Requiem for a Double (Peculiar Pond) // Review

Requiem for a Double is a murder mystery puzzle game from Croatia-based Peculiar Pond. Take on the role of a private detective to investigate the murder of a well-known pop star. Scour the evidence, interrogate suspects and navigate the twists and turns of the case. Can you find the culprit?

Players: 1-4 // Age: 14+ // Playtime: 2+ hours

What you need: A pen/pencil and paper, scissors, and an internet-connected device. A laptop, desktop or tablet is highly recommended, but a smartphone can be used if these are not an option.

Story

“You play the character of the Slovenian private detective Vanja Petelin. Vanja plans to go to a concert by the famous pop star Lava tonight but gets a disturbing call only a few hours before the show is about to start. The singer went to the club earlier for the scheduled sound check and found a body in her dressing room. The victim is Lava’s cousin, who was a guest on her tour. You immediately go to the crime scene to lend a helping hand to Chief Inspector Milroy of the police department. After all, you have nothing better to do since your plans for tonight have been cancelled.”

First impressions

It will come as no surprise that I love puzzle games and I also love mystery games too. Ordinarily, games tend to lean far more heavily into either puzzle or deduction territory. I’m always pleasantly surprised to come across games that have a fairly even split of both. Requiem for a Double is one of those games.

I’d heard murmurings about Peculiar Pond for a while and was delighted to have the opportunity to finally check out one of their games. Requiem for a Dream arrived in a rather unassuming purple envelope that surprisingly managed to pack a decent amount of content inside. The envelope contains a prologue that should be read first; this sets the scene and breaks down how gameplay works. You’ll also find a selection of evidence, interview booklets and photographs. As part of the prologue, you are instructed to load up a website to begin the game, so we’ll start there…

Gameplay

Online Portal

The online portal houses an interactive crime scene. This allows you to feel even more like a detective as you comb through the room in search of clues. You can click on certain objects to unlock crucial evidence – be sure not to miss anything, as some of these may be quite small!

A hint system and answer checker are also accessible on the website, in case you get stuck! The tiered hints for the puzzles are helpful, each offering slightly more information to push you towards the solution. It means you are in control of how much assistance you take, which is always my preference. If you really can’t solve a puzzle with the hints, the solutions are also available.

Evidence & Interrogation

The non-linear gameplay allows for easy of sharing documents and tasks if you are playing within a larger group. There are plenty of items to pass around, so smaller groups can target different puzzles or pieces of evidence. Helpfully, each piece of evidence (both offline and online) is assigned a unique number. A handy evidence sheet is provided that has an entry for each piece and allows you to keep notes as you go. It makes it easy to keep track of everything and to identify any gaps in the case to make sure you have covered all bases.

As you might expect in an investigation, you will be required to interrogate all of the suspects as you work to eliminate innocent parties. You may stumble across red herrings along your way, so be sure to carefully examine all evidence. An interview booklet is provided for each suspect. These contain their comments about each of the other suspects, along with an interview response for every piece of evidence (referred to by the evidence reference number). You are only allowed to ask the suspects about evidence when you have found or unlocked it. So if you find evidence number 13, you can read the suspect response in each of the booklets labelled with that number. Helpfully, each suspect booklet also includes a unique colour and symbol on the front. Any evidence with that same colour/symbol is confirmed as being found in that suspect’s belongings.

Puzzles & Deduction

The puzzles are fun and varied. The use of multimedia elements alongside the physical components really adds an extra dimension to the gameplay. Whether it is investigating an online crime scene, keying in the correct sequence in a MIDI player or finding clues hidden within a funky music video. Every piece of online/offline content holds key information or part of a puzzle that will unlock further details. From a deduction point of view, there are plenty of threads to follow and over 20 pieces of evidence to piece together.

Some components do need to be written on/manipulated, but you’ll get a refill kit included as standard. This gives peace of mind that you can pass the game on to someone else once you’ve finished.

Overall I found this game to be set at a fairly standard difficulty level. Not too easy, not too hard. Some puzzles were less challenging than others, but at least one stumped me for a while so there is a good mix.

Verdict

About Peculiar Pond

Disclaimer: Peculiar Pond kindly sent me a copy of this game in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influences the content of my review.