Murderous Muses from D’Avekki Studios is an interesting murder mystery experience on PlayStation 5. Learn more about it in our Murderous Muses review!
Murderous Muses from D’Avekki Studios is an interesting murder mystery experience on PlayStation 5. The studio has previously given us other FMV games on consoles, of which I had a chance to review Dark Nights with Poe and Munro on PlayStation 4, as well as the quirky and deadly The infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker on Nintendo Switch. This time around we’re getting something different on PlayStation 5 that still shares many elements with the studio’s previous releases.
It’s been a year since artist Mordechai Grey was murdered, and there’s now a new exhibition showcasing his body of work, including the last six portraits he was painting right before being murdered. It seems that each of the people that served as Mordechai’s inspiration was a suspect at the time, but the murdered was never caught. You play as the security guard that must keep an eye on the exhibition over a three days and three nights period. Oh, and you will also need to solve this particular cold case.
As you make your way through the procedurally generated gallery, you’ll learn more about the events leading up to Mordechai’s murder. Every time that you play through Murderous Muses, things will be different. The gallery’s layout will change, with a new order of how to take on each day and night of your shift. Your interactions will not be the same. For every run that you take on, the murderer will also be a different individual! The solutions to the puzzles will also not be the same.
During the exploration segments, you’ll be moving through a 3D area with the left analog stick as you use the right one to look around as needed. You can interact with the X button. As you collect paintings to hang from the walls of the gallery, you can switch between them by checking your inventory with the Triangle button and selecting the one you want to hang. If you manage to hang a paint at the right location, a circle next to its name can be activated to listen to a J.A.M.I.E. narration lore painting narration. At night, clicking on that circle will activate a Higgins narration.
You can use the Eyes of Mordechai to bring portraits to life, so that you can get a glimpse at the past and learn more about each of the suspect’s personalities and quirks. Each video that you play will need to be powered by an Eye of Mordechai, making it a very valuable resource. Match a suspect’s portrait to the special words listed for that suspect – matched to the words that are randomized on the walls for each run – and you can check out a video for the police interview that took place a year ago. Since the total number of Eyes of Mordechai you can use during a run is limited, you won’t be able to see all of the videos in a single go.
What puzzle mini-games will you be solving during your time with Murderous Muses? One of them will have you changing symbols on a board to try and find the right combination. Change symbols around, press the button for that row, and you’ll get to know if the symbol is not part of the solution, if it is but it’s on the wrong spot, or if you’ve made the right call. A red dash means it’s a no go, a red square means that the symbol is in the wrong spot, and a yellow square means that the symbol is at the right spot.
Another one takes place on the back of a ticket booth. For this one you’ll press a button at the bottom of the board. This will make some pieces flip. Pay attention to which ones have flipped, so that once they return to their initial state, you’ll have to repeat the pattern to solve the puzzle by once again pressing the button at the bottom. The puzzle for the telephone booth is also on that will require you to use your brain to memorize and repeat the numbers by dialing them with the rotary dial.
The game has a full trophy list with a Platinum, and since it’s a Cross-Buy title, if you own a PlayStation 5 console, you can try to add two Platinums to your collection because the PS4 and PS4 versions of the game have separate trophy lists. Said list includes 7 Bronze trophies, 6 Silver trophies, and 8 Gold trophies. There’s plenty to do in this one, and you’ll have to replay the game several times so that you can see everything on offer and complete all objectives. The first trophy you might get is for hanging a painting at the right spot and listening to a J.A.M.I.E. narration. Since there are many potential outcomes and several puzzles to solve with changing solutions for each run, you might need some extra help, so you can check out this Murderous Muses Trophy Guide.
Murderous Muses brings us an interesting murder mystery experience on PlayStation. As you explore a procedurally generated gallery to find the clues that will point you in the right direction to find who murdered Mordechai Grey. While the 3D gallery segments felt a bit basic, the performance of all actors was top-notch, and it will keep you coming back for more. Murderous Muses is out at a $13.99 asking price, and your purchase will give you access to both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost.
Disclaimer
This Murderous Muses review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by D’Avekki Studios.
