I’ve always loved detective games that force you to use your noggin to solve puzzles. That’s why I play things like Rise of the Golden Idol and Return of the Obra Dinn, why I loved Alan Wake 2’s detective board mechanic, and why I try basically every detective game that graces my Steam queue no matter how obscure or mysterious.
That’s how I found the demo for Daemon Masquerade, an “anime-inspired supernatural detective game” where you “uncover the identities and powers of your adversaries using a conspiracy board full of evidence”. I was pulled in by its art, which reminds me of kids cartoons with a touch of Junji Ito. There’s something unsettling about it. Cutscenes flicker in gorgeous animated comic panels as well. But mostly, I love an evidence board covered in red thread. Pepe Silvia style.
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Child Prodigy To Genius Detective
Daemon Masquerade doesn’t quite throw you in at the deep end. Intriguingly, the game opens on a child putting together a small puzzle. You’re Lambda, a test subject at an organisation called the Athena Institute, and you seemingly have a gift for deduction. A smiling researcher greets you day after day, putting more puzzles in front of you. She has you read a book, and quizzes you on its details. Finally, she asks you to solve a case by looking closely at the evidence and linking the relevant pieces with red thread as you explain your reasoning to her.
Because you’re a child prodigy, you solve the case. She praises you, thrilled, but the celebration is cut short as two strange people materialise in the room, from the feet up. They have strange creatures in tow. One of them calls the researcher “master”, and she flies into a rage. She told him not to call her that in front of her subjects, she shouts, and now she has to discard a promising subject because of his mistake. He apologises, and one of the creatures approaches you. It’s a floating fish, with eyes stitched shut and a stone of what appears to be Buddhist monk beads around its body. There’s a flash of light.
The next chapter opens with you, fifteen years later, now a detective. An FBI agent knocks on your door with a case thought to be unsolvable, involving an extremist Christian sect and a family burned to death in their homes. He knows you’re the best in the business, having solved crimes nobody else could from the comfort of your lounge chair, and he needs your help. He offers a trade – you lend him your expertise, and he gives you the FBI’s entire dossier on the Athena Institute.
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There Is No Pepe Silvia
Fair trade, you decide. He puts up all the evidence on your pinboard, and you begin to puzzle over it. You can ask him for more information on the suspects and the crime – this helps you put faces to names and understand the relationships between them. The board is full of evidence, some helpful, some not.
First, you have to prove they actually did it – and what’s this? There’s a note from one asking the other not to forget a ‘special ingredient’, and the receipt says that the group bought two bottles of vodka. The sect’s members aren’t supposed to imbibe, according to their rules, which you have a copy of. And the crime report says that the fire was started with some kind of molotov cocktail. You tell the detective you’ve solved it, running him through your theory by linking together the relevant pieces of evidence with red thread.
You answer a few more questions in the same way. Who actually did the arson? What proof do you have? When all is said and done, you’ve solved the case, and he gives you the case file in return. Before you have a chance to peruse it, though, a man materialises in your room – the same man from your childhood, in the Athena Institute. He whisks you away to a familiar room – the same one you remember being studied in. He tells you to put on a costume, and be sure to wear the mask properly, otherwise the voice changer won’t work.
You do as you’re told, and are led to a room full of people, also in costume, standing in a circle. They’ve been waiting for you. You’re here to take part in some kind of ritual. This unsettling image is where the demo ends, and I’m very interested in seeing how the rest of the story unfolds. It launched in October, and you can find it on Steam.
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