The Painscreek Killings

One of the best atmospheric games I’ve ever played. The music is incredible, perfectly matches the vibe. The story? Absolute fire. You dive into this abandoned little town and boom — goodbye real life.

I’ve played through it three times already, and each run I find new stuff I missed before. I seriously wish there were more games like this — that chill-yet-creepy detective vibe where you have to piece everything together yourself is rare nowadays.

Highly recommend for anyone who loves wandering, thinking, and getting those subtle horror chills.

Ratings:

🎨 Graphics: 7/10 (simple, but works for the mood)

🎶 Music: 10/10 (chills every time)

📖 Story: 9/10 (killer mystery)

🎭 Atmosphere: 10/10 (one of the best)

🧩 Investigation & Puzzles: 9/10 (no handholding, pure curiosity)

📈 Replayability: 8/10 (you’ll wanna come back)

Verdict: If you’re into slow-burn detective mysteries, abandoned towns, and piecing together creepy stories — this is a must-play. Can’t recommend it enough.

-------------------------------

Лучшая атмосферная игра, которую я проходил. Музыка вообще бомбическая, идеально под настроение. Сюжет — пушка-ракета. Погружаешься в эту заброшенную деревушку и всё, минус реальная жизнь. Перепроходил уже 3 раза, и каждый раз находил что-то новое.

Очень не хватает похожих игр, потому что такая лампово-тревожная атмосфера и возможность самому всё раскопать — это прям редкость. Бродить по пустым улицам, искать улики и строить теории — кайфища.

Крайне рекомендую всем, кто любит побродить, подумать и пощекотать нервишки.

Оценочки:

🎨 Графика: 7/10 (простенько, но атмосферно)

🎶 Музыка: 10/10 (ловлю мурашки каждый раз)

📖 Сюжет: 9/10 (детективный кайф)

🎭 Атмосфера: 10/10 (одна из лучших)

🧩 Загадки и поиск: 9/10 (чистый интерес без надоедливых подсказок)

📈 Реиграбельность: 8/10 (по-любому захочется вернуться)

Итог: Если хочешь атмосферный детектив без стрелялок, с бродилками по заброшенным местам и крутым сюжетом — залетай, вообще не пожалеешь.

Fun, but very difficult if you take extended breaks from the game. There is so much info to keep track of and its very easy to get lost if you miss something in one of the hundred drawers you'll be opening.

Genuinely just a fantastic, realistic murder mystery with twists and turns I never saw coming. It is so well done because, as in real life, you may have some clues you just don't end up following, but solve the crime regardless. It doesn't pigeonhole you into a solution like so many "detective" games do. I filled several pages of a notebook trying to solve this, and had so much fun diving into this creepy little town. Bonus points for the big surprise moment that turned the vibe of the game on its head. I loved the whole thing. A+

In the Painscreek Killings, you play as Janet, a journalist exploring the abandoned town of Painscreek to investigate a cold case. Your main goal is to figure out who murdered Vivian Roberts, but along the way, you uncover the town’s dark secrets. There is no task list or quests, so it is important to take your own notes as you explore the various locations in the town.
There is a journal that keeps track of diaries and documents you find. You also have an in-game camera you can use to take pictures of clues. I did like the non-linear format of the game and following the clues as I found them. However, I did need outside hints a handful of times because I missed a drawer with a letter or a key to progress in the game. That said, The Painscreek Killings is a great game, and I enjoyed solving the mystery.

Fun, but requires keeping copious notes. No other characters to interact with, which is eerie at first, but kind boring after a while.

a great investigation game with a thoroughly fumbled and disappointing ending. worth a play, but the wasted potential is palpable

it's a long game but it's really good, defo worth playing!

Absolutely recommend playing this game. If you haven't seen anything about this game. KEEP IT THAT WAY. You won't find another game like it, so savour it.

Spend two and a half hours extremely engaged in your investigation, get stuck and spend an hour cluelessly wandering and pondering, realize you forgot to open a drawer somewhere, repeat.

