The Painscreek Killings

The Painscreek Killings is a detective adventure game in the FPP convention, created by the independent EQ Studios. This is the debut project of the American team, which was founded by three developers in 2006.

Plot

The action of the game takes place in a fictional town where we arrive as a young, aspiring investigative journalist, Janet Kelly, trying to find an interesting topic to write an article. For this purpose, we visit an abandoned town, its surroundings and the property where it was committed in the mid-1990s a crime on Vivian Roberts, the wife of the mayor of Painscreek, to find new leads on not only an unexplained murder years ago, but also other dark secrets.

Mechanics

The Painscreek Killings is a combination of typical walking sim and a classic detective adventure game. The gameplay is to explore a semi-open world where we have access only to selected buildings, to find clues and evidence related to the mysterious murder case and to draw the right conclusions to solve the biggest mystery: who killed Vivian Roberts?

The game doesn't make the task any easier, because the investigation in The Painscreek Killings is reminiscent of real life, and therefore consists mainly of observation and deduction. It does not suggest where to go, nor does it suggest where to look for clues and what might be useful to connect the facts - what clues we find depends on our detective work and the diligence with which we approach it. We have to read the documents we find, take photographs of key evidence, and the creators even recommend taking notes that will bring us closer to the goal.

Technical aspects

The game was developed on Unity engine and offers a decent audio-visual setting. The atmospheric graphics, music and sounds of the surroundings intensify the impression of a deserted town. This ultimately results in a disturbing atmosphere, fuelled by the additionally unexplained events that led to this state of Painscreek.