By Alec Meer on August 8th, 2011 at 10:06 am.
Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog is Crime and Punishment as starring a homicidal, humanoid mutt who isn’t at all interested in moral justification for his thousands of remorseless kills.
It’s The Outsider, if Meursault actively enjoyed his act of murder (and was a dog).
It’s a libertarian rebuke of the modern justice system (starring a dog).
It’s a liberal treatise against the covert endorsement and use of violence by police (as made by a dog).
It’s an existentialist discussion of the nature of morality (by a dog).
It’s Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, but with a dog and graphics that ping-between hand-drawn and crude claymation.
It’s the latest game from thecatamites, creators of the unrepentantly disturbing Space Funeral.
It’s bewildering, infuriating, distressing, hilarious, smart, disingenuous, immoral, amoral, moral, passionate, laconic, satirical, serious, stupid and angry.
It’s free and you should go play it.
Your dilemma: you are the titular Murder Dog. You have murdered thousands of people, and you enjoyed it. You are on trial for this. You are representing yourself for the defence. Knowing your crimes, do you seek to be punished for them, or to exploit legal and moral loopholes to escape penalty? You may decide.
08/08/2011 at 10:32 gwathdring says:
Huh.
08/08/2011 at 10:39 Dominic White says:
I played this the day it was released. Within 45 minutes, I had gotten both the True Murder Dog Canon ending, and the Not Guilty ending.
I believe I may be unfit for life in non-murdering society at large.
08/08/2011 at 10:50 Mr_Hands says:
Everyone should be following @thecatamites on twitter. Far and away the best titters I’ve had from twitter.
Looking forward to delving into this. Loved Space Funeral.
08/08/2011 at 11:01 The Army of None says:
Murder Dog: Gaming’s Citizen Kane?
08/08/2011 at 15:52 Soon says:
Citizen Canine.
08/08/2011 at 11:03 TsunamiWombat says:
Played it and I THINK I got all the endings…getting off was depressingly easy.
08/08/2011 at 11:11 Dominic White says:
And in the game!
08/08/2011 at 12:45 Dawngreeter says:
Gotta respect a person who likes to work for his orgasm.
08/08/2011 at 11:04 liqourish says:
Lovely game.
Very odd.
08/08/2011 at 16:28 Harkkum says:
Most strange experience indeed. Not maybe too sophisticated but fun nonetheless. Gets one murderous bark and two innocent growls.
08/08/2011 at 11:05 Burning Man says:
Good stuff. Short, but very well done.
08/08/2011 at 11:06 WJonathan says:
WhothewhattheIdon’tevenbuthowwhyisitohnevermind
08/08/2011 at 11:20 liqourish says:
What I think makes this game interesting is that even as it builds up this absurd world that has murder dogs and brains in jars, it touches on some things that are scarily close to ours.
The police don’t employ murder dogs (taken from the army league?) to use against the population – but it is true that there is a state monopoly on violence.
It gets close enough sometimes to be both thought-provoking and a little unsettling.
08/08/2011 at 11:27 JackShandy says:
My favourite bit is the little dog in the corner that constantly dissects the plot.
08/08/2011 at 11:45 Gundrea says:
The first victim of any murder is conscience.
The second is pineapple surprise.
08/08/2011 at 12:55 Moth Bones says:
As with Space Funeral, I couldn’t get this to work. It won’t fit on my monitor. A great shame, as I really like the look of both games.
08/08/2011 at 13:36 Hensler says:
I had the same problem with this, until I noticed the setup file in the zip folder. Let me switch it to windowed mode and it worked fine then.
08/08/2011 at 13:00 patricij says:
I won!
08/08/2011 at 17:04 Raiyan 1.0 says:
There is no winning. Just levels of defeat.
08/08/2011 at 13:25 poop says:
play this worthy indie game you shits
08/08/2011 at 14:13 Rii says:
I was going to give it a miss, but your eloquent plea has convinced me otherwise.
08/08/2011 at 17:05 Raiyan 1.0 says:
So says poop.
08/08/2011 at 17:34 Morph says:
A lesser charge? I’ll be out in 5!
08/08/2011 at 23:07 Heliocentric says:
35 in dog years
08/08/2011 at 19:58 Shooop says:
I enjoyed this one a great deal. Hilarious and to an extent, disturbing seeing how easy it can be to twist the system. Absolutely love the “winning screen” which tells me how to collect a prize.
I just wish they had done more with the claymation and made it a bit longer/more involved like being able to pick answers like Monkey Island’s insult sword fighting. Quite a few ways I really wanted to contest the victim’s testimony.
10/08/2011 at 11:12 freakoftheuniverse says:
After loving Space Funeral (so much that I even made a custom icon for it for the desktop), I was pleased as punch that he followed through with another madly insane piece of brilliance.
Oh, I can heartily recommend VEGGIE TALES 3D, one of his earlier works. I hope you like being filled with rage
16/09/2011 at 14:30 hello_mr.Trout says:
best game! canon ending made me laugh!