I have always been amazed at how humanity loves to cultify any phenomena, even negative ones. Movies, books, songs and video games - marketing has long ruled the world and is constantly in need of new food. Few people have not heard of the American maniac nicknamed “Zodiac” and his crimes, but this is largely due to the media. He killed to become famous, reveled in the suffering of his victims and the helplessness of the authorities, in order to ultimately remain undetected. The most notorious case of blatant arbitrariness and negligence of the American police, which will forever remain a dark stain on its reputation. This is the Zodiac Speaking is also a product of media culture, inspired by the crimes of a mysterious maniac who continues to make itself known to this day. Apparently Herostratus, who burned the Temple of Artemis, already in those days knew how to impress the public and get into the chronicles - you just had to go against the rules.

What does it take to become a successful journalist? Write dozens of reports on local events? Settle into a weather forecast studio? Or become a correspondent in a provincial town? Everything is much simpler than we think - just immerse yourself in crime chronicles and retrain as a detective journalist.

Robert Harnell, the main character of the game, also thought so and decided to change the vector of his development. He happened to work as a journalist in the late 60s, when America was terrorized by the elusive Zodiac, so it was clearly not worth missing out on this chance. Robert began to collect information with special diligence, began to study the mysterious code of the maniac, and success was not long in coming. Our hero quickly gained fame in journalistic circles, becoming the maniac's secret bibliographer. Prestigious awards, successful sales of his books and a newfound acquaintance with a lovely girl inspired Robert, giving him unshakable confidence in his own well-being. But this could not go on forever and very soon there was a knock on his door. As it turned out, it was the Zodiac himself, who left our hero a personalized letter with an offer to meet. He really liked the articles about himself in the newspaper and demanded to continue in the same spirit. Robert decided that this was the perfect chance to catch the scandalous maniac by the hand and bring him to light, thereby forever leaving his name in the hall of fame of world journalism. Taking his revolver from the safe, our hero sets off to meet the unknown, not even suspecting what a nightmare this trip will turn out to be. Digging into dry facts and newspaper articles, Robert did not fully understand what monster he had connected his life with, but he realized it too late.

This is the Zodiac Speaking will invite the player to immerse himself in the horrific events of the past and form his own opinion about it. First of all, you shouldn't expect a detailed investigation process like in The Painscreek Killings or Scene Investigator, instead we'll just play a walking simulator with puzzle elements. Our task is to study real cases of Zodiac crimes and look for key clues there, which in the end will form a general conclusion. To do this, you will have to wander through locations, avoid meeting the maniac and visit points of interest. There is no need to worry - the developers have already done all the mental work for us, and we can only look at the pictures. I strongly recommend playing only in story mode, as the stealth here is terribly boring, broken and has a “duct tape” effect, when the enemy knows the player’s location from the start and constantly follows him, patrolling the same areas.

The visuals of This is the Zodiak Speaking are minimalistic and are intended only to show us the main events. The musical accompaniment also does not stand out in any way and is unlikely to be remembered by us after completing it. Perhaps this simple quest would have been quite tolerable if not for the author’s gag. At the very beginning, we are warned that everything presented in the game is “an attempt to think about high-profile crimes,” but in reality everything turns out to be completely different. In addition to the Zodiac, the game has a main character who constantly pulls the blanket over himself. Here is the full set of the young screenwriter - a difficult childhood, alcoholism, problems on the personal front and, of course, psychological deviations that we will fight. In fact, everything we see will not be an attempt to comprehend the image of the Zodiac and direct the acquired knowledge towards his capture - instead, we will solve the problems of the main character and rid him of childhood patterns with scenes of terrible crimes. I understand that the authors decided to preserve the canon of the “elusiveness” of a serial maniac, but I have no idea why they made him the main character’s nanny.

As a result, I didn’t like what I saw. I was expecting a serious detective quest, where the player would be able to see with his own eyes the crimes of the Zodiac and try to understand how he could be defeated, but in reality I got a far-fetched story about a broken man with a difficult childhood and his unusual methods of therapy. There is neither a detective component with the collection of evidence, nor a sane narrative, which is replaced by vague flashbacks and games with dolls. For me personally, it was a disappointing experience.