Adventure Gamers - Forums

Noir deduction thriller Murder Mystery Machine will be out in 3 days!

This will be a series of interconnected crimes that will make two detectives test their merit. According to Steam description we get to “explore crime scenes in complex dioramas, organize evidence effectively, and blur the lines between right and wrong to present the case”  along with “question suspects in the area, and find contradictions in evidence to catch them out”, separating red herrings from the key facts. All of this will be presented in a eye-catching isometric visuals with a flair of noir (mandatory saxophone included).

Is anyone looking forward to it? Is anyone up for being detective? Post your thoughts and (eventually) impressions from the game here!

Karlok - 22 August 2021 10:38 PM

I’m also looking forward to this one, playing detective is so much fun. And the game looks spectacular.

Baron_Blubba - 22 August 2021 08:19 PM

I *love* games that rely on observation and deduction puzzles that make you really have to pay attention to everything in order to get them right. Laura Bow: Dagger of Amon Ra did this very well.

Observation, deduction puzzles, attention to details? If you haven’t already, you should play the marvelous game Return of the Obra Dinn. Seriously.

Was going to suggest that very game to BB, but you beat me to it

Return of the Obra Dinn is a brilliant game!

Alright I’m through with my first case, which was partially introductory material to a new player.

I rather enjoyed what I’ve seen so far. MMM is no Obra Dinn, but the game is almost entirely about making deductions which is always a fun process for me. It’s a bit stifled by the fact that certain connections need to be made before you can ask a question that just popped in your head (as oppose to asking it right away), but I can’t imagine making this game happen any other way short of making it Disco Elysium -like, for which I don’t think the developers had the money.

If you make a wrong deduction the game will tell you so and won’t let progress further with the case (which wasn’t a huge deal for me, YMMV), on the other hand - if you won’t make all supportive evidence deductions, the game will lower your score as a detective and you won’t get to have small perks like an outfit change if you’re into that kinda thing…

Dialogues are based solely on what just has been deduced, so they are fixed and there’s no play there. They mostly serve a purpose of collecting more info to work with on a deduction board, just like the evidence that you find lying around in the most obvious manner.

A very neat touch is that both officers work in the basement of their building, and the more they progress - the more boxes are being unpacked and their little place gets additional decor, just as all their personal items undergo small changes - new take-out containers on the table, more file folders, some fruit and headphones out - these kinda adorably teensy details. Also the case board they are working on gets larger and larger with each move forward complete with tiny photos of the scenes they just visited - it’s pretty cool. They knocked visuals out of the park here, really, as every little isometric scene that you can rotate looks amazing.

It doesn’t have a voice-over though, and this is a rare instance that it’s hard not to notice how much it’s lacking, especially in small dialogue-based cut-scenes.

Overall, I quite like it so far. It’s not a complete free run of deducing, and lots of things are obviously in your face (like evidence, I wish we could sleuth around more and actually look for things or have more things out of which to chose from), but when you work on the case board - you get to flex your brain a bit, as some connections will take some time to figure out. You may organize your board and spend as much time on it as you wish, and while the main goal is to answer the objectives of the scene - “who, what, why” etc. many secondary deductions could be made, and it kinda sucks to see you missed them in the final tally. In the most positive way, of course.

It’s a cute game in all the manners of this word (one I use very rarely), and it’s entertaining and just challenging enough to be an overall good time. So far. I think there are 7 more cases to go, so obviously, it could all change, but I’m gonna say it’s not “best of the year” material but “having a good time” one, for sure.

This looks promising. Especially the screenshot with the lines connecting everything - proper detective stuff!

I have worked my way through half of this game now, and I got to say that if someone likes deducing - they’ll likely find MMM quite entertaining.

Like I mentioned previously- everything else besides deduction part is pretty much given to the player without any challenge, so the game does teeter on a more casual side in this regard. The places you can go are chosen for you, and so are the questions you can ask (but you do unlock those by making correct deductions). With that being said, making connections based on the (easily) found evidence can give a workout to a rusty brain. There are hints available in-game, but not using those led to spending a solid chunk of time thinking about investigation (the aforementioned pre-chosen places, just like interviews, won’t unlock unless the right conclusions are made), so I’d say a good portion of the game will include staring at the board and moving red strings of connections around.

I like the dynamics between two main heroes - a grumpy vet with a lack of trust that is starting to open up, and a driven, newly-minted cadet undeterred by such grumpiness. There’s also an interesting deception sub-story involving higher-ups, and I’m curious to see where will it go. You do get to make few choices that lay in the morally vague area, being representative of power of the law yet still a human being - it’s interesting to ponder how many things in life happen simply because someone chose one side or the other.

My office gets progressively packed by all tiny teeny details LEOs get when they settle in. A couch, pair of dumbbells and donuts/pizza/coffee is an obvious must.

MMM continues to be extremely visually pleasing and almost tangibly lack a voice-over, but it’s a good time overall. The cases that seemed independent up until now finally start to show odd connections and come together, so I’ll be wrapping this up quickly to see how it all ends.

Finished MMM and ended up changing my mind towards “negative meh”.

As the game progressed, chapters kind of blended together, becoming a bit more nonsensical each time with some deus ex machina flair to some of the explanations.

Some nonsense I can deal with, but deductions also became uneven and inconsistent more and more. Evidence is quite often only given a few words of description like “Bob’s folder”, and you need to connect that to something equally as laconic which makes for some “interesting” deductions, since there’s no way to know any details. Some evidence connections are redundant (“Tom” and “Tom was anxious all day” - really??), and yet the game wants you to make them. Questions can’t be asked until MMM allows you to, even if that was the most obvious thing to ask. As I think I mentioned before, the searching for evidence part is non-existent, all of it is just placed all over the scene with easy access, including crucial and heavily incriminating pieces. The whole investigation became simple trial-and-error ride.

The picture is about the best thing about this game. There are some drawbacks (and animations are half-baked), but overall - it looks slick with all the moody lighting, good use of color and tons of miniature details. The sound is lacking.

The game had an engaging start but went downhill towards the end. I feel like MMM could have been so much cooler with all the seeds of ideas that were there, but as it stands, it’s like a textbook definition for “wasted potential”.

It’s not the absolute worst as far as games go, no, and it has its entertaining moments and a neat concept, but it’s all so clumsy that anyone can skip this one and not miss anything.

My pleasure!