Fans of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries rejoice! Tin Man Games has come out with a new point and click adventure mystery novel and they’ve nailed it. All your favorite characters from the show are here, if not as a part of the story, then at least mentioned.
The music is period, just like in the show, and in addition to solving an interesting crime with a good a twist at the end, you get to assemble various ensembles for Phryne to wear as she goes about solving the crime with intrepid and dashing Detective Inspector Jack Robinson, Dot, Hugh, Mac and Aunt Prudence.
Okay, so for the nuts and bolts of the game: it’s a point-and-click, not a deep immersive experience, so it’s perfect on an iPad or iPhone. It’s also coming soon to Steam and Google Play. It’s easy for an interactive novel to be bad, it’s much harder to keep it interesting with two dimensional slide in characters and minimal voice acting, but Tin Man Games keeps with the stylized look of the show and the artwork looks like the actors, and the music is right for the Jazz Age, so the mystery is fun and it feels like an extension of the show as opposed to something slapped together to capitalized on the success of the television series.
The mystery itself is well constructed, with twists and turns that aren’t always obvious, which is nice. Sometimes interactive novels, in an attempt to keep players from getting lost, make the mysteries so obvious that it’s not fun to play. That said, the deduction mechanic in this game can occasionally be frustrating, but in general it works pretty well.
The developers also do a good job with the dialog. Even though very little of it is voice acted, the way the text is presented and written suits the way the characters speak in the show. Basically, fans of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries will be delighted to find this little gem, and if you like the first one, there will be other chapters coming in the future. This game is self-contained and concludes but sets up the next chapter, which leaves you wanting more.
Point-and-Click mystery fans that haven’t seen the show might still want to give this game a try. It’s charming, well done, and a good story. Check out Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze and let us know what you think in the comments below.
