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It’s Phoenix Wright, but Picross instead of crazy legal procedure. That’s it. Well, except for your hovering robot companion and a guy getting murdered by a giant shoe.
I suppose I should write a bit more.
Phoenix Wright is a quite popular game originally for the Nintendo DS. In it, you play a detective in next Sunday, A.D. where all trials are completed in three days and criminal law has devolved to shouting Objection! or convincing the judge that due process has no place in modern law. This is one reason that Phoenix Wright is a game I have to watch, rather than play – I get too riled up about legal rights when I’m playing. Murder by Numbers, on the other hand, places you in the shoes (or heels, I suppose – they mention it in the game, I swear) of a television actress for a police procedural whose manager is killed. Then a hovering robot shows up and starts examining the world using the power of Picross. I mean, at least I don’t have to worry about trial law being abused, and police procedurals have inured me to “random person who really shouldn’t interfere does and solves the case.”
So far, the game is fairly entertaining – it’s almost entirely Picross puzzles, with the intermediary sections being visual novels. That being said, I was presented with a choice which I think I made correctly for the story to progress, but turns out being incorrect later. Had I chosen the “correct” option, I’m not sure what would have happened. In any event, if you want to play some Picross and get told a story in the process, this isn’t a bad game. I’m certainly planning on finishing it (given there’s only four episodes), so into Tier One it goes!