What a nice surprise.

"Dead Secret" is a murder mystery game with horror/sci-fi elements. It's a classic whodunnit with some horror/sci-fi twists along the way, all leading up to five different potential endings.

It's worth noting that Dead Secret does not feature full 3D control. In its stead, you point and click your way through environments, a la "Scratches" and other similar games. The control scheme seems to be the main criticism of the game from what I have gathered, but I had no problem with it. Your character is able to get around just fine, and avoiding danger (Surprise! There are failure states!) is satisfactorily accomplished.

The environments are beautifully done, and the many clues/notes you can collect throughout the game are well-written and properly allow you to piece together what exactly has transpired, of your own accord. There are some "checkpoints" in the game where it will quiz you on your knowledge of the story and ability to piece together clues, but I'd hardly call it hand-holding. In a game like this, it's important not to get confused about the relationships between the characters and their backstories/motives, and Dead Secret does a fine job of making sure you're on top of things without force-feeding you information.

The game runs about 2 hours, so if I had one criticism of the game it would be that the price point is a little high for this amount of gameplay. Still, there are multiple endings and the game does have replay value if you want to unlock all of them.

Dead Secret's biggest strength is arguably the horrorlike ambiance and mysterious atmosphere that fills the locations you visit. Robot Invader, the developers, successfully crafted a fantastically paced, dynamic game that puts you on edge at the appropriate times and executes its scares almost to perfection. In fact, Dead Secret is filled with more dread than many games categorized strictly as horror, and it's pulled through by great storytelling.

All in all, a terrific surprise for 2016 and one I would be glad to experience again in VR once I get one of those fancy thingamadoos. Thumbs up!

What a nice surprise. "Dead Secret" is a murder mystery game with horror/sci-fi elements. It's a classic whodunnit with some horror/sci-fi twists along the way, all leading up to five different potential endings. It's worth noting that Dead Secret does not feature full 3D control. In its stead, you point and click your way through environments, a la "Scratches" and other similar games. The control scheme seems to be the main criticism of the game from what I have gathered, but I had no problem with it. Your character is able to get around just fine, and avoiding danger (Surprise! There are failure states!) is satisfactorily accomplished. The environments are beautifully done, and the many clues/notes you can collect throughout the game are well-written and properly allow you to piece together what exactly has transpired, of your own accord. There are some "checkpoints" in the game where it will quiz you on your knowledge of the story and ability to piece together clues, but I'd hardly call it hand-holding. In a game like this, it's important not to get confused about the relationships between the characters and their backstories/motives, and Dead Secret does a fine job of making sure you're on top of things without force-feeding you information. The game runs about 2 hours, so if I had one criticism of the game it would be that the price point is a little high for this amount of gameplay. Still, there are multiple endings and the game does have replay value if you want to unlock all of them. Dead Secret's biggest strength is arguably the horrorlike ambiance and mysterious atmosphere that fills the locations you visit. Robot Invader, the developers, successfully crafted a fantastically paced, dynamic game that puts you on edge at the appropriate times and executes its scares almost to perfection. In fact, Dead Secret is filled with more dread than many games categorized strictly as horror, and it's pulled through by great storytelling. All in all, a terrific surprise for 2016 and one I would be glad to experience again in VR once I get one of those fancy thingamadoos. Thumbs up!