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The Roottrees Are Dead (Evil Trout Inc.)–My Official Review

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I finished The Roottrees Are Dead (Evil Trout Inc.) tonight. For a game that I at first did not get at all (why someone would play it), I jumped into it with both feet when it clicked (which was very soon after the second time I tried to play it).

The premise is shaky, but that’s quickly forgiven and forgotten. To recap, the president of a candy empire, his wife, and their three daughters die in a plane crash. I’m a private detective, and a shadowy figure slips an envelope under my door with several disparate pieces of information. The person adds a note that says they will return when I had a certain numbers of Roottrees (by birth, not spouses), their pictures, and their occupations correctly identified. Then, the person would return to give me more info.

The devs had their own search engine in the game, and as I’ve said, they were smart to set the game in the late nineties before the internet exploded and went completely wild. I was a little frustrated that you had to find exact search terms to come up with information, but I think that’s a shortcoming of my brain rather than an issue with the game. I don’t think like other people do, so it was a struggle from time to time to find what the terms they wanted me to use.

It felt incredible, though, when I was able to figure things out. And I was damn near a genius when it came to the special little optional bit at the end. Seriously, I mentally patted on my back for getting that shit right. I figured out the twist fairly early on, but I needed one piece of info from late in the game to nail down the details.

The way the game interweaves the intricate details is astounding. But, also confusing. And while I did start taking notes, it was still hard to know what would be useful and what wouldn’t. Hm. Let me rephrase that. Much of the time, it was pretty clear what you were looking for in a search result. Sometimes, though, there was nothing that really caught my eye. I knew if I got a result, there was something that mattered in it. Well, except for one name as he was a Roottree, but not related. At least not in this game.

There’s another game that unlocks after you finish the first game, and it’s alll about finding all the Roottrees who were born out of wedlock. I started it, got the intro and the new batch of information before shutting the game down. Finishing the first game took longer than I anticipated, so I decided that I would not tackle the second mystery properly until tomorrow.


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What I want an a detective game, part three

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I have been musing about detective/mystery games for the past week or so because I’ve been obsessed with them lately. Here is my post from yesterday in which I griped about more things I hate in detective games.

In this post, I’m going to try to focus more on what I want from a detective game, not what I don’t want. But, there will be some of the latter because it’s unavoidable. At least for me. I tend to think of things in terms of what I don’t want. It helps me discard the chaff and focus on the wheat.

What I want, what I really really want.

1. Characters that I really care about. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, there was a character who really touched my heart. When they turned out to be the murderer, I felt so bad for them. I did not want to turn them in, but I knew I had to.

By the way, I was given three choices of how to present the evidence. I picked two of them, thinking they would be gentler than just turning them in. Joseph (the prrosecutor) told me that those were not acceptable, so I chose the third one. It turned out to be the most lenient of all, but I had no way of knowing that just by reading the choices.

I was lamenting about this yesterday, and I will continue now. Why am I given choices if there really is only one correct choice? And, while I’m happy that I don’t get a penalty for choosing the wrong one, it makes the choice meaningless.

2. To put it in a more positive way, give me meaningful choices, but ones that don’t have an objective right and wrong answer. Yes, I know that the point of detective games is to ferret out the truth, but there can be room for gray, right?

3. Simplified deductions. I don’t want elaborate or tortuous trains of thoughts that are the mental equivalent of ‘combine a piece of yarn, a tire iron, a broom, and a can of pop to make a key’. I still love Murders on the Yangtze River (OMEGAMES Studio), but I love it despite itself. It can’t help being a big ol’ pain in the ass when it comes to laborious inferences and obscure clues that make no sense.

Or, if it the devs have enough money, then I would be down with them having two ways to solve things. One, the elaborate, fifteen-step deduction that takes greater leaps of faith than I am capable of making. Two, simple, clear steps with maybe just a few twists that are juuuust hard enough to make me feel clever.


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The Roottrees Are Dead (Evil Trout Inc.)–A Quick Look

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When the first Golden Idol game came out, I desperately wanted to like it because it seemed to be way up my alley. Sadly, I could not get into it, so I put it aside. Then along came The Roottrees Are Dead. Someone in the RKG Discord was really pushing it, and I bought it when it was on sale one day. I tried it out, didn’t vibe with it, and uninstalled it. A few days ago, because of my detective game kick, I decided to give it another go, and I really dug it. So much so, I gobbled it up for the next few days.

Here’s the basic premise. There is a famous and wealthy business family named the Roottrees. They are a candy mogul/empire, and at the start of the game, the president, his wife, and their three daughters die in a plane crash. A mysterious person dropped off a bunch of infoon my doorstep with a note. I’m a private investigator/detective, and of course, I’m intrigued.

I have to figure out who all the members of the family are and how they are all related to each other. Why? Purportedly for the purpose of the will. Who gets to inherit and all that. I’m given a family tree with all the pictures, names, and occupations blanked out. All the ties are noted (like spouse, children, etc. And if someone divorced their spouse).

By the way, I’ve been ragging on point-and-clicks, but mentioned that Kathy Rain (Clifftop Games) was one I really liked despite the flaws of the genre–until the third act. I said because of how poorly it did, Clifftop Games scrapped the two planned sequels. For whatever reason, as I was looking up something, Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer came up. Excuse me, what???? I Googled it and it was a sequel that came out about a month ago. My gob was truly smacked because I had not heard even a whisper of it. Apparently, diehard fans of the first game clamored for a sequel, and it finally gct made.

I also read that many people were not happy with the third act of the game. I’m glad it wasn’t me! In part it’s beacuse the marketing for it was very much “here’s a gritty detective noir story about a hard-bitten ’90s female detective that is grim and dark”. To have the ending come out of seemingly nowhere the way it did took many people by surprise, and that was one big reason people were not happy with it.

Now, of course, I have to buy and play the sequel. Oh, and the Director’s Cut of the original, which I already had in my inventory. I bet it was a free update for people who already had it, and I have it installed now. I just have to decide if I want to play that or the sequel next.

Anyway, back to this game. The first thing I’m instructed to do is lock in six (I think) Roottrees. Not their spouses, but those who are actual Roottrees. And  it was from the notable (starred) Roottrees list that my mysterious employer gave to me.

The way I’m to do my research is by using the web (they have their own search engine, and you can look up anything on it. And they have a publication search engine (for magazines and such) and a book/author search engine as well. You have to use the words that will trigger the articles, which can be frustrating sometimes, but there is also a hint system if you get too stuck.


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