Murderous Muses Review by Lexi From Gabbing About

Written by Lexi Holmes (Gabbing About)

A murder. A gallery at night. Pictures that come to life.

An unsuspecting night guard is drawn into a murder mystery at an art gallery’s latest exhibition, solving puzzles and finding clues to discover the answer to the ultimate question:

Who killed Mordechai Grey?

Murderous Muses is the latest release from D’Avekki Studios, the name behind IPs such as The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker and The Shapeshifting Detective. Well known for their take on the FMV (full-motion video) genre of video games, Murderous Muses twines their usual FMV with a procedurally generated map to create a game full of intrigue that is smart and fun.

The game takes place a year after the murder of renowned artist Mordechai Grey. The local art gallery putting on an exhibition of his works, including a room dedicated to his muses – those suspected of killing him. You play a night guard, who upon fulfilling their evening tasks, finds themself transported to an alternate world, where the layout of the gallery has changed and the voice of J.A.M.I.E (Jovial Art Museum Information Educator), the helpful tour guide, has been replaced by Higgins, the previous night guard who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Upon exploration, you discover six paintings of the muses: mortician Lilith Rendell, tennis star Sunday Finch, Professor Catherine Myers, failed celebrity and burlesque dancer Dominique Serrant, ventriloquist Otto Pipistrelle and his hilarious puppet, and clockmaker Xavier Haan. Without giving too much away, you must use their paintings and clues found around the gallery to ‘activate’ the muses, playing a series of FMVs which offers motives, alibis and general information on the muses and their relationship to Mordechai.

The FMVs are excellent, neatly crafted into the game, and each character is acted superbly. Otto and his puppet are the standout, with dry humour twisted throughout which slowly exposes Otto’s womanising ways. The clips help to create an almost ghostly atmosphere, supported by eerie music and an almost haunting art style. In terms of playability, the controls are simple and the game ran well once I had adjusted the camera sensitivity.

That being said, the game itself does suffer from simplicity. The main puzzle involving the paintings initially requires a lot of thought and planning, especially with the lack of tutorial or direction. After three nights of the same puzzle (just with different clues), it is mastered. As the game is procedurally generated, has thousands of seeds and a changing murderer, the game theoretically has unlimited replayability, however you are likely to get bored. A game that can take over two hours to complete the first time can then take less than an hour for each subsequent playthrough.

The strength of this game lies in the FMV, something that D’Avekki Studios has perfected over their previous games, and cannot be faulted. I was thoroughly entertained by the stories woven by the characters and especially the spoof of a true crime mystery that played on televisions dotted around the gallery. However, the lack of creativity in regard to the puzzles left it feeling stale. It will be interesting to see what D’Avekki Studios do next as they have the foundations of a truly great game.

A game to play through once or twice, and then put down until you’ve forgotten all about Mordechai Grey and his Murderous Muses.