take four sentences to ask one question. The arbitrary limit on testing evidence seems to punish being thorough or bad design, like how soil sample analysis is a biological test and not a chemical test or developing film is a chemical test. In the end you are left with no smoking gun to feel rewarded for your work and after a guessing game, you get a resolution that only differs in a single line of dialogue. While this may be a well crafted experience, the execution of the mechanics and writing leave it only as a let down.

The most pure detective game out there. It simply gives you an extended detailed list of information and evidence about the case and lets you tackle it and form your ideas as you go by yourself. The only feedback the game gives you is at the very end. The writing and layers of complexity to the case are excellent and I was hooked for several days trying to figure out all the small details. The only real issue I ran into was the forensic analysis system, as there were a couple types of tests you could use that were very ambiguous/difficult to understand, and some evidence was on places that you couldn't reasonably put together without guessing. This wouldn't have been as much of a problem if it didn't limit you to 3 tests, so you didn't get the opportunity to properly experiment. Personally I'd recommend making a copy of your save game just before you start doing any tests to avoid having to start all over later on. (To the devs, it would be great if the restriction on testing was removed after you've attempted to convict one of the suspects) In spite of the mechanical issues, this is still maybe the best detective game I've played to date, and I can't wait to see what the developer comes out with next - an absolute must buy.

It's mind-blowing to me that this game has gone under the radar. If you're into detective games, this is easily one of the best. Dropped into a detective's office with all the evidence from a cold case, it's up to the player which threads to follow. I was hooked by the concept from the very beginning, but the narrative gets a lot deeper as you see how much each suspect's story overlaps and conflicts with one another, and how the evidence contradicts jumping to the easiest conclusion. Without spoiling anything, I had one suspect in particular pegged as a shoe-in for the murderer, only to realize an hour or so later, there's no way they could've actually done it. I found this game hard to put down until I finally solved the case. Highly recommend it to anyone who likes true crime, detective games, or murder mysteries.

I decided to buy and try out this game since it seemed perfect for a rainy weekend and boy I was right. I've been having my morning coffee & breakfast going through evidence and enjoying my time with the game. The game might feel overwhelming at first but you go through the evidence in your own pace without any time-pressure and suddenly you will find yourself deeply immersed into the events and 8+ hours have gone past without you realizing. It's a very interesting game and definitely something I would recommend for people interested in the genre!

Enjoyable detective game that focuses on solving the case through deductive reasoning. You are provided with most of the information from the beginning (interview tapes, evidence, case files...). There is the option to gain new insights from said evidence (after all, you are working on a cold case and forensics has moved on) though you are limited in your options, so choose wisely. The dialogue is well-written, the case itself intriguing. The music helps to set the mood. My only complaint is that it is rather difficult to rule out suspects as there are quite a few red herrings and it isn't too difficult to build a valid case against an innocent party. If you enjoy detective games with little hand-holding (think Painscreek Killings) you are in for a treat.

I recommend this game but with a heavy asterisk. You might get frustrated with it and bounce off hard. The first frustration I ran into was the options menu or lack of important options in there. There was no audio adjustment, so I had to manually turn down my audio when I played the game. The second is the lack of mouse sensitivity slider. It's incredibly frustrating when I'm whipping around at such a high speed because I can barely control myself. I also had to turn on vsync to not have the game wildly generate worthless frames and start heating up my pc. Before I turned it on, the FPS counter was in the high hundreds or thousands and I could hear my PC fans whirring. After I turned on vsync? Kept at a solid 60 fps and the fans turned quiet(er). The final frustration came from the evidence testing. Some of the tests are obvious, some of them are not. I honestly used a guide to find everything just so I didn't feel like I was wasting my time to pick the right ones. I found the investigation into the story interesting. I enjoyed reading everything and looking at all the evidence and putting things together interesting. I'm a bit mixed on presentation of the various suspects. There are so many red herrings. I kind of narrowed it down to likely 3 people at the beginning and none of the harder evidence convinced me otherwise. Ironically, the person I thought likely did it, did not. I will say that I enjoyed it up until I realized who did it but I couldn't really figure out the why part of it. I figured them out based on means, opportunity, and some really strong direct evidence but motive was lacking which makes it a bit of a letdown. I did enjoy the ending cutscene which makes sure it's clear you got the right person. TLDR: If you're looking for another investigative game, this can fill that niche but I'd recommend the better games in the genre first (Obra Din, Curse of the Golden Idol series, The Roottrees are Dead, or The Painscreek Killings).

