The Incident At Galley House Promo Shot
Image: William Rous and Evil Trout

Last night, every murder-mystery-loving person that I follow seemingly started chattering in unison, invoking classics like Return of the Obra Dinn and The Roottrees are Dead. If they hadn't spoken up, I might have missed out on The Incident at Galley House, coming from William Rous & Evil Trout. That would have been a crime, but probably not as much as all the murders, though.

You are Reya Beckon, an investigator, using a mysterious, possibly supernatural device to dive into the past and piece together exactly what happened at the titular Gallery House in 1936, site of a series of unsolved murders so mysterious that almost no record exists of the events. The Incident At Galley House is a graphical, expanded remake of Type Help, a free browser-based text adventure released just last year. For this remake, original developer William Rous has roped in Evil Trout, developers of mystery hit The Roottrees Are Dead.

Much like Return of the Obra Dinn (one of William Rous' key cited inspirations), you're shown brief slices of time - theatrical scenes played out across watercolor backdrops, filled with dense narrative. On top of picking out key ideas from the script, you're asked to deduce everything that you don't see. The interface will only give you information you know of the existence of, and you can only view scenes in locations that you know of, and they won't appear as options until you enter their corresponding codes.

Everything is obfuscated just enough to force you to slow down, carefully listen, think, and perhaps take some notes. The cast of characters appears as faceless, numbered (if talkative) silhouettes until you can nail down their identities and type in their names. I've only had a chance to give this one the most cursory of looks, but it feels like piecing together a dramatic radio play, accompanied by some lovely illustration work. And again, every investigation freak I know (plus 97% of Steam reviewers) has been giving this one two thumbs up.

The Incident at Galley House is out now for £17.75/$20, with a 10% launch discount running until July 21st. And if you don't mind wrangling a much more retro, low-fi interface, the original Type Help is available for free on Itch.