The Mermaid Mask is an ideal trip homicide thriller

The Mermaid Mask, the following point-and-click sport from Tangle Tower developer SFB Games, has every part you could possibly ask for in an amazing homicide thriller.

It begins with a compelling setup: The captain of a submarine is discovered lifeless in a locked room, his physique subsequent to a mysterious cauldron with blood trickling throughout the ground. The colourful solid of suspects stationed aboard are pleasant to speak to, together with a grumpy writer making an attempt to draft a sequel to his hit novel, an actor enjoying the lead in a film primarily based on that novel, a younger lady who places on elaborate phantasm performances, and even a person who research goals. The submarine works as a wonderful setting that elevates the thriller — in a automobile that already has such a small footprint, how does a locked-door crime occur within the first place?

Like different crime-solving video games, such because the Ace Attorney sequence, The Mermaid Mask is actually a visible novel. As Detective Grimoire and his associate Sally, the returning protagonists from Tangle Tower, you’re primarily speaking with suspects, investigating rooms, poring over objects, and fixing puzzles. But every room is filled with nooks and crannies and knickknacks to click on round on, examine, and find out about, so there’s virtually all the time one thing to dig into.

The entire factor is backed by glorious voice appearing; I typically went out of my method to click on on each element I might discover simply to listen to what the characters would say. The puzzles, which have you ever doing issues like turning dials in precisely the best means or organizing skulls on a shelf, additionally do a great job breaking apart what would in any other case be a complete lot of textual content conversations.

Even although I haven’t performed Tangle Tower, I didn’t really feel like I used to be lacking any significant context. The Mermaid Mask borrows a tried-and-true mannequin from different franchises starring a returning detective, like with Knives Out’s Benoit Blanc: You can come into this story chilly with out lacking something essential, however Detective Grimoire and Sally are a enjoyable cling that make a number of nods to their earlier work collectively.

Eventually, after you collect sufficient proof about anyone, you’ll confront them in Ace Attorney-like sequences the place you’ll be capable of make observations or accusations that the suspect fairly wished you wouldn’t. These have been extraordinarily satisfying; it all the time felt good to determine a tiny element that might break somebody’s facade huge open. Whenever the chance to do one other one got here up, I couldn’t wait to leap in.

I had a number of points with The Mermaid Mask, however they’ll be acquainted to anybody who likes enjoying these types of video games. Presenting each clue to each suspect to get their response will be tedious. It’s not vital, however I didn’t notice that till about midway in my 10-hour playthrough once I noticed the trace system that implies what you would possibly need to present somebody. Sometimes it’s important to make your case by presenting proof in a selected order, even when you’ve got already labored out the place it would lead, in order that the characters can speak issues out because the script calls for. At one level, I ran out of results in discover and couldn’t determine the place to go subsequent till I manipulated one clue in a single particular means that opened up a bunch of leads. More than as soon as, I couldn’t work out the precise clue that might advance issues, so I simply brute-forced guesses till I might transfer ahead.

These roadblocks have been irritating. But that’s largely as a result of they stopped me from transferring ahead in a narrative that had me staying up well past my bedtime. When I reached the sport’s finale — which begins with a basic homicide thriller parlor room scene — I might hardly put my Steam Deck down as a result of I needed to see how all of the items got here collectively. When I lastly completed The Mermaid Mask after a three-day tear, I felt like I had simply closed the e-book on a satisfying homicide thriller novel.

^{The Mermaid Mask is out now on Nintendo Switch, PC, and PS5.}