PARADISE KILLER HOW TO

I spent about 10 hours waltzing around Paradise, and by the end there were still a couple plotlines I felt like I hadn't dug into enough.

Even when it's time for the trial, you don't really know. Who did this? How did they even pull this off? Why are people lying to me? Paradise Killer never tells you if your evidence is enough to prove the truth. Paradise Killer hooked me so well that it didn't matter: Even when I wasn't playing it I was thinking about it in the back of my mind. The pace lulled a couple times, but that's a pitfall of allowing players to pursue any lead they want.

(Image credit: Fellow Traveller/Kaizen Game Works) Spending time with the cool freaks on the island reveals a messy web of politics. The narratives in Paradise Killer are complex and intertwined in ways that are astonishing characters have motivations and rich interpersonal histories that you can easily miss if you aren't paying attention. I think she hates Lady Love Dies, but even when I ran out of case files to ask her about, she gossiped about all of the other characters, offering a glimpse at the bigger picture of the island's mysteries. I had a nice time talking to Carmelina, the head architect of the island.

PARADISE KILLER HOW TO

I love how Paradise Killer lays out all the potential suspects, makes you suspicious of all of them, and then lets you decide how to handle the situation your way. It actually feels like any one of them could have committed the crime, and that breadth of possibility is both exciting and nerve wracking to think about as an investigator. You can gossip and interrogate each character on a whim, and a lot of the game is running around between them corroborating their stories. There's a typewriter noise that plays as the text pops up, and the smooth click-clacks do a great job at centering your attention on the dialogue without being a nuisance. The 2.5D character models stand out around the map, and interacting with them switches things into visual novel mode. Paradise Killer is populated by some truly fascinating characters. (Image credit: Fellow Traveller/Kaizen Game Works) Trust is fleeting It's the freedom to uncover those unexpected mysteries in unorthodox ways that makes Paradise Killer stand out as a detective game. A whole new conspiracy plot unravelled in front of me, I put a pin in the leads I was investigating and dropped everything to find out more about that. I logged it in the investigation, and I saw that it connected multiple people that I didn't even think of suspecting to the case. But as I was walking back up I found a rusty knife that seemed to be conveniently tossed away from the scene of the crime. There was one time I fell off of a building onto some rocks by the water, and I was briefly upset that I'd have to climb my way back onto the island. I never stressed about evidence, because curiously platforming around and checking out the scenery always led to discovery. There are secrets in every nook and cranny of the map, and no matter where I decided to go I was either making progress with the narrative or finding more context about the game's offbeat world. Sometimes I would take breaks from the pressing murder mystery to chill by the beach, admiring this alternate reality and its otherworldly bops. The soundtrack features some fantastic music: a groovy mesh of city pop, ambient jazz, and disco. There's a lot of walking around, which is relaxing, especially once you start picking up cassette tapes. I spent most of my time traversing Paradise's boroughs, taking in the lush scenery, picking up collectibles and Blood Crystals, the main currency used for fast travelling and buying things like black market secrets.

Paradise killer