The Krampus Case

I am not at all a betting man, but if I were, I don’t think I’d ever find a safer wager than betting that somewhere, there’s a version of The Krampus Case that was an actual Advent calendar. See, as the title indicates, this is a Christmas mystery – Santa Claus has gone missing, captured by his archnemesis Arius the homoian heretic -- sorry, I mean Krampus, definitely Krampus, and it’s up to you to find where he’s being imprisoned by interrogating elves, staking out the toy workshops, and maybe taking some time to see the North Pole’s sights in case a clue comes up. And the game’s structure is of a piece with its plot, because the way you do all those things is by picking one lead to run down per game-day, much like a child opens one calendar-door and consumes one chocolate each day of Advent. The about text even suggests you could play this way, starting on December 6 (right after Krampusnacht, which is when the crime goes down) and selecting a single path to play through each day before Christmas, when time of course runs out.

This isn’t to say that the Krampus Case is static. There’s only a limited amount of obvious interactivity – one of the 25 leads has to be unlocked by pursuing a certain other one first – but the game is full of subtle state-tracking, with plenty of nods to information you’ve already gathered or characters you’ve already met. There’s also a case notes feature that records the six clues as you find them, and a Christmas-Carol inspired timer system that sees you visited by increasingly-aggressive spirits bent on resolving your standard-issue Hard-Boiled-PI-backstory-angst before Christmas eve. And one of the leads (I’m not saying which) leads to a delightful minigame of sorts, which similarly appears to have a lot of flexibility in commenting on your performance.

The heart of the game is definitely just reading what’s behind each “door”, though, and with only six clues spready across four times as many options, you’ll be meeting failure more often than not, at least from a mechanical perspective. But for all that I never felt the need to skim; even when it was clear I’d followed a red herring, the good-natured writing and actually-funny jokes typically made me game to see what was in store. It also helps that you’re generally able to learn something, help someone, or otherwise make a difference pretty much anywhere you go, even if it doesn’t lead to a formal clue being added to your tally. Talking to the North Wind sees you politely ask if it’d mind sending its freezing-cold breath in some other direction when it talks, visiting the library reveals some wacky Christmas traditions from around the world – heck, you can even meet the Grinch’s reformed sidekick.

Things get slightly more serious when you resolve the case, which shifts into a short choice-based interactive vignette allowing you to resolve your deep-seated Christmas trauma; the lack of a save or undo feature means the stakes for this are surprisingly high, giving you the ability to push the simple plot rather farther off the rails than I was expecting. But all the endings are cute, and the choices allow you to cut the inevitable sentimentality of the ending with whatever touch of vinegar fits your taste.

While I had quite a good time with Krampus Case, there are some complaints I’d level – in particular, while the 20-days-to-Christmas structure is an integral part of the premise, I felt like the pacing did start to drag in the day 15-20 range. Similarly, while some clues are easier to find if you do some critical thinking about what earlier information you’ve uncovered is suggesting, much of the time I felt like I was making blind guesses, trying to decide whether the spa or the skating rink was a likelier source of clues. The vulnerability of high-concept experiences like this – it’s an Advent calendar that’s also a mystery game! – is always that the novelty runs out, and Krampus Case occasionally flirts with that line. But unlike a real Advent calendar, once you’ve gathered the requisite clues, you can trigger the endgame whenever you’d like, and even when the mystery felt like it was getting increasingly shaggy, I still enjoyed getting to hang with the various denizens of the North Pole.

All told I remain convinced there’s a paper-and-cardboard prototype of this game the authors used to delight their friends some Christmas Past, but the clever implementation and layering on of interactivity mean the game’s living in the Christmas Future, too. Now that’s quite a Christmas Present!

…shoot, that’s only three of the ghosts. Anyone know any puns for “Jacob Marley”?