Overboard!
PC, Switch
Developer/publisher Inkle
Format PC, Switch Release Out now
Poor Malcolm Villensey. Desperate to turn things around after a series of poor investments left him in dire financial straits, he set off for America with wife Veronica aboard the SS Hook. But now he’s sleeping with the fishes: during a midnight stroll on deck, he was leaning over to look at the dolphins swimming below, when a brisk shove sent him tumbling into the Atlantic. On a clear July night, surely there must have been a witness to this terrible crime? Or at least someone who heard something? Indeed so. And that’s going to be a problem.
Inkle’s latest has all the ingredients you’d expect in a classic whodunnit, except this game is actually a youdunnit. The opening establishes Veronica as the guilty party; playing as this scheming socialite, we now have to cover our tracks. Yet with only a matter of hours until we dock in the United States, time is against us. And, well, there are a lot of loose ends to deal with. We’re one diamond earring short, for starters. There’s an elderly gossip on board, who seems to know more than she’s letting on – or does she? Perhaps we can loosen her tongue by plying her with drink. Or else quickly palm a sleeping tablet into her dirty martini while she’s not looking.
But if we’re occupied at that time, we might miss our opportunity to seduce the ship’s commander, whose pass key could yet come in handy. Or to investigate the sobbing coming from one of the aft cabins. Or, for that matter, to snoop around the army major’s room. Could his diary full of disparaging comments about the rest of the passengers somehow come in handy? There are plenty of mysteries to solve aboard the ship, then, and even securing an alibi (or ensuring the evidence is at best circumstantial) isn’t necessarily enough. We could really do with that insurance money to start a new life, after all, and a suicide verdict just isn’t going to cut it. Time, then, to apply what we’ve learned and try to pin the deed on someone else.
It’s a trial-and-error affair, in other words, but the errors often result in unexpected revelations, or prompt moments of amusement. (If all else fails, you can head to the ship’s chapel for divine assistance, or at least pray for forgiveness when it looks like the game’s up.) And with the ability to accelerate through previous choices, another short crossing is impossible to resist. Malcolm’s yelp at the start of each run comes to feel like the sound of a studio cutting loose. Assembled in a matter of months, this has the spontaneous energy of a sketch, but one that’s been retouched, embellished, framed and mounted. A superior bit of stuff and nonsense, it makes a bigger splash than you’d think.