Review: Death Trick: Double Blind Is Filled With Intrigue

What’s better than a murder mystery set in the allure of a 1940s circus? Two murder mysteries! Or, to be more precise, a single murder and two investigators with access to different clues, testimonies, and locations. In its seven-hour playtime, Death Trick: Double Blind presents an intriguing story of magic, jealousy, and family.

The story of Death Trick: Double Blind follows Jackie (a magician) and Jones (a detective), who drop by a traveling circus for different reasons and at different times. The magician and ringmaster of this circus, Hattie, just died. It’s up to Jackie and Jones to figure out just who killed her. However, there’s a catch. They only have until seven o’clock to find the culprit, as Jackie (Hattie’s replacement) has to go on stage at seven, and the circus will be leaving right after, meaning that Jones won’t get the chance to investigate any further.

The game allows you to perform a limited amount of actions per hour. You can go around the circus to ask people about themselves and the case, as well as search for clues. Some characters are not available at certain hours. When that happens, you have no choice but to collect clues from other circus workers as you wait. Because Jackie is a replacement magician and Jones is a private eye, they’ll be able to hear different testimonies from everyone as well as collect different pieces of evidence. Another thing about the suspects is that they lie or omit details. If you have enough evidence in your collection, you can point out contradictions between them to gain further insight from the suspects. It plays in quite a similar way to Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, but without the “battles” and goofiness.

This play style actually makes the case very easy to solve. I figured out the culprit by 2 PM in-game thanks to the UI rather than my own deductions. However, the mystery of why and how the culprit committed the murder kept it from becoming monotonous. As mentioned earlier, you only have a certain number of actions per hour. You can increase this after completing tasks, though. While this is very helpful for the early stage of the game as you’re getting your feet underneath you, it becomes a bit tedious later on. Once you max out your AP, you’ll have more than enough to figure out all the mysteries in the circus. After that, you can only aimlessly wander around and ask about random things to make time progress. I wished that there was some sort of button to let me skip forward in time.

In saying that though, I did enjoy talking to everyone. Though we only get to know the characters for a little while, I found myself becoming genuinely invested in their lives, histories, and personalities. Considering that two people did virtually all the creative work in the game, I was very impressed by the writing and art. If there’s a sequel with these characters, I would jump at the chance to play it. Though short, Death Trick: Double Blind was like any performance worth its salt: sweet, riveting, and unforgettable. 

Death Trick: Double Blind is readily available on the Windows PC and Nintendo Switch.

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