like a hercule poirot novel made by an anime fan. its not without its rough edges, particularly in how the game kinda spoonfeeds evidence to the player, but so much here is reliant on the players own willingness and desire to explore the island.

a lot of mystery games feel pretty handholding at times which wouldn't be such a big issue if the story was good. however most of the time the story is extremely clear-cut. paradise killer is not that. there's palpable whodunit inspirations with the games story defying the traditional expectations of the whodunit genre which makes it really feel like an agatha christie novel committed to the digital medium. after playing about six hours straight one day i spent hours talking to myself trying to unravel the mystery and when i got to the end of the game and was able to validate my own truth and guesses i felt like a god damn fucking genius. paradise killer is a game that rewards you for finding your own truth and backing it up with evidence and every bit of exploration feels rewarded.

outside of some annoying character writing and some design issues at times this is a near-perfect gem of a detective game. i went into this expecting something serviceable but i came out the other end feeling astonished. finally a game that proves that good open-world detective games are possible, and i hope this inspires more people to make good ones--i know its certainly inspired me.