In all seriousness, this game is awesome. While you do have to suspend your disbelief about the fact that everyone in Painscreek took very convenient diaries and placed them in the perfect places to make for a satisfying investigation, the way the story unravels feels super natural and intriguing. It's super common to come across a piece of writing which references an event, connect that event to something you read about in earlier optional/side content, and walk away with a super natural and satisfying "aha" moment where you make a connection.

The game is obviously not flawless. If you get stuck, you REALLY get stuck. The dartboard puzzle kinda sucks and can waste a lot of your time. The ending, while super surprising and quite fun imo, really spells out who killed Vivian and can somewhat discount the satisfaction of finding the answer out on your own (which is a surprisingly manageable task to do even a good bit before the game properly concludes).

Overall, though, I'd highly highly recommend this game. My only piece of advice is that, if you look for hints (which you should try as hard as possible not to do), get tailored help from someone who has finished the game and appreciates its pacing. If you don't know what you're looking for, you want a gentle push to an appropriate puzzle or missed item. You don't want to spoil something which results in a sequence break or an optional piece of content which won't get you closer to completing the game, and if you're blindly looking for help, that's probably what you'll find.

This psychological horror (no jumpscares promise!) detective game has so much story to this little town. at some points I guessed certain plot points way before I got told them but the twists and turns to the story still made it fun to search around buildings to find out the truth. A downside I have came across is that I have had to use a guide to know what to do next as I didn't know where to go next to continue the story, some times it was my own fault for not solving a clue or missing an item but the walking back and forth between places can become a bit boring.

A fascinating game. Not directly horror, but oh my gosh did it have me on the edge of my seat the whole way through; this game holds a true mastery of atmosphere and storytelling

It's an incredible game, the best detective-style mystery game I've ever played. (I haven't played Return of the Obra Dinn yet, but it might be comparable.)

Its narrative is tragic and captivating. In fact, I am particularly familiar with the map's navigation and the eventual link of many characters when I have finished the game. The characters are portrayed in depth, with layers of emotions, experiences, and paradoxes that make them seem authentic and approachable. Their aims, aspirations, or concerns are fully stated and guide their behavior throughout the story, resulting in a cohesive and credible narrative arc. It is indeed a well-told story with a few minor twists in the middle of the plot.

In terms of gameplay, the player is responsible for organizing all clues. There are no visible interface hints indicating where to go, and clues must be documented separately, increasing the detective's immersion dramatically. However, there is a drawback: missing critical objects, like keys or codes, might cause the clue chain to break, forcing players to roam aimlessly in search of omissions. This happened to me multiple times during my playthrough, and I found this section tiresome. Nonetheless, the joy of discovering the truth drove me to persevere, allowing me to ultimately see the whole narrative.

In brief, a low-budget game that captures the essence of the detective mystery genre. Due to a lack of financing, it contains constraints such as model reuse and the absence of cutscenes or interactions. However, the story is an appealing enough incentive to give this game a shot.

This detective game leads you through an investigation full of twists in a deserted village.
I liked it a lot.

It would have become one of my favorite games but for three problems:
- The game requires you to constantly go back and forth between locations. This could have been fine but you run slowly.
- Some clues are really tiny and hard to click on.
- I personally dislike the horror part of this game.

I LOVED this game. Engaging story, love how long the game is. My only complaint is the map is a bit confusing, but then again my sense of direction is kinda lacking. Overall AAA+ game. Can't wait to play it again and uncover the parts of the story that I missed the first time.

I have loved playing this game and I get better at it each time I try lol haven't been able to solve it yet so I recommend being very thorough! definitely recommend the chill vibes with the clue sleuthing :D

I really enjoyed this game but when it said "take notes" at the beginning, I think I went a bit overboard.

Unfortunately, I cannot play this game. I really wanted to because the story, puzzles, and the gameplay look great!! However, for whatever reason, I get horrifically motion sick when trying to play. I did not see any accessibility settings to fix this either. TBH, I liked the idea of the game so much that I ended up watching a youtuber play it, but still had to take so many breaks because even that was giving me motion sickness.

