The Sexy Brutale

The basic idea of this game is to befuddle the overly elaborate plans of the murderous staff in a vast Agatha Christie-esque casino. You can travel back to the beginning of the day at any time, but can't be seen by the staff or the victims, although it's not really a stealth game. By and large the challenge is less finding the solution to stopping the crimes, which isn't usually that difficult, and more pulling it off, giving this more of the tone of a classic farce with people popping in and out of doors and wardrobes. The adorable big-headed look everybody has also contributes to the light tone, and the game does a good job of giving you what you need to solve the problems. The main issue is that it has the adventure game problem of there being ONE solution and one only, and as the problems get more complex this becomes more likely to trip you up. Definitely a lot of fun, and I hope they build on it, but a little more flexibility in the solutions would have made this a must-play.

The Sexy Brutale is a stunning game - visually. There are three glaring issues, however - and each one tears away at the spectacle. The load times. The Sexy Brutale has you constantly running around the impeccable mansion - and the contant buffering and stuttering of the loading system breaks the wonder of racing against time. There will be long periods of black screens and a surprising amount of areas in the mansion in which the game will stop in order to load. This issue also bogs down many of the game's puzzles. Speaking of... The puzzles. They are unbelievably simple! Although fun at first, the middle onwards will leave you following a routine in order to find the solution. And once a simple solution is found, you will spend an uncomfortable amount of time shifting through load times and following guests in order to properly execute that solution. Unlike most Adventure / Puzzle titles, none of the solutions are whimsical. It really is a let-down. The plot. Everything happens at the end - everything. And it unwraps so hastily that it loses much of its appeal. The Sexy Brutale's lack of storytelling early on causes the plot to fall flat on its face. You cannot gain feels for a character with ten dialogue boxes. Also, there are no real oppurtunities to learn about the guests' lives in a single playthrough - and although that may be interesting, it would require one to stomach more loading times. Part of what made The Sexy Brutale such a let-down for me is that I played a fantastic Groundhog Day-alike puzzle game that also involved saving characters from their deaths: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Ghost Trick did everything right - and its a shame that The Sexy Brutale did not follow suit. Therefore, if you are interested or have already played The Sexy Brutale, please check out Ghost Trick! Literally no one knows about it - and it is an amazing puzzle game. *Played via Origin Access and completed in 5 hours.

The Sexy Brutale (the name is bad, but not representative of the game at all) is a mystery puzzle game where you relive the same day in the titular mansion/casino over and over, trying to stop the guests from getting murdered by the staff. You cannot directly interact with the victims or the killers, but you can affect the environment to foil each murderous plan. So what's so special here? Well, if the core idea of a Groundhog Day of murders isn't appealing enough, there are many more curiosities The Sexy Brutale has on offer. First of all, the environment is a complete living and breathing world. Just because you're on "Murder 2" doesn't mean you won't see the victims and even the killers of "Murder 5". You even hear many of the deaths through environmental clues, which the characters also react to. This helps build up the overall mystery and get you familiar with all of the characters. Secondly, the aesthetic is gorgeous. A lot of work has been put into the designs of the characters and even the rooms. They are unique, intricate, and truly a pleasure to look at. Last, but by no means last, is the story itself. Every character, despite looking somewhat cartoony hides a ton of depth. They all have their flaws, affections, talents, habits. And that even applies for the murderers. Yes, the "faceless" members of the staff dressed in gas masks with only a playing card name to identify them are all unique. Overall, the storytelling is amazing. So what are the downsides? The game is a bit technically lacklustre. The lack of built-in anti-aliasing really hurts the visuals. Buffering issues sometimes cause you to walk into a room before its fully loaded or get stuck in front of a door for a while. Animations don't really have any kind of smooth transition, snapping into place whenever needed. Also I've found the ending to be a bit disappointing. The game is about 6 hours for a quick run and took me 11 hours to 100%. Whether that's a negative or a positive is up to you.

...the more jarring the flaws. 1. Above all else, the inability to save someone more than once. You can watch the death scenes as many times as you like, but trying to get any saved scene a second time just results in the game saying "Nope, now move on" and resetting the day. This on its own is why I refuse to give The Sexy Brutale a perfect score. 2. The game sometimes takes a few moments to realize you've just told it to go through a door. Even with this in mind, it would get a perfect score if not for the first flaw. That said, the plot of this game is phenominal. The gameplay? Well, it really just serves to connect the plot together linearly. The puzzles aren't exactly difficult.

A tale of a casino mansion, of time loops and murder! I was happy to find another wonderful game in the vein of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. The experience is thoroughly fun, even though the puzzles are hardly head-scratching. I also really enjoyed the music and art style.