#overboard!
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Unconventional Detective Games
Return of the Obra Dinn, 2018
The maritime mystery game Return of the Obra Dinn by Lucas Pope is almost entirely subversive for a detective game. Everything in the game from its core premise to hyper stylized presentation, is all ambitious and experimental. Every person aboard the Obra Dinn has mysteriously died and you assume the role of an insurance investigator piecing together the horrific events using a magic watch that delivers to you a front seat viewing of a vignette of each person’s demise. Using these dioramas of death, you are charged with recording the manner of death of each and each crewmember and passenger aboard the ship.
Return of the Obra Dinn and its addictively satisfying detective puzzle gameplay left me hungry for more. Playing the game instilled in me a deep love for a good mystery and a desire to solve them. While I love games like Disco Elysium, which stars detectives as its protagonists, the investigation was never really the point. Moreover, a love for the unconventional detective was entrenched in my heart and as an interactive medium, video games are perfect for aspiring would-be detectives.
Overboard! , 2021
The year is 1935, aboard the S.S. Hook, Veronica Villensy throws her husband overboard under the foggy shade of night. In Inkle’s devilishly clever puzzle/visual novel, Overboard! you have eight hours before reaching the ports of New York and in that limited time you must relieve yourself from suspicion and guilt for your husband’s death at any cost. It’s a sort of anti-detective puzzle about getting away with murder which forces you to learn your fellow passenger’s schedules, plant evidence, and be consistently careful with your language lest your words betray you much later.
The DNA of time loop games such as Majora’s Mask and The Sexy Brutale is woven into the gameplay loop of Overboard! It’s a fairly short game taking around 2-3 hours to finish the story but at the benefit of allowing an immense amount of player agency. There is a wide variety of solutions to evading the mighty hand of justice, you are free to travel around the ship on a whim with no direction from the game itself. The only hint system is visiting the chapel and praying to God which is both cleverly diegetic and hilarious.
The nonlinearity of your objective incentivizes logical thinking and experimentation. The puzzle is rewarding much like learning each map and NPC routines in the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy is. At first you clumsily trip over your words when Major Singh interrogates you but eventually you can get away with murder in style along with netting some pocket money from the life insurance if you pull it all off just right!
The nonlinearity of each puzzle in Overboard! is incredibly refreshing, it just feels organic and natural. Going achievement hunting in this game is its own little puzzle and I still haven’t figured out some of the little secrets it hides from us. It’s a game I can’t put down and haven’t yet been able to stop thinking about and I really recommend giving it a shot since it’s only $15 and only $6 if you catch it on sale.
Pentiment, 2022
Obsidian Entertainment’s Pentiment was my favorite game of 2022 and enraptured me for long nights as I obsessed over its rich dialogue and gorgeous medieval illumination manuscript inspired art. So much love and research was put into the historical setting, it takes place in 16th Century Bavaria within the town of Tassing is filled with life and character. You play as Andreas Maler, an artist working in an abbey on a hill and whilst attempting to finish your masterpiece, your co-worker and friend, Brother Piero, is falsely accused of the murder of a wealthy Baron who was staying in town. You are sprung into action as you only have a limited amount of time to clear Brother Piero’s name.
You are given a limited amount of time to wander around town, attempting to conduct interviews, deduce motives, and eventually gather enough evidence to bring the culprit to justice. Because of the impending trial, time is ever so precious in Pentiment and you will never have enough time to do everything you want at your leisure. Every moment dwelling on conversation or recreation is time you could have spent digging for answers. In order to pin a suspect you must hone in on what you think is most beneficial for your case like a true detective.
Brother Piero’s freedom is always at the cost of another’s conviction, in Pentiment you must push the blame onto someone else. During your investigations, you find that Sister Matilda, a nun at the abbey, had been assaulted by the late Baron many years ago. This is one of the clearest motives in the game but most physical evidence points in other directions, all the while every nun in the abbey will assure you of her innocence.
Saint John's Eve Festival Bonfire
Convincing the archdeacon (the head of the trial) of Sister Matilda’s guilt is perhaps the easiest of all the suspects to accomplish and Pentiment will not tell you outwardly that Matilda didn’t do it but it doesn’t have to. In a clever subversion, the game never tells you if you caught the culprit in the end. Pentiment, brilliantly, left me to wonder if I made the right choices as the totality of the lethal consequences of my actions weighed on my mind. You can easily convince the archdeacon of someone’s guilt but are you able to convince yourself?
