Murders on the Yangtze River Review

Everyone loves a good murder mystery, don’t they? I find myself strangely enjoying documentaries about how police and forensics gather their evidence at serious crime scenes. There aren’t many gaming experiences that have captured this well; the ones that come to mind for me are LA Noire and the Ace Attorney series of games. Murders on the Yangtze River caught my eye after seeing the positive scores on Steam, as it’s been there for a few years now and is finally available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Set across 1900’s China, you’ll need to don your detective cap and analyse evidence and figure out the culprits across a range of cases.

Gameplay

During Murders on the Yangtze River, you’ll be doing exactly what it says on the tin, and that’s investigating Murders on the Yangtze River. Whilst there is a little build-up to each case with some cutscene action, you’re exploring static settings. You’ll be playing detective, wandering through the environments, examining objects and looking for evidential clues that may aid your case.

Environments are small, but there can be plenty hidden within, so observation is a massive part of the game. You can build on evidence by having conversations, asking questions and interrogating suspects. Evidence will stay logged so you don’t need to worry about remembering every key piece, but you may need to use your thinking power to figure out who is to blame. Piecing these bits together was satisfying, as you may be convinced it’s one person, but then something may cause a twist in your thought process.

Lastly, you’ll come to the ultimate decision, and there’s a meter which will gauge when the people involved will run out of patience. Luckily, if you get everything wrong, then you’ll be able to attempt the process again. In the first case, I was convinced it was one person throughout, and it turned out to be the person I least expected. It’s such a clever turn of events and so well-written.

Visuals & Audio

Murders on the Yangtze River has a unique art style, with pretty much all of the visuals presented as Chinese ink-washed environments. With soft, pale colours, the design captures the atmosphere and tranquil times of 1900s China. The backdrops are lovely to look at, and they have been constructed to knit in with the crime scenes you’ll be observing.  During my playtime on Xbox Series X, the game ran smoothly throughout, and I expected it would do so given it’s an indie.

Dialogue throughout the game is mostly written text with some Chinese voice acting. Music presents itself during the tense moments where evidence may be revealed or a decision made. Instantly, this reminded me of the courtroom moments in Ace Attorney when things really heat up; it’s the same here. Whilst sound effects are here, it’s all very subtle and blends well with the pacing of the gameplay.

Final Thoughts

Murder on the Yangtze River reminded me a lot of Ace Attorney, but outside of the courtroom. Each case is pretty meaty in terms of the story behind it and how things progress, with plenty of dialogue and avenues of discovery. I thought the writing and how they constructed the cases were exceptional, and with six in total to work through, there’s a good slog of gameplay here. For its price point, it’s well worth around sixteen quid.

If you fancy picking a copy up for Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S, then you can do so HERE.