The Litchfield Mystery

This is the third mystery IF game by thesleuthacademy. I enjoyed the previous ones, and I had a good time with the exploration and deduction process in this one too, ultimately successfully figuring out the killer, motive, and means (although I did miss the actual murder weapon). Some of the criticisms I had of the previous game, The Case of the Solitary Resident (my review) were resolved here, making for overall smoother gameplay, although some of them still apply (namely, the lawnmower nature and not distinguishing between visited and unvisited links).

But the biggest issue with this one is something I only mentioned in passing in that last review. There’s a limitation to these games in that the scenarios and the characters all exist solely in service to the deduction puzzle. With this one in particular, that setup really didn’t work for me. While we meet a whole cast of characters, with names and emotions and secrets, in the end, all that matters is finding whodunnit; the details—the human details, that is—aren’t important.

This is a straight-up spoiler of the solution, so be forewarned: (Spoiler - click to show)at the end, having successfully solved the case, we’re told: “Lionel Litchfield, a workaholic [and the murder victim], barely had a social life. He ended up having an affair with the young Marguerite Hansel [the culprit].” Marguerite is Lionel’s child’s governess. Lionel is married. So these lines reveal him as both a cheating husband and an employer who’s fine with starting a sexual relationship with a young woman in his employ.

The short story A Jury of Her Peers, in which (Spoiler - click to show)two women choose not to share their conclusion that a neighbor murdered her abusive husband with the local sheriff, came to mind as I thought about this game. In The Litchfield Mystery, (Spoiler - click to show)Marguerite doesn’t get a jury, of her peers or otherwise; she gets a male police detective, embodied by me the player, whose only pursuit is of law-defined justice. There’s no option to take the power imbalance implicit in an employer-employee relationship, in the even-more-sexist-than-today society of 1937, into consideration; neither is there any concern for what Marguerite’s fate may be as a young women convicted of murder at that time. I think a version of the game that did consider these things, and perhaps let you choose whether or not to reveal your findings after solving the case, would be a stronger one.

I have a history with thesleuthacademy’s games that made me enjoy this one a lot.

Their first game, Last Vestiges, appeared in IFComp 2023 (the first IFComp I participated as a judge). It was a rough but interesting attempt on an educational police procedural parser game that require you to know some toxicology to solve the case. They then followed up with The Case of the Solitary Resident for Spring Thing 2024, a Twine game where I thought the investigation was pretty fun but the case was predictable and the text too plain for my taste. I said that the developer should try to flesh out the investigation sequence more.

And well, this game is their best iteration yet, and it’s one I can recommend without too much hesitation.

Investigating the Litchwell residence feels rewarding this time round. I was snooping around different corners, interviewing different people with new leads, and searching for clues and the murder weapon. Compared to previous titles, the game mechanics feel streamlined and things just come in right when I am out of clues. There’s a silly puzzle I got stuck on, but other than that the game captured my attention from start to finish.

Solving this mystery feels satisfying. The logical deduction is fair, and you have enough clues to piece everything together. I was enthralled when I finally figured it out.

I think this is their most realized title so far, but the mysteries could be more ambitious. Nevertheless, I believe the developer has a bright future if they continue to create interesting mysteries. I’m definitely looking forward to their next titles.

Ah yes, the second mystery game from the writer (in terms of what I've played so far). I have mixed feelings about this one. As with the Solitary Resident, the writing is engaging and leaves you wanting to find out what happened. From a gameplay perspective, I like the way this game is constructed, with the ability to investigate different sections to uncover clues slowly. I managed to find all clues on my first attempt, and having an organized menu of clues found does help from a presentation standpoint.

There are plenty of clues, little puzzles, red herrings which you can get out of the way with some investigation and so on.

That said, even at the end, I was unable to figure out who the murderer was, and had to brute force it. When I did, and had the mystery revealed to me, it just left more questions than answers. A lot of it didn't quite make sense, even after reading over the final reveal a few times and trying to make it make sense.

Plenty of spoilers from here. You have been warned.

Questions:

Anyway, I enjoyed finding the clues and slowly unraveling the case, even if I had difficulty making sense of the final reveal.