Murder by Numbers (2020)

Murder by Numbers masterfully combines visual novel with puzzle aspects. With a interesting story and charismatic and well-developed characters, the game also offers fun for picross fans with a good dose of puzzles along the way.

Overall this is a game no fan of Picross (or nonograms) should miss. It is just as essential as Jupiter’s Picross-e and Picross-s series.

90’s fashions! Upbeat jams! Sass dialled up to 100! Questionable jokes! Drag queens! All that and more awaits… in Murder by Numbers! According to my investigation on the game, the website set the bar high. What you just read was not only the start of my review for the Picross puzzle adventure game from Mediatonic but also a quote of the official website.

Murder by Numbers is a unique project with really addictive puzzles, but sometimes it seems that the story is too long, and references to pop cultural phenomena will not be clear to most of the Russian audience. However, interesting tasks and charming characters will make you return to this game regularly. After all, such a satisfying dish simply requires small portions and several approaches.

For $14.99 Murder By Numbers is a game I really hesitate to recommend. It is a relatively lengthy experience as it took me about 28 hours to complete, with a lot of that time spent solving the puzzles. It’s a competent Picross game that will give you a large amount of puzzles to solve, but the story really didn’t leave much of a lasting impression on me. It showed a lot of promise at first, but ultimately falls short of reaching its full potential. I think the developers really wanted to make Murder By Numbers something special and I would like to see them improve on the formula and expand on the narrative in a sequel.