Developer: Spritewrench
Platform: PC (Reviewed)
Genre: Adventure, Casual
Publisher: Spritewrench
Duppy Detective Tashia is a point-and-click murder mystery game developed and published by Spritewrench. Developed by Glen Henry, the face and fingers behind Spritewrench Studios, this unique adventure comes from a micro game development studio based in Kingston, Jamaica. The game is currently only available on PC.
You play as a girl named Tashia who ends up in another world after losing her phone. Upon entering this new world, Tashia meets an archangel named Mikey, who tells her about a murder that took place in Halfway Market. Tashia decides to take matters into her own hands to solve the mystery so she can return to her own world.
The gameplay is very straightforward, and you instantly dive right into the investigation. You are presented with a map of Halfway Market featuring various locations and icons of the characters (Duppys) you meet. You click on witnesses and talk to them to gather clues. Unattended areas can also be investigated, where you get to use all five of your senses to learn more about the evidence. After finding clues, you’ll often find yourself going back to previous characters to question them about newly discovered information. After some time passes, there is a highly anticipated market meeting where Tashia gets to choose who to banish based on the evidence she has collected. It’s almost like playing Mafia, except you’re the one being set up.
I really enjoyed the visuals. At the beginning of the game, you’re presented with a cutscene showing Tashia’s phone getting lost, which looks like a visual mix between Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and general comic book aesthetics. Even the in-game visuals and character portraits are stunning, with each character having such distinct features. Everything about this game is vibrant and colourful, and even though you’re in what seems like the world of the dead, everything is filled with life. The hand-drawn art style is beautiful, and I especially loved the map itself with all the little bopping characters. The visuals are honestly stunning and really sell the enjoyable factor of the game.
I thought the music was quite good as it was very upbeat and energetic. However, I wasn’t a big fan of the mumbling and grumbling noises when characters spoke, especially when some characters changed dialogue. A few of the voices were a bit too high-pitched and almost felt like they were ringing in my ears. It’s a nice way to distinguish each character through sound, but some of them were a little too much.
For me, I felt that the game’s narrative was really good at the beginning, but after the second banishment, I was able to predict what was going to happen, and it almost felt like everything was rushed. I will say that the cast of characters is fantastic, and their inspiration from Caribbean folklore is even better. You get such a varied cast despite there only being seven characters to interact with. Even the differences in the way they spoke could be picked up through how their dialogue was written, which really helped sell the atmosphere of the game. That being said, the later twists genuinely caught me off guard, and I’d love to see a more evolved story if the series continues.
The game consists of five episodes, which went by fairly quickly. You are able to replay episodes afterwards, which is nice, although I didn’t like the fact that after each episode ended, there was a “To Be Continued” screen when the story could have simply carried on instead of bringing you back to the main menu.
I was able to finish the game in around an hour and a half, but I decided to do another playthrough to unlock all the achievements, especially because the game is fairly short and most of the achievements are tied to the story itself. I do wish there was a bit more gameplay interaction, especially with the clues that were collected. The idea of using your senses to investigate clues was interesting, but it felt like it was missing something.
For the price, I think the game definitely delivers, especially with its stunning visuals, great soundtrack, and engaging narrative. I really enjoyed playing it through to the end. It felt more like a narrative-driven visual novel than a game with deep gameplay mechanics, and while I would have liked to see more interaction, it was still an enjoyable experience throughout.
Duppy Detective Tashia is a fun, story-driven mystery with gorgeous hand-drawn visuals, a memorable cast, and a unique Caribbean folklore setting. While I would have liked a little more gameplay depth, I still enjoyed the experience from start to finish. If you’re looking for a short narrative adventure with plenty of charm, it’s definitely worth checking out!
Overall: 9/10
This is S & S. We are world game explorers. We play games. We have played over 10,000+ games! We travel, we write reviews AND we play more games!!!!