A walking simulator and perpetual fetch keys and read diaries quest. No investigative ability required despite what the game says. For those wanting to investigate and solve a mystery, look elsewhere. However, written well.

I have played for 3 hours and have not finished the game, but I don't really want to play anymore. I love puzzle games but this just was not enjoyable for me. Lots of walking back and forth. Lots of checking empty drawers. Feels like a waste of time.

Extremely bold move to have this game's setting be both called "Painscreek" for the inevitable agony that would cause this town to be abandoned, AND to have Painscreek be located in a state that doesn't exist, which made me pause for a good bit when I saw the abbreviation "NL" in a document ("Newland").

Jokes aside I personally had the best time playing the game with the music volume down and my own jazz detective playlist in the background. The minimal ominous audio leans very much into this game having a (minor but warranted) "horror" label. Makes you feel like you're being watched at all times which you'll find is not unwarranted.

The story is a thorough tragedy on all fronts and best if you experience the ins-and-outs on your own, but I'll summarize this much: Buisnesswoman Vivian Roberts was the third suspicious death to take place within a few months in Painscreek, within the course of a year would not be the last. The most likely suspect was acquitted, but he would soon be found murdered himself. Four years later, Painscreek, despite being a quaint little town with a history greater than these murders, is a ghost town with an uncertain future as the land is purchased and its citizens scattered around to greener pastures - many still carrying burdens and questions. You will be solving them... at least as far as they can be solved. There isn't really a happy ending here, but you can bring closure. Someone sent a PI ahead of you... how that went is for you to discover.

The gameplay is semi-open world, but it also has a vague linear progression. You can approach the mystery however you want, but much of the evidence involves finding clues and keys in different locations all around town. You'll need to reference documents and snag photos to progress at times. Almost every location will provide some semblance of a lead for you to follow - one branch will become many very quickly and you can follow them as you please, but it ultimately leads to a single conclusion... sort of.

Without (major) spoilers: there are multiple endings. One is as simple as getting back in your car and leaving (you can do this any time... mostly). Two of them only occur after a very specific point that leads to an ending sequence. There is a certain whiplash with the latter endings because the game will abruptly give you a health bar and inform you that you cannot save after that point, and then you'll be encouraged to run from an axe-wielding killer like this is a smaller project than it is.

Performance wise... the game was made in Unity. Expect your GPU fan to go nuts. It still ran well for me.

Great story and attention to details, really enjoyed the ending! No problems while playing with freezing or anything. Would love a sequel!!

Well done indie, investigation game that tries to be very realistic with little to no mechanical assistance in your discovery. Probably only one instance of moon logic I would complain about.

Highly recommend this game for anyone interested in whodunits and mysteries. The puzzles were great! Really enjoyed this game. I was soon hooked I couldn't stop playing it!

Really good story telling but do not play if you have motion sickness or heart/stress issues.

It requires extensive checking of environment to obtain all items and the clues are scattered, which is really interesting and immersive but very straining on the eyes. As suggested at the start of the game, i also recommend taking notes so you can keep track of things, specially since it mimics real-life detective work where you will not be able to do a "word search" or the likes, so you will have to be able to remember where your related clues are in documents.

Since i had to push through motion sickness i had to at some point do a web search for pointers to specific things - this unfortunately lead me to a spoiler of sorts and ruined the final stages of the investigation. All forums i found for pointers where marked for spoilers properly, users where very aware of how easy it is to spoil the plot (Thank you! <3 ).

If you are going to attempt this game with motion sickness - Check graphics settings first and remove anything that is straining your eyes, i only left v-sync on to avoid screen tearing - you might not be able to complete it but if you do play, i suggest check every room carefully and making your own maps to know exactly where things are in order to minimize the camera panning/moving around.

I adore the puzzles and exploring the village, piecing together evidence and clues.

HOWEVER, I CAN'T finish the game, it keeps crashing and bugging out CONSTANTLY, sometimes I can't load in, other times leaving houses causes a flashing screen, or just crashes the game. It's gotten to the point where I can't play for longer than 5 minutes without having to restart the game at which I then have to retrace my steps because the game didn't autosave.

