Dead Secret Review

Dead Secret, the horror-mystery game, is the story of the murder of Harris Bullard in 1965 Kansas. When the dead body of the diseased scientist is found it is ruled as death by natural causes, and his ex-wife is going to inheriet his belongings. Believing there might be foul play involved, the reporter Patricia Gable visits the estate to search for clues to back her theory.

Patricia is a reporter working for a magazine in a backwater town (her words), and is initially sent on the assignment to find some dirt on the diseased and his family, feeding the gossip machine of the magazine she works for. Wanting to take her assignment seriously, she hopes the scoop she is about to uncover will lift her out of the slump and in to the real world of journalism.

Visiting the house of the late Harris Bullard, a secluded farmhouse in rural Kansas, she learns that Harris was a scholar of Japanese Mythology who had gained a vast amount of knowledge that he  took with him into the grave. Upon uncovering these secrets, our hero reporter Patricia is being stalked by a masked murder wearing a Japanese mask. Through small puzzles and exploration we uncover the mysteries of the farmhouse, it’s owner and the killer at large. Patricia has a list of people who could be the potential murder, ranging from the ex-wife to associates, friends etc. Throughout the game notes are scattered across the house, filling in the blanks to who it could have been.

The murderer is not the only one who is stalking you thoughout the game. Now and then you catch a glimpse of a ghost wearing a Hannya mask. He seems benevolent, albeit creepy, guiding the player in the right direction in contrast to the murderer wearing an Okame mask. Notably, the horned Hannya mask looks more frightning than the more playful, big-cheeked Okame mask. The moments with either the ghost or the killer is the scary part of the game. Of note, the first time you see the actual killer he is very very slowly creeping up a staircase, heading right for you, forcing you to run and hide. This is one of the few times you actually see the killer and one of three times you have to run and hide. Besides that, most of the scare elements within the games are reliant on jump-scares. That being said, it does set the tone for a somewhat creepy game. Especially mirrors have a few, having you dread walking by them later in the game.

Through the puzzles and exploration you discover the magnum opus of mr. Bullard, a Lunar Dream Apparatus Calibrator. The good doctor has been researching neuroscience, and his results is much sought after by his rivals (and maybe the murderer). After calibrating it, and hiding from the murderer, you do the final stretch to figure out how Harris Bullard was murdered. A bit of a let down, he was locked in a freezer dying of hypothermia thus showing no signs of foul play at the coroner. With this done you are forced to pick a killer out of four suspects. Choosing the wrong person ends the game, and choosing the right killer forks into to endings. The first ending ends with the house on fire, having to escape. On the way out you find the killer, and can choose to either help or leave the murderer be. Either way the game ends.

The game itself has a decently interesting story. The murder-mystery is well set up, and the creepy parts of the game are decently creepy (nothing that will make you close the game and uninstall it though). It does try to incorporate some of the more famous horror-game clichés such as hiding from the bad guy without having to fight. It’s a bit of a missed opportunity as there only is one place to hide in all three encounters with the killer – and the fact that there only are three encounters makes it a bit underwhelming. In order to truly understand the story you will have to read the documents you find, and oh boy there is a-plenty. Some will surefire find it way too much reading for a game, which is understandable. The reading is a bit heavy. The game has multiple endings, five in fact, all with their own achievement. You can get them all in a single playthrough, and they aren’t hard at all.

The game is made in 2015, but the graphics aren’t that great. It should be noted, that the game also works in VR (which might be why). Playing it on PC is a whole other ordeal. The controls are wonky, quite annoying. You control by mouseclicking in the area you want to move to (if said area even is a place you can move to), leaving your keyboard almost useless. It serves as an annoying experience and should have been free-roam instead of prior-chosen clickspots. The puzzles in the game are fairly easy, nothing too mindblowing. Lastly the soundtrack is a bit dull, nothing you will think too much of and not at all memorable.

Rounding up, the game is a decent experience (probably more fun in VR I’d imagine). It sits at a hefty price for the couple of hours fun you will have with it, which is absurd, so do get it on sale if you want to try it. It has a good story, which is it’s selling-point, if you can get around the awkward PC controls. All in all it’s a decent game for it’s genre, and worth a playthrough if you are a fan of murder-mystery games. If you are looking for a horror title I would look elsewhere, as it falls a bit short on this part.