Just about everyone who knows me knows there’s nothing that I love more than a good, mysterious FMV game. D’Avekki Studios has become a developer that I trust, developing four phenomenal games from 2017’s The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker to this year’s Murderous Muses. It is basically tailor-made to my likes: it is a supernatural murder mystery FMV game set in an art gallery. The developer is no stranger to creating murder mystery dinner party games, so a case files game is actually a phenomenal way to expand upon the original video game. And you don’t even need to have played the video game to play the case files game.
Murderous Muses Case Files has one or more players solving the murder of Mordechai Grey, an artist who was killed one year ago by one of his muses. But which? Players are presented with a police case file of evidence that can be inspected for clues; it contains suspect interviews, witness statements, a crime scene report, and newspaper articles. Follow up on leads to establish alibis, uncover motives, and rule out the innocent.
Players search the Mirlhaven Directory for locations that might help their investigation then “visit” them by looking up corresponding entries in the Directory Enquiries booklet. There are over 100 locations to investigate, and each could reveal crucial case information. Be careful to stay on track. There may also be supernatural events that occur on the mysterious island.
“Case Files games have been popular in recent years and we wanted to bring something new to the table,” said D’Avekki Studios director Tim Cowles in a press release. “We feel we’ve done that with Murderous Muses’ blend of case-files evidence and narrative investigation.”
“Murderous Muses has a depth of storytelling and the kind of rich setting that you just don’t find in existing case files games,” adds writer/producer Lynda Cowles. “We’ve brought all that worldbuilding from videogame, so players have much more to explore and investigate.”
From D’Avekki Studios, Murderous Muses Case Files is available physically from The Murder Mystery Store, Amazon UK, and Amazon US (no Canada, unfortunately – I checked). It is available as a digital download from The Murder Mystery Store.
