TR-49 Review: Detective games get a little more mysterious with this mystery

We live in a very wonderful time for detective games. Over the past few years, developers have been experimenting with all sorts of different ways to turn the investigation process into a compelling game, resulting in games like Her story, The return of the opera d’enand the Golden idol seriesbut not limited to. You can now add TR-49 to that list – a game that builds on the genre by introducing a strange cryptanalysis computer.

It was developed by Inkle, the studio behind it 80 days and Sky vault, TR-49 Mystifying from his first moments. When you start the game, you have no idea what’s going on — not even your character. You play as a woman who wakes up inside a church basement with no memory of who she is or how she got there. In front of you is a strange computer from the World War II era. It has a large circular screen and you control it using the type of lever more closely associated with factory machinery than high-end computing. Soon you hear a man’s voice telling you what to do: find a missing book.

To tell you more about the premise would be a spoiler 1984– The bitter reality that is revealed; Not that my description would make any sense anyway. TR-49 It is a game in which narrative discovery is integrated directly into the gameplay. The machine is the only thing you can interact with, and it’s a device full of information, but the trick is finding it. Each file has an associated code that you must enter to open it. The idea is that by reading the different files you discover, you will learn new information, which in turn will help you learn new codes for more files.

I found myself searching through documents I didn’t really understand at first, looking for names and dates that might be relevant, and then trying my luck at coming up with a code. You also don’t need to carry a notebook because the game keeps track of important people, organizations, and books through a file system that you can refer to at any time.

Playing TR-49 It reminded me a lot Her storya game in which you interact by searching for keywords in the police database. In this case, the story starts to reveal itself the more you read and start to piece things together. But there is another side to TR-49because it is also part of the audio drama. While your character is alone in the basement, you have a radio that allows you to communicate with a man outside. It’s mostly one way, the radio will light up when it’s time to talk. It gives you directions, answers questions, and sometimes gives you subtle hints when you’re stuck.

It’s a well-acted drama, and this structure makes the big revelations feel more important than simply opening a new file on an old computer. It adds a real sense of urgency to a game that’s all about entering numbers. And there’s something so organic and satisfying about the way the scope of the story unfolds little by little. It’s as if you’re revealing things, rather than simply being told.

While most of this happens naturally, TR-49 It suffers from the same problem as most games of this type: there is a high probability of getting stuck. I certainly did. Usually, I would have to take a break and re-read something with fresh eyes, and the clues would jump out at me upon a second look. But I also resorted to guessing a few times, entering codes that seemed correct, and then hoping for the best. I’m not ashamed to say that this usually worked. It helps that this is a fairly tactile experience, at least on mobile where you’re rotating dials and pulling handles, so there’s satisfaction in simply using the device, even if you’re guessing.

These roadblocks can be frustrating, but at least in my experience I’ve always found a way around them, whether it’s taking a breath or guessing. either way, TR-49 It manages to do what the best detective games do: make me feel like I’m part of the story, piecing it together as I go along. You just have to be willing to be confused before it all comes to fruition.

_{TR-49 It will launch on January 21 on Steam and iOS.}