Paradise Killer is a detective game where you are free to investigate at your own discretion. That's what I love about it: I'm not pushed in any particular direction, I explore and deduce the structure of eco-brutalism at my own pace, at my own will, based on the evidence I find, and I accuse the characters of being ultra-eccentric. For the last hour, I played the role of the prosecutor in the trial and had to use all of the evidence, testimony, and information I had gathered to apprehend the perpetrator (or perpetrators) of the brutal murders. As I reviewed my notes, I felt like I had really accomplished something. The Paradise Killer gave me a sense of freedom that I had never felt in the detective game.

While most investigative parts of games lead the player down a certain path and have an answer at the end, "Paradise Killer" is open-ended. When evidence is picked up, it is automatically linked to the people involved in the file. If there is no clear link, it goes into the unclassified pile and cannot be used in the final trial unless a connection to someone is found. The system caused us to ponder things like motive and plausibility. I had to listen again to make sure the subjects with their new knowledge would not slip up and say something they shouldn't have. I had to be curious and hone my detective skills. And when I finally concluded the trial, I truly felt that I had reached a satisfactory conclusion. In [Paradise Killer], there is one main crime, but there are many related crimes, and I liked that I could prioritize my search for dirt on cases and people that interested me. Toward the end of the game, the plot that interested me the most was the one that I could explore in the most depth.

Paradise Killer takes place on an idealistic tropical island that is brimming with style. The inhabitants worship an alien god and sacrifice a human being every year to summon them. They have tried 24 times on 24 different islands, but it never works. They always summon the wrong demon. But the next island is different, they say. It is supposed to be the perfect island. It's a strange setting for a game, and forces a lot of quirks, but it's fun.

You play as Lady Love Die, a notorious "investigative freak" summoned from exile after the island's highest-ranking official is murdered on the eve of the transition to the new perfect island. It's up to you to figure out who did this, why, and how. You must interrogate key players, solve hieroglyphic puzzles for hidden information, explore the island with your computer sidekick, gather evidence, and ultimately convict the person or persons responsible for the heinous act, everyone.

Paradise Killer rewards exploration. I spent most of my time traversing the Paradise district, admiring the lush landscape and picking up Blood Crystals, the primary currency used to purchase collectibles, fast travel and black market secrets. There is a lot of walking around and relaxing, especially when you start picking up cassette tapes. The soundtrack is groovy music: city pop, ambient jazz, and disco. Sometimes, in between solving a looming murder mystery, I would relax by the sea, admiring this otherworldly reality and its soundtrack.

Every inch of the map hid a secret, and wherever I went, I was advancing the story or finding more context about the game's offbeat world. I moved around on the platform out of curiosity, checking out the scenery because there was always something to discover. At one point, I fell off a building onto a rocky ledge by the water. But when I walked back, I found a rusty knife that looked like it had been conveniently tossed from the scene. Then I learned that several people I had never even thought to suspect were involved in the case. A whole new plot of intrigue unraveled before my eyes, and I put a pin in the clues I had been investigating and threw everything I had into finding out more about it. What makes "Paradise Killer" stand out as a detective game is the freedom to unravel these unexpected mysteries in unconventional ways.

Paradise Killer features a truly fascinating cast of characters; 2.5D character models stand out throughout the map, and interacting with them switches you into visual novel mode. Chatting with the characters is also fun. Typewriter sounds are heard as text pops up, and smooth clicking sounds help focus attention on the dialogue without being intrusive. You can gossip and interrogate each character on a whim, and much of the game involves running around among them to corroborate their stories. Indeed, it feels as if any one of them could have committed a crime, and the breadth of possibilities is both exciting and nerve-wracking to consider as an investigator. I like the way [Paradise Killer] lays out all of the potential suspects and then has them all decide how they want to handle the situation in their own way, giving all of them the benefit of the doubt. I enjoyed my conversation with Carmelina, the person responsible for the design of the island. I think she hates Lady Love Die, but even when I ran out of case files to ask her about, she gossiped about all the other characters and gave me a glimpse into the bigger picture of the island's mystery. The story of "Paradise Killer" is complex and incredibly intertwined. The characters have motives and a rich history of relationships that could easily be missed if you weren't paying attention. Spend some time with the cool freaks on the island and you'll see a troubling web of politics.

The pace drops a couple of times, but these are pitfalls that allow players to follow their favorite clues. The Paradise Killer hooked me so much that I didn't care: even when I wasn't playing, I was thinking about it in a corner of my mind. Who did this? How could they do this? Why are people lying to me? The Paradise Killer will never tell you if your evidence is sufficient to prove the truth. Even at trial, you will never know what really happened.

I spent about 10 hours walking around Paradise and by the end there were a few plot points that I still felt I hadn't dug into enough. I rarely replay games, but I have already played this game once more. The fascinatingly intricate mysteries and personalities I stumbled upon during my island adventure had a surprising intensity that made it hard to stay away from this strange world of steam waves, demons, and betrayal. Paradise Killer" set a new standard for investigative gameplay. I felt a sense of unboundedness and immersion in the world's mysteries that I had never felt before in a detective game. The neon glow, fantastic soundtrack, quirky characters, and twisted storyline make this one of the best hoddanits you can play.