Murder is a short story that follows a Lieutenant in a cyberpunk future set in Tokyo. There is a huge amount of mystery and confusion as you experience the game’s 30 minute play time and no doubt you’ll spend that time trying to reassure yourself that there’s nothing more too it and you should forget it. But Murder is very much the kind of game that does want you to think and find the message it has to tell.
The story is told as a point and click adventure but the interactions you have with the environment are limited. You don’t find objects or items and craft them into preposterous solutions to puzzles that are supposedly incidentally constructed. The exceedingly brief tutorial will show you the two concepts you need. On each screen there will be a red arrow that shows you where to click to progress and that there will also be various unmarked areas for you to explore the optional elements of the game.
The mechanics are simple and Murder is not scared of focusing purely on telling a story. It’s definitely an interactive story rather than a game with any problem solving or even any choice or threat of loss. To call Murder a point and click adventure is actually a little strange given that the only pointing and clicking you do will trigger the next piece of the narrative. A little more interaction and maybe a few choices here and there would have been nice especially given the game’s short run time. But Murder has a specific story to tell and there isn’t room in the narrative for options or freedom.
I’m not going to lie Murder is a little confusing especially for the first 5 or 10 minutes. There are flashes and hard cuts that leave you wandering what’s real, especially in the sci-fi setting. The story is mainly concerned with morality and the concept of artificial intelligence. At what point does something become classified as alive? If a machine could perfectly mimic something living is it also living? These are the theoretical questions that plague anybody working with the concept of artificial intelligence and is, I believe, what Murder is attempting to tap into.
It’s a fascinating topic to look into even when it becomes a bit overly existential. The fusing of philosophy and technology is not an easy thing to do. It’s certainly not something you can realistically look at in 30 minutes. As such Murder is basically too short. The developers clearly had an understanding of the concepts enough to tell a decent story with some gritty characters and a Blade Runner setting but then they just didn’t keep going. I understand how much work a game is for a small team but I desperately wanted more when the credits rolled.
On the shallow side of things Murder is one of the best uses of a pixelated art style I’ve seen. The use of colour and contrast is strong enough to create a surprisingly grim feeling world. Most impressive is the manipulation of 3 dimensional trickery which creates a depth rarely seen in this style. Backing up is a well created soundtrack and hugely effective ambient sound effects to get the atmosphere right. Murder isn’t afraid to apply real sounds to the artistic visuals which further help create an atmosphere and is refreshing from what would conventionally be retro sound effects and a chip tune soundtrack. Voice acting is slightly forced at times but very difficult to criticize further than that and generally is absolutely spot on.
It’s not even that Murder feels unfinished; just that it feels untold. I would love to know why they stopped at the 30 minute mark because it feels like they had the scope for more. Short stories are great and I love the idea of having it as a point and click narrative but a couple of hours would have felt much more like a complete experience. Everything is in place for more from the sense of style to the ambient sounds, to the well written script and the fact that text scrolls with speech so you don’t read ahead. Murder is a very considered and focused game. Ultimately I want more of it because the only problem is there just isn’t enough to tell a story as deep as the one it wants to tell. As a final point Murder is only £1.99 on Steam so I would definitely recommend a play through for any serious sci-fi fan to see what you make of it yourself. An exceptional game that just isn’t long enough.
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