I had no problems for the first few hours but it has gotten progressively worse the longer I have played the game.

It was an OK detective-y game. Game engine was a bit finicky at times, might be bad for motion sickness. Some annoying pixel hunting. Overall: Decent? 7/10, maybe.

Good game. Noticeably cheap, but a promising glimpse of what adventure games might still be. It's not perfect, but hopefully someone takes the concept and runs with it.

Use your graphics driver's Vsync, not the one in the game settings.

This is possibly one of the best detective games I have ever played. It requires you to step back from viewing tasks from a gamer perspective and actually put yourself in the situation and piece together a plan of action.

The Devs masterfully crafted an atmosphere in this game that has you on edge the entire time. I have never been so anxious in a well lit, airy, open environment. I spent almost the entire game acutely aware of just how many windows and viewing angles there were everywhere. They would let the player steep in this feeling of unease until it became familiar and then like clockwork you would find a journal or note with just the right line to send you right back on edge.

They also did a great job in establishing a level of trust with the player that there was a logical next step. Establishing this crucial component was a choice that I think a lot of puzzle games need to be making. It made it so even when I got lost, I never looked up a guide, because I trusted that the Devs had planned it this way. I did feel lost a few times but that is because I was trying to play the game like a gamer completing a checklist. I had to step back and think of what I had done so far and what I thought the logical next step would be. Not once did I feel like a puzzle/next step was unfair, cruel, or too abstract to figure out. Sometimes they just required patience to let my brain connect the pieces I already had.

I will say, one drawback I felt the game did have was how the information and menus were organised. They felt clunky and it was sometimes hard to find things I had read before, especially when not all notes get "copied" for later. This meant if you didn't catch that a note hadn't been copied and remembered to take a photo, you would have to try and find it again. I do understand some of their choices were to add "realism" to the experience but I do wish they allowed for players themselves to organise the information provided. A murder board style menu where you could organise journal entries, documents, newspapers, and photos all together in the way that works best for you would have been amazing!!

A really fascinating experience that is a must-try for anyone that likes detective/puzzle games. Not everything here lands, but enough lands hard enough for me to solidly recommend it. I did as the game suggested and broke out a notebook, and it made the experience quite rewarding. By the time I had figured out most of the story's twists, I started resorting to guides to find the last few key items I had missed, because unfortunately it's quite easy to miss little things and have no idea that you did or have any reason to check many of those places again, and that becomes an issue when I was locked out of progression despite being quite positive about my suspect. I can't say it's for everyone, this is definitely a niche product, but if it's already piqued your interest, I think you might be the target audience.

Started playing it as son as I bought and couldn't stop until I finished it.
It's an amazing experience, I made TONS of notes and this was the most fun I had in a while. It's really what it advertises itself as, it's a detective game where you actually need to work for it, at least for the most part.

Loved this game, it's been a long time since I last managed to get this immersed.

This is by far one of my favorite investigation style games. The story is cool, the setting is creepy and the puzzles are challenging enough to make you think, but not enough to keep you from moving forward. 10/10

I think it has a solid story line and it definitely keeps you on your toes! Highly recommend taking notes, it helps SO MUCH

its wildly unique. detective sandbox with zero hand holding

everything seemed rlly well thought out, everything tied in to everything else as u gathered more information, and it rlly felt like a genuinely good mystery. I felt rlly satisfied whenever I'd get on a streak of clues or find/solve something on my own only to later find the information telling me how to do what I'd just done. overall this was a very unique and incredible game especially for a smaller game, there are so many little details that seem unimportant or just environmental until you get a clue later on and have a bunch of pieces fall together in your head and everything just ends up feeling very natural and open. the game doesn't really hold your hand and you're free to investigate things pretty much in whatever order you want, which ends up making it that much more satisfying to get predictions right or find that one missing piece of the puzzle. also, the open world sort of design of the town is really nice and, as someone who grew up in a small town, navigating with just street names and a paper map makes it feel more realistic for the whole town dead/missing/moved away and rlly helps w the atmosphere, even if it is set in the 90's and that would've just been the only option
my only real complaint was that the "true" ending
felt a bit rushed and out of nowhere, I liked the involvement of the killer but I really wish it was a bit smoother in terms of the change of tone, or that there was some sort of stealth/hiding mechanic. I ended up getting lost at several points during the chase and was lucky I had toggle sprint on, so if anything a hiding mechanic would've been very useful and probably more intense for when a player gets lost or is gonna be cornered

Excellent atmospheric game. As many pointed out, not really a investigation/detective puzzle game. More of a walking simulator with investigation/detective elements. But a bloody good one at that! What a ride.