Great detective game, with an interesting story! If you're like me, and enjoy diving deep into unsolved crimes and mysteries, then this game is for you! I had a great time piecing the story together, tying evidence to my suspects, double checking every hint and clue to find the killer!

[h3]The Good[/h3] [list] [*] I don't always have the patience for text-heavy games, but this is well-written enough to keep me interested! I read a solid 95% of the evidence. [*] Unlike some of the other reviewers, I didn't have any issue with the evidence testing mechanics. I believe I found all pieces of information from my own testing, except for one, without the guide. [*] The characters and the possibilities that come from their lives, personalities, and backstories are creative and thought-provoking. [*] The office is laid out in a way that made sense to me. I appreciated that we didn't just dig through a book of evidence or something. Working through the space allowed me to remember where I found certain pieces of information that I needed to return to. [*] The game has a nice soundtrack, nice graphics, and the right amount of voice acting (the VA is similar to Paradise Killer.) [*] Unlike similar detective games (i.e. Painscreek Killings), where the player really must suspend disbelief to immerse themself in puzzles and extremely detailed diaries, this format feels easier to lean into as a detective. [*] Though I can see an argument being made both for and against it, I appreciated the automatic map and case notes! I think knowing some key points would be saved made me more willing to actually read everything, and it prevented the "everything is important, so now nothing is important" method of note-taking that can occur in a detective game like this. [/list] [h3]The Okay/Disappointing[/h3] [list] [*] There are a [i]lot[/i] of red herrings. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the culprit isn't obvious! But all of the excess information, without much possible deduction (more on that later), ultimately led me to craft a theory that explained even more of the evidence (something that, on a meta gaming level, I expected I would need to do), and was, to me, more interesting than what the actual solution was, with less leaps of logic needed to get there. [*] Some of the evidence left me with questions - particularly, evidence found at the crime scene itself, with no reason or explanation for why it was there. I kept digging through all the evidence/testimony/etc, over. and over., hoping new discoveries or ideas would allow me to eliminate or explain one small piece of evidence or testimony at a time. Unfortunately, many things cannot be explained away. One particular piece of crime scene evidence, unfortunately, did give me quite a headache/misled me a bit... There was no way to deduce it's true purpose, as far as I could find. You just had to shrug it off to get the solution. I needed a guide for that. [*] This isn't a deductive, but an inductive reasoning game. [*] Evidence on the board can only be connected one layer deep, and pieces of evidence cannot be connected. This simplicity is, I think, the reason so much inductive reasoning becomes required; it's a solution to the restrictions of the gameplay mechanics. [*] I had a full case against 4 suspects, started the process of sorting the evidence on the board and submitting each one, then got frustrated and looked at the guide for the "correct" answer. Each of the 4 full cases I had contained all possible links I could think of, and I could provide an inductive reason for each piece of evidence being true. Once I cleared up the frustration with that oooone piece of unexplainable evidence mentioned above, I understood what the intended answer must be, I just didn't like it lol. [*] Inductive reasoning is required, but there is no place for it within the games mechanics. Even being able to link pieces of evidence together and then to a suspect, would be nice. As would being able to pin specific passages or keywords from the diary, witness statements, and suspect interviews to the board. Simply connecting a 15 page document to a suspect could mean a LOOOT of different things. [*] The playtime is lower than what I'd expected for the price, especially since I found 4 solutions (again... you really can't deduce much beyond that, in my opinion... the core gameplay is about reaching that point, where you fully understand the possibilities of the evidence, and the different ways it [i]could[/i] be applied to a solution) without any assistance whatsoever. But it's an indie game, so that doesn't bother me as much as it otherwise might [*] The lack of settings surprised me; luckily, the mouse sensitively was okay for me, though. [/list] There's a fair amount of critiques there, but I'm still going to recommend the game; I'm not really the type to leave a review on a game if it doesn't feel worth my time. I've played many mystery/puzzle/detective games, and I know these reviews can really help fellow sleuths decide if a particular game is for them or not, based on preferences of the genre. I would definitely play another game by the same developers, and recommend others give it a shot, if you're looking for a new puzzle game after getting through most of the well-known options out there. TLDR; it's a solid first(?) major game that got a lot right, but the pay-off is weakened by the game's reliance on inductive reasoning for its solutions.