Murderously mathematical

When a British development studio creates an anime-style visual novel, it sounds a little unconventional at first. Add to this the actual story about an American actress who, after ending her career as a TV detective, is now suddenly working as a real investigator and is also accompanied by a flying cheerful robot with memory loss, then one thought takes hold: What the fuck? It doesn't help when the gameplay mix consists of searching through still images, talking to witnesses and suspects and solving nonograms.

Such was the case with Murder by Numbers, the game from Mediatonic released in 2020 for PC, Switch and Stadia. The developers had apparently been sniffing the packaging glue for too long during the production of their remake of the pigeon dating simulation Hatoful Boyfriend released in 2014, and wanted to do something of their own. This resulted in the aforementioned detective game and Fall Guys , which was also released in 2020 ... but that's not the point here. Despite the game concept and the absolute under-the-radar factor, I played Murder by Numbers back then and even streamed it for my patron Jacko! Fortunately, the videos are no longer available, as my vocal chords quickly reached their limits with the Batman-style Detective Cross.

But it was fun - and that's what counts. The story about Honor, her father, who was in the police force himself, his death and his old partner's feelings of guilt; the mystery surrounding Robot SCOUT's missing memory, behind which there seems to be much more; all of this comes from the big book of clichés. The narrative backdrop of the game basically only serves as a superstructure for solving said nonograms - and that's enough for me. Fortunately, I've been able to overcome my addiction in the meantime, but I'm currently stuck on crossword puzzles.

Anyway, let's move on to the solid soundtrack. Its 30 tracks last just under two hours in total and tick all the boxes for a thematically appropriate composition. Masakazu Sugimori, who wrote the scores for Viewtiful Joe (2003) and the first game in the Ace Attorney-series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2005), among others, delivers absolutely solid work here.

As is usual for games of this type, the score can be divided into relaxed background chatter, lively peaks and dramatic action. Sugimori relies on a mixture of good mood disco (Honor’s Theme, K.C. / Artiste Extraordinaire, Puzzle / The Digital Detective), calmer combinations of strings and piano for the mystery feeling (Turning Tide, Scouring the Scene, A Dark Turn), swing and jazz in film noire style for the representatives of the law (Detective Cross / Justice Takes Time, Mistakes We Can’t Erase) and action music akin to the Metal Gear for the narrative peaks (Crisis, We’ve Got Them!).

As these pieces are always accessories and are only intended to enhance moments instead of carrying them on their own, there is little change in tonality within the respective tracks, but primarily a constant sameness and repetition. This is great for playing, but less so without it. Even touching interludes such as Memories of Dad, The Only Way Is Forward or One Story Ends, Another Begins fall short of comparable works. At least the intro song Honor’s Theme [Vocal Version] manages to earn a five-star rating from me due to its TV character and my memories of the game. So the score is primarily something for fans of the genre or the game, and I give it 3.5 points.