Paradise Killer Single-Handedly Revolutionises The Detective Genre
Paradise Killer is one of the greatest detective games ever made, which is remarkable when you consider it's the low budget debut of a tiny indie studio. It succeeds where other detective games fail by letting you actually be a detective. There are no missions, objective markers, pre-ordained paths to follow, or other such hand-holding. You're set free in an open world littered with clues, leads, and suspects, and piecing the case together is left entirely up to you. It's even possible to pin the crime on the wrong person entirely.
You play as Lady Love Dies, a disgraced investigator freed from exile and ordered to investigate a brutal mass murder on Paradise Island, a vividly painted world that lingers on the fringes of reality. It's a surreal dreamscape of idyllic palm tree-lined beaches, colossal crystal statues of bizarre deities, and Japanese convenience stores. Investigating the murder draws our formerly exiled detective into a vast, complex conspiracy, which she has to untangle by finding evidence, poking holes in suspects' testimonies, and breaking alibis.
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Paradise Killer excels as a detective game because the world is completely free to explore, and you can trigger the final trial whenever you like using the clues you've discovered up to that point. The first time I went to court, something didn't feel right. I had enough evidence to accuse a suspect, and the pieces seemed to fit. But there were a few gaps in my theory that were bugging me. So I reloaded, swept the island for clues again, and found a single, well-hidden clue that completely transformed my perception of the case.
At court it was a totally different trial, and I cursed
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