Harder than most mystery games I've played, would recommend

brought out a pad paper for this shit. never had a game blow my mind with its plot twists. cool stuff.

After 4 hours of going to a very limited number of places and hardly ever knowing where to go next, I gave up. Most of the time is spent wandering around a town of locked doors. The clues that are gathered usually don't provide enough enough on what to do next - super boring and not at all engaging.

Equivalent to having the most wonderful long flight over the sea, with comfy seats, delicious food and great in-flight entertainment, only for the plane to crash while landing at the airport.

Imagine having 20 pages of handwritten notes of investigation, only to accidentally stumble upon a horrible out of place "bwahaha i'm the murderer"-ending after reading item description too closely.

Despite the fun I had with the investigation for most of the game, the ending was just too bad for me to recommend this at all. It just made the whole investigation feel completely pointless.

Had a wonderful time solving the mystery with my GF, but I'd imagine it'd be just as fun with a group of friends or buddy. Wish I could wipe my memory and play it all over again for the first time definitely gonna be one I remember for the next decade.

The best game I've ever played. It absolutely hooked me from the very beginning. I played it for 7 hours straight from start to finish. The way the clues and hints just keep getting deeper, and pulling you in...just WOW! It's not too hard for someone new to detective games. I'm just blown away!! Buy it now!!

Up there with Case Of The Golden Idol and Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments as one of the best investigation games I've ever played. The story in this game is fantastic, and I loved how I genuinely needed to take notes. I ended up with 5 A4 pages full of notes for anything that could be relevant and my current theories as to what could've happened to the different characters. It had me guessing up until basically the end. I also love when a piece of media can make me feel so certain about something only to throw one last curveball that completely recontextualizes a lot of things. And the sound design is also really good. Crazy immersive. I'll definitely be playing this dev's other game whenever I can afford it. The world needs more games like this, seriously. This is almost everything I've ever wanted from a detective game.

Great little game. Some of the puzzles were quite unituative and confusing, but over all it was a great detective game.

Great game, puzzles were amazing, really made you think. i even wrote down my own notes irl, looked like a right old detective me. Story was amazing imo, loads of twists and turns, you never knew who was who they said they were.
wish i could experience this game again as if it was the first time playing it!

Excellent game! Worth every penny. The controls take a little acclimation, but they are straightforward enough. This game definitely requires a real-world notebook/sketchbook to help you keep track of all the locations and characters, but I find that adds to the fun. Definitely an immersive experience. The game has a spooky atmosphere and covers adult topics (just in case the title of the game didn't signify that enough for you), but can also be played in a leisurely pace if you so choose. The game play is enjoyably non-linear without feeling directionless. My only complaint about this game is that some crucial items can be very difficult to see, but that is the only reason I needed to consult a walkthrough for this game, as all of the puzzle solutions are provided in the game if you look carefully in the right place.

Great game, While the ending is a touch goofy, this is probably one of the best mystery/detective games

Easily one of the best puzzle games I've ever played. The whole eerie vibe and challenging puzzles mix incredibly well together and made me excited to continue exploring the town. The last 15 minutes might be the scariest and intense sequence I've experienced in a puzzle game. But bring a notepad!

Fantastic detective game. Not too hard that it's ridiculous, not too easy that it's hand-holdy. Story is excellent, and uncovering it bit by bit was amazing. Highly recommend.

The game seemed promising but it glitches out on newer systems

A genuine thrilling narrative, where there is a lot of investigation and puzzle-solving involved. Absolutely loved it as I played it with my friend.