The Sexy Brutale

Amazing game with amazing visual, narrative and story. It is the best to experience it yourself and please do not look up the spoiler for you can't unsee it later. Same vibe as grim fandango and better than life is strange. You do not need realistic art style in order to make an amazing game. 10/10 Would recommend it. This game is so good that if you pirate it, please buy it later too. Also would play it again in the years to come.

My first review on GOG and one that I am actually assed enough to write because of how good I found this game. This will go down as 2017's hidden gem for sure. I liked everything about this game, from artstyle, aesthetics, design, atmosphere and theme. The ending was well executed and left me wanting more. •Gameplay: The game consists of walking from room to room, exploring the mansion, peeking through doors, hiding inside closets, collecting clues and solving logical puzzles to advance the plot. •Controls: Controls are extremely important to me, it's the gateway to how a game "feels". If a game has "loose" controls/movements or if I push a button and it takes more than a few seconds for an action to take place, that makes me have a bad experience. I like tight controls and tight inputs. For the most part walking feels good in some areas, while in others there seems to be a very weird "slow down" effect, the FPS also takes a hit despite the fact I have a monster rig. Another problem I've found is when trying to open doors, sometimes Laffy will not respond and other times he will turn around and walk the other way. The reason I won't take a star is because these problem can be fixed with a patch. So I don't want to take one down and then see that the developers have fixed it. •Story: The story revolves in a Mansion which is part Casino and hotel. The Marquis is mysteriously absent and his closest friends and regular goers are being killed by his staff. Not only that, but it appears that in the same day they are being killed, you experience a time loop, resetting you to the very beginning of the day where the murders happen over and over again. It's up to you to discover the secret behind the time loops and the reason the Mansion staff is murdering your friends. The plot was consistent and I cannot list themes as this would give away spoilers. I would say this most of all falls into the "Mystery" category. •Style/Aesthetics: I will admit that one of the first things that drew me to this game was it's aesthetics. The colors and characters are realistic enough and doesn't look goofishly cartoonish or anime-ish (Not that I'm against those styles). It has a perfect blend of realistic, adult and cute, which can be taken seriously. •Music: The music was surprisingly good, my speakers aren't the best out there yet the quality of the sound is top-notch. The style of the music ranges from Upbeat-Jazz to some Noir/Swing. To my disappointment the soundtrack CD is only being sold as a special edition for the PS4 in the U.K. which is baffling since they can sell the tracks digitally. (But I want CD) If you are reading this review Cavalier/Tequila, or whoever is in their power, please release the soundtrack and artbook in the States. Depending on what type of gamer you are, the game can range between 4-10 hours, if you head straight into the plot it's obviously going to be shorter. The puzzles aren't really that hard to solve. A problem I encountered was that some of the text dialogue appear and disappear extremely quick, leaving me no chance to properly read them. The game needs a bit of polish. •Fix the controls, polish it and fix the quick text and this game is perfect. Overall this game was a blast and well worth the $20. I would gladly pay this studio another if they design another game with the same style in a different setting and story. Cheers, luv, thanks for the experience.

Sexy Brutale could have been a must play. The concept is inspired, but the final result is rather disappointing. Sexy Brutale is a lavish mansion, and within 12 hours guests get murdered by staff. You are a anti-hitman – your job is to save each of the guests one by one. You have 12 hours to explore, watch and interact with the enviroment before time resets. The mansion has a metrovenia-like structure. Sounds good? Puzzles are really really easy. You can’t interact with characters and environment in any interesting way. Each “saving guest” sequence takes place in a really small section of the mansion, with limited objects to interact with. The result is the puzzle game, where main effort comes from scouting (discovering rooms, character paths) but solving actual puzzle is brain-dead easy. The story is actually pretty clever, but it told very poorly with a very heavy exposition dump near the end. If done better gameplay and storytelling wise, it could have been phenomenal. As it stands, it’s a curiosity worth checking out based on its concept rather than merit.

Lost potential. I was hoping for some mindbending time-loop-puzzles or at least one big puzzle after solving isolated little puzzles which consisted mostly of watching a murder to be able to an object to prevent the murder. Pros: + good soundtrack + unique art style Cons: - linear disconnected puzzles (solve one puzzle after another) - puzzles not worth the name (watch murder to be able to use an object) - story is neither funny nor thought provoking and mostly told through journal entries - no voice acting (bad voice acting in bonus) - boring (no way to speed up while waiting or escape cutscenes) - empty (no npc interaction, very few usable objects) - cumbersome mouse and keyboard controls - bad user interface - no customization of controls or graphics - buggy on Win10 (lagging screen transitions and interactions) - immersion breaking card collecting - no replay value

It's just sad, I feel this game has failed to live up to its potential. At it's heart, it's meant to be a puzzle game, however the puzzles are easy. Like, REALLY easy. If you're not a person that normally plays puzzle games, then this is game for you. There's typically only 1-3 steps required for you to stop each murder from happening. The hard part is figuring out what you need to do, but you really only need to follow the victims and the culprits throughout the whole day to figure out the entire scene and how you're supposed to act. There are basically no dead ends or clues - everything you pick up you will use. I was honestly expecting that when I save someone, they get killed by something else instead. This mechanism would have added a lot more depth because the player then questions if: a) They need to stop the second murder or b) They need to figure out another way to stop the original murder The characters also aren't that fleshed out. There is a story about the mystery, but the other characters personalities and past aren't really explored beyond the short time you see them from the start of the day till their death. Character animations could also have been improved to be a bit more animated. The style is rather cartoonish but the rigidity of their mouths don't quite match the style. The overall story didn't really surprise me either. Also, the game practically tells you there's a plot twist coming so it's no surprise. Other than that, the art style is great. But the music. It's fantastic! Whomever did the music direction for the game needs an award. It really captures the atmosphere of each are and the music is even carefully timed to match the time of deaths of the characters. All in all, the game is a good attempt, but it could have been much more. I don't fault the developers for releasing it as it is. It would likely have added a year or more of development to improve a unique title like this.