The brutality of the executions should not be understated. You look on helplessly as someone you convicted meets an unwieldy end as they plead, cry, and eventually die. The executioner’s sword rises and falls as it lodges itself into the neck again and again until the head breaks free from the neck. Whether you like it or not, your choices matter in Pentiment and the consequences stare you down with a harsh disposition.
While playing Pentiment I was continually reminded of a line from Rian Johnson’s murder mystery film Knives Out. The titular detective Benoit Blanc (he’s so me by the way) notes that, “...the complexity and the gray lie not in the truth but what you do with the truth once you have it.” The complexity of truth is captured beautifully by Pentiment. In many regards it is a conventional mystery but by weaponizing the player’s need for clear answers it infected my mind for many hours after the credits rolled along with the minds of many others. There are fierce debates and chatter surrounding who really did the killing. Pentiment wasn’t as well talked about as it deserved, with all the games releasing it was overlooked by most. Well, it isn’t exactly for everyone but for the price of $20 it gave me a wealth of dialogue to mull over and wonder about.
Phasmophobia, 2022
A multiplayer ghost hunting spookfest is not exactly what you’d think of when discussing detective games but Kinetic Game’s Phasmophobia is deeply investigative by nature. Intense inspection is at the beating heart of the game with an important twist. Where ordinarily a detective chases after a suspect after the fact, here your suspect is reacting to your every move and can (and will) kill you on a whim. In the game you and up to three other friends venture into a haunted house and gather evidence and clues to determine which of the twenty four ghosts in the game is currently residing in your location.
You and your team will wander out of the safety of your van and into cold, darkened rooms to find clues by checking thermometers, speaking into spirit boxes, and throwing salt all over the floor in hopes of getting the ghost to step in it. Not only can you gather evidence with your camera and UV lights but another layer in your investigation is the behavior of the ghost. Knowing how aggressive each ghost is or how fast it is, is a tremendous asset in your deductive arsenal. The more you know, the more you can whittle the possibilities down until you have your culprit.
But finding the ghost and gathering evidence is just one thing, surviving the ghost is another. Being in the dark and bearing witness to paranormal activity will deplete your sanity and eventually the ghost will target you for a hunt. The front door slamming shut marks the beginning of a hunt, the ghost will manifest physically and chase you down and kill you if you don’t hide in time.
Corpse of my friend, deceased. Moments before I run out of the house in terror.
Phasmophobia is a dangerous balancing act of facing your fears by delving into the darkness in order to find clues and trying desperately to find the ghost type as fast as you can so you can get the hell out of there. The reactivity of the ghost keeps you on edge as you wander the halls gathering data. Speaking into the spirit box may prompt a raspy whisper into your ear or the candle you just lit may be blown out moments after. More interestingly though, is the voice recognition AI that takes advantage of the communication players rely upon. Everything from saying you’re scared to a simple curse word can lead to the ghost favoring you as prey. Even players who stay in the van for too long get targeted by the ghost!
Within Phasmophobia is one of the most unique investigative experiences on the market and definitely a one of a kind multiplayer experience. The comfort of having a buddy to share your terrors with is stripped away when they stop responding to your radio! It’s truly unlike anything I’ve ever played and the developers are constantly updating it, two big thumbs up from the afterlife.
The satisfaction from my first time getting away with murder in Overboard! and the despair when I find out I had the ghost type completely wrong in Phasmophobia are some of my most memorable experiences in gaming! And Pentiment proved to be one of the most well written games I’ve had the pleasure of reading. I sincerely hope you check them out if you haven’t already! They’re all pretty cheap anyway. And once again begging for recommendations in the comments/reblogs so if you know any good, and hopefully weird, detective games let me know! Thanks in advance everyone and I’ll catch you on the flip side :P
-Ghost Emoji 👻
#organmart#om-ghostemoji#writing#video games#video game recommendations#detective games#return of the obra dinn#overboard!#overboard game#pentiment#phasmophobia
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But for now, let's calm down and save it for the murder run.
Still it was interesting in that I hadn't known he could be pushed like that.
If I had done this in the run where I demanded a platoon for blackmail, would he have backed down?
What would change I wonder
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Overboard! should actually be called "Have Hot Sex With the First Officer Simulator" and I can't believe I'm saying this but as enraptured as I was by this at first it's getting a little old. The encounter feels like it's something you should do every run so you can get Anders on your side, but I still can't figure out how to steal his passkey so it feels a little pointless eventually.
I think I should enjoy Overboard! more than I do. The only explanation I can think of as to why I got bored of it pretty fast is that the timeloop is too short. You wake up and do the "messy up your cabin" routine, and then less than ten minutes later you're waking up again and doing the whole routine again.
