Developer: Mediatonic
Publisher: the Irregular Corporation
Release: Out now
On: Windows
From: Steam, GOG
For: 12 / 12.50 / $15
Murder By Numbers, which would seem to be tailor-made for a few of the RPS staff, is a murder mystery visual novel, where you gather clues by completing picross puzzles (also known as nonograms or griddlers).
Aided by a small, cute robot called SCOUT, who consists almost entirely of a flying CRT monitor screen with a face, actress Honor Mizrahi falls into detecting when the producer of her own murder mystery TV show is killed on-set. Honor had played the bumbling detective on the show, which was called Murder Miss Terri, and which looks great. In fact, Murder By Numbers has the dubious honour of being the only game where I want to watch both a TV adaptation of the game itself, and a version of the fake TV show nested in it. The game even has an absolutely slammin’ theme song prepared for this eventuality.