Review: Death at Fleming Manor
Can you figure out what happened at the crime scene?
THE GAME
Death at Fleming Manor is a mystery and investigation game developed and distributed by SUPERTHUMb. In the role of an investigator, a series of deaths are occurring in a British country mansion in the late 1950s, and you have been tasked with investigating each one. By analyzing the crime scene and collecting evidence, you must fill out forms to uncover what happened. Use all the information you have gathered and go in search of the truth.
MY IMPRESSIONS
Death at Fleming Manor uses an investigation mechanic where you discover keywords to use in filling out documents, such as the cause of death. The game is divided into chapters, each presenting a different crime scene. Initially, you investigate everything at the crime scene, searching for helpful words and reading documents that can help you understand what happened. The first step is to identify who is at the crime scene, discovering their names through clues. After that, you search for information to fill out the documents about the victims, which will come from the crime scene, autopsies, and books explaining causes of death. With all this information, you must deduce what happened and fill out documents with the keywords you collected. The game is quite forgiving of errors, only warning you that there are a limited number of errors when confirming submission. After some trial and error, you can use a hint that indicates where the error is, without telling you the correct answer. There's also a hint button for those moments when you're really lost, but honestly, I didn't need to use it, and I think that detracts a bit from the immersion, since it's much more fun to try things out on your own. And that's the basis of the game, with some changes from case to case, without making the game repetitive and monotonous.
The game's art is inspired by European mystery comics from the 1960s, which gives the game a unique charm. Unfortunately, the game is not in Brazilian Portuguese, which may deter some non-English speaking players, since it's a very text-dependent game. The story is quite interesting and keeps you wanting to know more about where it all leads. I'm being generic because it's much more fun to encounter each situation, as each case will give you something completely new, and revealing too much would make the player lose a lot of immersion. Death at Fleming Manor is a game that should appeal to both those who already enjoy games of this genre and those who are looking to start with investigation and mystery games. The way the game is presented is very user-friendly, without removing the challenge of understanding the scene and guessing the outcome correctly. It's a great investigation game for those looking for something more relaxed that can be played at the player's own pace.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Most of the achievements in Death at Fleming Manor are about finishing chapters and reaching one of the endings, which in this case will require the player to replay the game several times to get them all. Since I don't want to give away any spoilers about the game, and the remaining achievements might contain spoilers, I'll be more general, simply saying that they are achievements related to specific actions that you may or may not get normally, depending on your choices. Of course, you can always go back to do them, and I advise you to only look for them after finishing the game at least once. It's a game where you won't have much difficulty getting 100% of the achievements, so just enjoy the story the game has to tell and only then worry about the achievements you missed.
CONCLUSION
I enjoyed how Death at Fleming Manor manages to be challenging without being punishing for the player. Despite being largely text-based, everything is easy to find, even with so much to research about some cases. Many times I felt like I was watching a police procedural series, analyzing each piece of evidence, considering hypotheses, and sometimes even being confused by the evidence, thinking it was one thing when the cause of the crime was different. The subtle way the evidence is presented, which makes the player feel satisfied with their own discoveries, makes everything more satisfying and leaves you wanting more. Even though there's a narrative to follow, and often you'll have to make mistakes thinking you're right only for the game to show you other evidence, this doesn't detract from the fun provided by Death at Fleming Manor. I hope a Brazilian Portuguese translation is in the developers' future plans so that this game can reach more Brazilian players.
Comments