Obsidian Moon is an upcoming text-based detective adventure-simulator, developed and published by Lost Cabinet Games. While no release date is set yet, this demo is available on Steam right now! Take on the role of Sam Carter, a once-respected homicide detective, tasked with solving a series of interconnected murders. Follow leads, interrogate suspects, and get closer to the truth.
Desk Clutter Sim
Been a while since I last dipped my feet into the detective sim genre! Can’t wait to see what this game has to offer.
Gameplay
While this demo is rather short, it still gives you a great first look at the overall gameplay loop. Starting off with a brief tutorial to cover the basics before you can jump into your first proper case.
Your main workspace is your desk, cluttered with files and documents that you need to sift through in order to get to the bottom of your case. Each card offers a set of unique investigation actions, everything from inspecting objects of interest or areas, surveilling locations or people, running lab tests, performing autopsies, checking records, the whole nine yards of detective work.
While these actions are the only way to reveal vital clues, like most things in life, they come at a cost. Each action takes time, some even take money, so you need to manage your resources well! You should also keep in mind that you only have so much staff, and they can’t be everywhere at once. Certain actions can not overlap, meaning that if, for example, your lab is tied up with an autopsy, they won’t be able to check out some fingerprints at the same time. No worries if you want to take it slow though. If you are not performing any actions, you can always pause the timer to get to your own conclusions, take a breath and think about the best steps to take next.
Deductions
Dragging certain files onto each other allows you to create combos, which is how you draw logical conclusions or question people about specific events and items. It is also how you confirm your hypotheses. Dragging a weapon onto an autopsy report, for example, might officially mark it as the murder weapon. These kinds of deductions are mostly optional, but they are worth the effort as they bump up your rating and net you some nice extra cash at the end of the day.
Any info or clues you come across are automatically logged in your journal. While your final results will be better the more you fill it out, it is mostly optional as well. You don’t necessarily have to be a great detective, you just have to be right.
Your main goal is to correctly identify the Victim, Offender, Murder Weapon, Motive, and the Cause of Death. Once you have noted these in your case file and submitted the warrant, the case is closed. Assuming your deductions are correct, of course. The game then gives you a little summary screen that tallies up all of your work. It is a nice way to see how many clues you have gathered, and how many you have missed. It isn’t easy to find every single clue, so don’t feel bad if you miss a couple.
Graphics & Audio
The visual style of Obsidian Moon is very straightforward, giving you a simple top-down view of your desk with all the files on top of it. Everything is pretty easy to read, and the sepia-toned color palette fits the detective theme perfectly. There is even a Noir mode if you want to really lean into those moody vibes.
However, the UI can be a bit of a pain to deal with. Clicking on files to read them opens a menu that is attached to the top right of the file, which often makes it overlap with others or just appear off-screen entirely, which gets a bit annoying at times. Sure, you can just shuffle your files around, but I wish I could move the menu separately.
The music is exactly what you would expect from a 1930s detective-style game. There are some small details, like the paper rustling when you mess with the files, which also adds to the immersion, but the background ambience is unfortunately a bit irritating and gets quite annoying after a while, so I unfortunately had to turn it off rather quickly.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the demo of Obsidian Moon is quite promising, even if it is a bit on the shorter side. It covers all the bases and explains the gameplay loop without overcomplicating things. I really enjoyed the freedom to investigate without being forced to find every single possible clue, and without needing to do everything in a certain order. It is quite the fun desk-work sim so far, and I am absolutely looking forward to the full release!
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
If you enjoyed this review, why not check out my previous article about another detective game called Best Served Cold!
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