Fantastic adventure game with only minor flaws. Play time for me was around 15 hours or so plus another couple of hours for finding the last few items that I had missed originally.

You are playing a journalist who investigates a series of murders that happened a few years back and were never solved. The majority of the game consists of searching through various locations for letters, notes and other clues that allow you to piece together the events that led to the murders and identify the killer. The game is fairly non-linear, most locations are available right from the start although there are quite a few rooms and a handful of areas that you first have to unlock (literally, i.e. you need to find a key/code).

There is no dialogue, no cutscenes, no quick-time decision making, and there is no hand-holding, either. This is "just" a great detective adventure game and I recommend it to everyone who likes putting clues together, has an attention span of more than a few minutes and doesn't mind reading more than a couple of sentences. Completely worth the money even at full price.


Story
Four years ago, the successful business woman Vivian Roberts was killed in the small town of Painscreek but even though there was initially a suspect the case has not been solved. Now, the town is abandoned and about to be auctioned of, so this is the last chance to maybe find out what really happened. You are a journalist tasked with writing a story about her murder, so you grab your trusty camera and start investigating.

Gameplay
The whole town is basically a sandbox. You can WASD walk everywhere, open all available cupboards (so many cupboards) and you can snap pictures of anything that might be interesting. Letters, notes, maps etc are collected in a journal.
Unfortunately, there is no fast travel. This is not a problem in the beginning where you don't run back and forth that much but in the last quarter of the game it becomes a bit tedious to have to repeatedly walk through the whole place.
My advice is to really take a lot of pictures (or make notes) of anything that might be a clue as well as anything that you haven't yet solved to minimise the need to backtrack. [Hint: Doors/items that can be opened have an "unlock" hover text over the lock. If there isn't one then you can't open it].

Graphics etc
I played on medium graphics settings and some shadows looked like straight out of Minecraft and there were a few minor glitches. All of that might disappear on a higher setting, though.
The sounds and music were absolutely fitting, very unobstrusive and relaxing - with one exception: For reasons unknown, the devs decided to give lights a buzzing sound that was marginally less appealing than nails on a chalkboard. Why, devs, why?
On the plus side, you get a flashlight with unexhaustable batteries.

Criticism
Apart from the already mentioned brain-liquifying buzzing sound of the light fixtures and the missing fast-travel I have only one complaint (well, two, but the other one would be a major spoiler): At the very end, after you've painstakingly put everything together, the devs basically hand you the solution on a platter. I can see why it is necessary, this way even less patient players can "win" the game. But it would have been nice if for some imaginary bonuspoints or an extra achievement the game would ask some additional questions e.g. about the events that led to the murder of Vivian Roberts for those of us who have to read and understand everything.

Despite these minor flaws I enjoyed this game very much. It is hard but not too hard, I always had things to investigate right until the end and the story was overall fantastic. Half-way through the game I was already so immersed and emotionally invested in "my" investigation that a plot twist really hit me in the feels. I hope the devs continue making games in this line, I'll definitely buy another game like this!