Murderous Muses

Can you solve Mordechai's murder?

Making some interesting use of FMV segments, and promising to play out a bit differently each time, Muses has promise but requires patience

Murderous Muses changes things up by mixing gameplay with FMV sequences to create a pretty compelling murder mystery experience. Exploring the gallery and trying to piece together who the murderer could was fun and each playthrough being different makes it compelling to jump back in whether you solve the case your first time or not.

Murderous Muses has a whole lot of interesting ideas, but because of them it struggles to tell a cohesive story.

Murderous Muses is a bite-sized mystery with an entertaining gimmick and a lush background of lore, and it's a taste of what might be the next frontier for FMV; puzzle exploration. The overarching mystery is enough to keep players engaged for the 10-15 hours it takes to unlock everything, though the simplicity of its puzzles otherwise limits its replayability. The video performances are a bit hit-and-miss, but the camp vibe of the entire experience makes it all part of the show.

Murderous Muses is a rare full-motion video-driven video game that uses the concept in interesting ways. The central mystery is compelling and it’s worth exploring the weirdness of the island where everything takes place. There are plenty of videos to unlock and investigate and some decent extra puzzles to solve.

Despite some initial confusion over the puzzle aspects of Murderous Muses – which I blame more on the way my brain works than the game, sometimes I need to be blatantly told something or I miss the obvious – I still felt that I got a really complete experience. The mash-up of a procedurally-generated environment with FMV is highly successful, and fit together hand in hand. I came into this game loaded with expectations and fearful of being let down… but that fear was completely unfounded. I mean, I’m a games journalist/critic with a degree in art history and a love of true crime – Murderous Muses was basically made for me!