I feel like Inkle games always fall a little bit short of my expectations, but their concepts are always so cool and unique so I still really like them.
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im LIVE playing OVERBOARD!
twitch_live
[Plaintext: I'm live playing Overboard!]
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I bought myself a new little game, called Overboard! Incredibly fun. You play as a woman who murders her husband and has to pin the blame on someone by choosing right dialogue options, timing and planting evidence.
It took me two tries not to get the blame but the third try got me the best ending. But there are so many ways to go about the whole thing, I still want to try out a couple of scenarios.
Very fun for a couple of evenings of murdery shenanigans. There's an achievement called Septuple Homicide. You'll never guess how it's completed. Also you can talk to god in that game.
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🐌🐌🐌 BAM!
close up shot :3c
and a lil progression comparison
#wild life smp#bamboozlers#jimmy solidarity#goodtimeswithscar#ldshadowlady#life series smp#trafficblr#OKAY. I KNOW THE SNAILS LOOK HORRIBLE.#but this was so silly and so so fun and i went a bit overboard just scribbling on this piece#so this is more of a drawing for me than for anyone else if anything dfjkdfj#eydidraws#my art#gtwscar#mcyt
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It was affection.
#oh they got me#they got me bad#doomed yaoi and I go hand in hand are we even surprised#arcane you are the greatest thing humanity has ever created#I just really wanted to draw jayvik and I kinda went a little overboard with this#I haven't drawn something this detailed since the good omens angels illustration#so you get an idea for how bad this brainrot is#anyways#you will find me on ao3#jayvik I love you#please don't die#jayvik#jayvik fanart#jayce talis#viktor arcane#jayce arcane#arcane fanart#arcane s2#arcane spoilers#arcane art#my fanart#digital art#my art
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watch out martin blackwood, handjobmcgee just requested your location on find my friends. friendzone of a lifetime.
#to me jonathan sims is constantly singing jeanettes version of SOS in the chipmunks#this was for a quick draw halloween competion my uni runs went mildly overboard#the magnus archive fanart#tma#jonathan sims#the magnus archives#martin blackwood#jonathan sims fanart#digital art#digital painting#illustration
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Frogger? I barely know h- [mic cuts out]
#the froggerrr#im sorry i went overboard with the design#it feel too illegal for him to be this fashionable#ethoslab#hermitcraft#hermitcraft season 10#hermitblr#mcyt#my art
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Video
youtube
Overboard!
I enjoyed Overboard. I'm sure there's much more to it (seemed like I should have been able to frame the other woman with the pills at least), and I wouldn't be surprised if you could frame everyone on board. I may come back to it later, but this is all for now. Fun concept, good writing. Maybe a bit too sparse on the information in early runs.
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMOeTsMoezKblQvZrz4FXlw3z5aHSWcEQ
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utmv meme dump pt. 1 / ?
credit :3
killer - rahafwabas horror - sour apple studios cross - jakei95 dream + nightmare - jokublog swap - p0pcornpr1nce / au community error - loverofpiggies ink - comyet dust - ask-dusttale
#utmv#killer sans#horror sans#cross sans#dream sans#nightmare sans#swap sans#error sans#ink sans#dust sans#bad sanses#utmv meme#most of these r inspired by so many utmv posts i've seen before HAHAVHSD#also went a bit overboard on colors... whoops#proud of that one error one (w ink) tho omg#just wanted to test some brushes tbh :sob: :sob: :sob: n also figure out my coloring style again#still struggling guh#my art#also filler post bwehhh
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You could kill him right here and now. He's lying about the safety. Anders is on watch.
That makes Clarissa the only one who isn't killable with some kind of dolphin, I think.
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collab with an art friend 🖤🤍
#messyr#doodle#i tried my best on textures without overboarding somehow it's still.. lacking oomph#i guess more to put in certain parts yk like couldve had visible crumpled textures blah blah my graphic design ass is tweakin#and adjustments like vignette or smth AAH im tired so bye HAAHHA#hazbin alastor#hazbin hotel au#radioapple#lucifer morningstar#hazbin hotel alastor#hazbin hotel lucifer#artists on tumblr#hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel: michelin stars au#hazbin hotel human au#illustration#HH:MS [Fillers]
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More Jack Out of Sight concept art! This one was inspired by Hades character illustrations (with interesting results)
#rise of the guardians#rotg#jack frost#my art#out of sight#mmmh might do another one with a different cape shape#i went a little overboard with this coloring style#but it was fun different process than my usual
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