KillerNight Reviews

Just a few days later, the developer released an update which just reinforces the fact I think this developer deserves the support. They fixed pretty much all the renderings, AND improved them! Changed the start up language to english and other stuff and the timer isnt a placebo anymore, which I immediately felt when I played through it again to see the new renders. [strike]Starts up in italian for some reason, luckily I could channel my inner Mario and change it to english. [/strike] I Do not know how to write reviews, so this can be a mess. But I know how important reviews are for smaller games. And I do think this game is worth supporting. The game starts with a heavy rock song. Unsure if its Original to the game itself, but I like it a lot. It starts off to tell you that prisons are overflowing and costing too much to keep running, so the state decided to put back the death penalty even for minor crimes. But this only solved the overcrowded problem. So instead they made a game show with seven people who got a death penalty, 6 are death row inmates for minor crimes who are called investigators and 1 is a death row inmate for a serious crime who is called the killer. It is up to those six, to find out who the killer is, before they… kill them all. Personally found it a bit ridiculous and would have just loved it if it was a insane friend who trapped them or something similar as this really tugs at my suspension of disbelief. [strike] One of the first scene's shows a rendered image of one of the models clipping her hand through her own breast. [/strike] The music was wildly out of place, a kind of epic opera song that doesn't match the vibe of the scene AT ALL. Its supposedly to be all introductory, yet the music screams an epic orchestra as if you are watching an epic battle or confrontation take place. Personally I think just ambience sounds alone would have been more effective and enjoyable then this out of place music. The developer does know how to pick the right music, so its kind of confusing why the developer would pick this opera music. During Marco and Anna's investigation, the music is perfect. Just a soft, relaxing background music. And nobody in the introduction seems to be bothered they were all sentenced to death over "minor crimes" or that the death penalty has been put back into place and harsher then ever. And from what I know, it doesn't really get brought up at all?? You don't follow anyone specifically, you kind of hop around from group to group depending on how they split up while they complete certain tasks. And during those tasks you can find evidence or clues, which you can discuss with the others, and it will also shine some more light on what exactly all the characters did to get put on death row. For the five bucks, I think its worth it if you want a small game with multiple paths and endings, and a simple story. However, it could very well be given for free since I feel like this was more of a learning experience for the developer then anything else. PRO's There is a timer on choices you make, putting a little bit of stress on you, before the game makes the choice for you. I do not know if this is random or a set choice. Lot's of choices and branching of paths. The dialogue itself wont win any awards, but its passable and does its job to forward the story. The twist at the end got me, and I can appreciate that. Eventho it does feel like it came out of nowhere and doesn't make a lot of sense. However, I could appreciate the twists with regard to the crimes the character has committed. So again like the music, the developer knows how to do it, just needs to work on getting more experience with it. CON's [strike] There are literally no consequences, because this is build on the Ren'py engine (I think anyway) you can just backtrack by scrolling your wheel and choose again, even if the timer ran out. This can also be a huge pro depending on what you like, but it just makes the timer feel obsolete. [/strike] This got fixed in an update! [strike]The renderings could be better. There are lots of mistakes. In the first scene a woman's arm is clipping through one of her breasts, on another rendering, a contestant get shot by an Arrow, but the next rendering he is grabbing his shoulder, instead of his forearm where he actually got shot, and there is no wound or blood to be seen. And there are more clipping errors shown, I lost track how many I saw, which I find sloppy. [/strike] This got fixed in an update and the developer even improved them! The game spoils itself by including the gender of the killer in one of its achievements.