This game deserves more attention. It is far from a perfect game i.e. The graphics look outdated, it can be clunky to move around, their could be more detailed environments, and some of the writing didn't translate the greatest. But with all that said, this game is a blast! My gf and I had notepads and discussed theory after theory. There really needs to be more games like this, and This game deserves more attention.
It is far from a perfect game i.e. The graphics look outdated, it can be clunky to move around, their could be more detailed environments, and some of the writing didn't translate the greatest. But with all that said, this game is a blast! My gf and I had notepads and discussed theory after theory. There really needs to be more games like this, and I'm honestly surprised after looking that their is very few. So if you are looking to solve a mystery and piece together clue after clue.
The painscreek killing walkthrough English, step by step solution for adventure game. 2018: Walkthrough by: Dick Leeuw and Louis Koot. Text by Dick Leeuw. Screenshots, and a bit of text by Louis Koot. You are journalist Janet Kelly and you are sent by your editor to the village of Painscreek to investigate an unsolved murder.
Then this one should be a game you consider. I'm excited to see if more games like this pop up. The Painscreek Killings has been one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences that I've had in a long time! If you like exploration and solving mysteries on your own, then this is the game for you. One thing that this game absolutely nails is the atmosphere. I've seen some people complain about the lack NPCs in the game. However, the game's atmosphere heavily depends on a feeling of The Painscreek Killings has been one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences that I've had in a long time!
If you like exploration and solving mysteries on your own, then this is the game for you. One thing that this game absolutely nails is the atmosphere. I've seen some people complain about the lack NPCs in the game.
However, the game's atmosphere heavily depends on a feeling of isolation, so having NPCs would actually be detrimental to this feeling (and the town is supposed to be abandoned, after all). In addition, exploring the town alone really adds to the immersion of the game. Together, the locations, visuals, story, and music successfully evoke atmospheres that are eerie, sad, disturbing, tense, and more. At times, you are expected to pay close attention to detail, which is something that I look for in a detective game. As such, you shouldn't try to rush through things - doing so will almost certainly cause you to miss things, and then you'll get stuck and have to backtrack.
I don't see this as a flaw with the game, you are just expected to play patiently and observantly. It's best to read each document in detail and comb each area carefully. Playing through the game in this way took me about 10 hours. Even still, I only got a 90% completion rate, so there is definitely no shortage of clues to look for. Luckily, after the end you are able to go back to your last save to find more clues/evidence without the need to start all over.
The most common complaints I encounter are about the gameplay. For the most part, this game plays like a walking simulator.
So at the end of the day, gameplay shouldn't even be the main focus. That being said, if you are someone who absolutely hate walking sims, you might not like this game. If you love walking sims, you'll have no problem with this game.
If you're anywhere in between, there is still so many more other things that this game has to offer: exploring an abandoned town, solving a mystery, figuring out puzzles, following a story that unravels the deeper you dig, and so on. It plays like a walking sim, but it's a mystery/detective/exploration game at its core. I played with a group of friends, but it would be just as fun to play solo (this would only add to the feeling of isolation and immersion).
To be fair, I don't think that it's a perfect game. Some of the controls could have been better, and I might have liked it if certain parts of the game were a little different (although I definitely didn't hate these parts - I even liked some of the riskier decisions they made). But these flaws only make up a small portion of the game and they were more than easy to look past, even more so when considering that this is an indie game.
Moreover, I thoroughly enjoyed every other aspect of this game. So having a few rough patches certainly doesn't ruin the entire experience, especially when these moments don't take away from the overall story or previous memorable moments of the game.
Overall, I really loved this game (which is why I wrote so much, sorry). At the end of the day, I think it is very impressive that this is the very first game EQ Studios has ever put out. You don't always get this level of polish in indie games, especially when it is a studio's first release. I've been wanting to play a game like this for the longest time, but other games that I have tried have never really hit the mark quite like this one. So, thank you for creating this game - I finally found something that is exactly what I have been looking for! Now, I will eagerly await the studio's next release!
The Painscreek Killings is a first-person detective adventure which has an ambitious goal. There’s no narrative to lead the way. Instead, the town of Painscreek is a semi-open world where the player is supposedly free to explore the case at their own direction and pace. Janet snoops about public places and private homes in search of documents and the tiniest of details to build a picture of the grim events that took place in the now abandoned town. The digital camera will store an infinite number of pictures so it’s best to make it a habit to photograph anything which seems worthy of notice, because the in-game journal won’t record everything. Besides, you need that killer photo (pun intended) for the front page. The investigation can be halted any time by returning to your car and choosing the murderer and the murder weapon from possible choices.
The only way to get the true ending is to get it all correct.For a while, it’s exciting to piece together people’s lives from newspaper clippings, diaries, and random notes. But then, the problems start to pile up. For starters, the game is really slow-paced. It doesn’t help that there are severe technical problems hampering the investigation. The frame-rate can drop to a crawl on a PC easily capable of running more graphically complex games.
Switching off several graphical enhancements didn't have much effect on the poor performance. The Unity-powered engine is clearly not optimized as the visuals aren’t particularly spectacular to begin with.
The town, its surroundings, and the sets are adequate at best. I was almost ready to give up the game when I reached the mansion and the frame rate was reduced to still screens.
I bit my lip and eventually managed to judder my way inside and back out. The free will in investigating turns out to be an illusion. The gameplay narrows down to finding one key after another to unlock the many locked doors. Semi-open world or not, Painscreek is really linear at heart. The progress can be entirely halted if you haven’t found that exact key you realize you need, and you might not even know why. In those instances, it’s back to comb the previously visited places to find what you missed earlier (probably a tiny detail you didn’t even know was significant because the graphics don't make anything particularly stand out). Sometimes, to interact with objects you need to be in the exact right position; so it’s easy to miss things of note.The problem solving won’t win any prizes either.
You’d really think you could pry a jammed drawer open with a sturdy kitchen knife laying on a nearby nightstand, but no. You need that exact tool from an exact toolbox, found exactly from one place in the whole town, needing that exact key to get in, needing not-so-exact information why some person was in a possession of that key to that exact place. At worst, the whole process Is a lucky draw.