Murder: Ghost In The Shell-Inspired Short Story Is Out
Bit flat
Tell me that for £1.79 I can finish a pretty cyberpunk point 'n' click 'em up within half an hour and I'll say "Ooh you're twisting my cyberarm, go on then!" So this morning I bought Murder [official site], the newly-released latest from Stranded designer Peter Moorhead and pals. It's the tale of a Tokyo futurecop investigating, obvs, a murder, and it... is not a game I liked. But I'll mention it because I know some of you were anticipating Murder, because it only cost me £1.79, and because I can think of far worse ways I might've spent that half-hour - are you familiar with 'shower snotting'?
Anyway, here's the deal: you're a cop in the cyberfuture, you keep having the same dream about a robot murdering you, and there's been a murder. From there, you can probably guess half of what'll happen. This is my problem with Murder: it plays with loads of cliches, but doesn't do anything interesting with them. You'll just find the same old selection of cops who are getting too old for this shit, a copboss who threatens to take your badge, sentient AI, questioning what's real, and so on. Lots of the dialogue is dull or awkward too.
But murder has neat music and looks very pleasant (as does 'Murder' the video game etc). Environments are nice, colours are bright, I really dig the Blade Runner-y brooding on a balcony, and some scenes have interesting framing.
For £2 and half an hour of my time, ah, sure, it was okay. I'm sure you can decide for yourself whether that's a price you'd be willing to pay, and I'm also sure you're wise enough to know that you needn't shout about that decision to everyone around you.
Murder is out for Windows, Mac, and Linux Steam and Humble. Ooh look, it's only £1.49 on Humble.
