The Sexy Brutale

I found Boone's quest so fascinating, the Brutale's secrets so alluring, and its world so charming that I rewound the clock just to spend a few more days in Lafcadio's beautiful nightmare.

The Sexy Brutale is a beautiful puzzler that skillfully combines time loops and elements of Clue.

A perfectly horrid, wonderfully thought-out mixture of Majora's Mask-style time rewinding and Metroidvania exploration.

A stylish and creative adventure with a clever time-rewinding hook.

Some of the puzzles are laborious to complete, but the rewards are usually worth the effort

Though The Sexy Brutale fumbles a few times -- especially near the end when it rushes toward a narrative payoff -- it never hurts the experience. Uncovering the mansion's secrets and the twisted plot that dooms its guests is exciting. Compared to almost any other puzzle game, The Sexy Brutale's dark tone and inspired art stand out from the crowd. Solving murder might not be the most cheerful work, but it's one hell of a good time.

The Sexy Brutale is a very different type of game to anything on the PS4 currently, taking up a Groundhog Day-style in gameplay that is excellently executed. The game is perfectly presented with outstanding audio and visuals that are able to switch the tone of the story from being joyfully upbeat to a very dark within a matter of moments. The story does a great job of keeping you fixated on looking for answers from beginning to end and its conclusion will leave you more than satisfied with your time spent solving its interestingly intricate puzzles.

As short-lived as the story is, The Sexy Brutale is still a standout murder mystery title. The stimulating 3D puzzle and adventure elements makes it one of the best within its genre. The chosen theme and locale is also the exact type of setting you want for a title built on intrigue, murder and mystery. If you're more of a shoot first, ask questions later sort of player, this might not be for you, but for the type of person who enjoys a slower-paced but equally as rewarding game experience, this is a murder mystery worth looking into.

While there are a few minor technical problems, I haven't played a puzzle adventure game that's absorbed me like The Sexy Brutale has in a long time. A great story well worth telling.

In the end, The Sexy Brutale is a marvelous and unique delight of a murder mystery, one you’ll have walked away from feeling shocked over what exactly you just saw play out in the story, satisfied over the challenging puzzles you’ll have solved to help out each masked guest, and dazzled over the vibrant and mesmerizing aesthetics.