An Act of Murder

by Christopher Huang

Mystery
2007

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Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(20)
4 star:
(35)
3 star:
(24)
2 star:
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Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 81
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- Zape, September 15, 2023

- Edo, August 17, 2023

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent, never mind the few bugs, February 13, 2023

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. A classic murder mystery.

Had to rely on external hints at times, however. (Spoiler - click to show)I entered the house without checking out the cars, and there was no way to get back out of the house without quitting the game (knowing that it'll be randomised is a huge barrier to exiting the house).

Saving the game helped a lot, especially when it was time to deduce the culprit and present the evidence. (Spoiler - click to show)It was mentioned that the chief would appear at 2:00 am, but in my gameplay, I was done before 2 am but had to make a couple of hundreds of "wait" turns until 4:00 am which was when the chief appeared. This seems to be a glitch.

The game took me several hours to complete, but I would definitely recommend this if you're an armchair detective. Really wish there were more of such traditional whodunits!

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- jaymesjw, February 5, 2023

- William Chet (Michigan), May 31, 2022

- Ry (Philippines), February 22, 2021

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Random Acts of Violence, December 1, 2020
by Gayla (Ann Arbor, MI)

There is a lot to like here -- I am a sucker for a good drawing room mystery in the style of Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers, and the opening of this game feels like a classic set up: a small group of people who know each other well, a few secrets, a body. Huang's writing is on point, and the NPCs are interesting. And the way that you solve this game -- not just by figuring out the murder, but by laying out the evidence -- is very smart and prevents you from stumbling into a correction solution.

Unfortunately, I think the randomized aspect of the game -- the killer and method of death vary from one play to another -- detracts from its impact. It's clever and no doubt it was fun to code up, but I think it ultimately detracts from the development of the NPCs. I found a lot of actions and topics that weren't implemented -- showing a potential murder weapon to a suspect should elicit some reaction! -- and asking an NPC about a subject more than once got the same response each time. I would have preferred, personally, a game with one solution and deeper development of the NPCs.

But that isn't the goal Huang set for himself, and he did what he set out to do well.

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- xkia, November 16, 2020

- quackoquack, June 10, 2020

- Cinfo88, June 9, 2020

- kierlani, May 17, 2020

- Sammel, April 4, 2020

- elias67, November 6, 2019

- Spike, August 27, 2019

- C. W. Gray , March 17, 2018

- Prosilire (New York City), December 3, 2017

- HarryKile, November 9, 2017

- eCcentr!c, November 4, 2017

- Cory Roush (Ohio), June 30, 2017

- Denk, June 6, 2017

- itsdnoftheworld, March 19, 2016

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A randomized murder mystery with good implementation and weak story, February 3, 2016

This is one of the best murder mystery games; you interview a variety of very vocal NPC's with different personalities, you pick up clues, look through a house, then deduce a murderer and then arrest them.

The NPC's are vibrant and active, moving about the house, talking about each other and their actions. It must have been an enormous amount of effort to implement these NPC's.

The story itself is necessarily somewhat weak. As the murderer can change every time, everyone's backstory and alibi have to be flexible enough to account for the changes, and there is no sense of urgency in the game.

A must-play for murder mystery fans.

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- Teaspoon, January 30, 2016

- Aryore, December 13, 2015

- hoopla, February 17, 2015


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