Murderous Muses is a Full Motion Video (FMV) detective game where you must solve a murder while piecing together the past. Not only are you a night security guard at an art gallery, but you are also apparently located in some kind of paranormal nightmare town called Mirlhaven. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, you have to hang some paintings.
Murderous Muses Puts You To Work
As you begin your new job and try not to think about murderous animatronics, Sasha will FaceTime you to wish you well on your first night. After she bids you farewell, you can begin wandering around the gallery. Next to your security desk is a bust with a button on it. Press the button to be introduced to J.A.M.I.E., the museum’s automated tour guide. There will be a button beneath each painting that you can press to get a brief history of the piece.
Night one starts easily enough. Walk around the gallery, open crated paintings, and hang them in the correct place. Each of the paintings is by murdered artist Mordechai Grey, and it’s up to you to solve his murder on the first anniversary of his death.
Empty spaces with titles show where paintings should go. You will know you’ve done it correctly when the J.A.I.M.E. button appears next to the title. Each night will reveal more paintings for you to hang. Don’t worry about the remaining blank spaces at the end of night one, though.
Once you are done, head back to the security desk and sit. Although, if you’re interested in some fun easter eggs from developer D’Avekki Studios Ltd, take a look in the staffroom. There are some subtle and not-so-subtle nods to previous games in there. There’s also an achievement to get that I got by accident. So be tenacious with your crate checking.
Sit at the desk, turn on the tv, and it’s time for a nap. When you wake up, things will be very different in the gallery. A strange man’s voice will yell at you to wake up, and you will be in a room with no door. A painting of a key is on the floor, and a space with a plaque is on one wall. On another wall is a list of different phrases. This is the puzzle tutorial room. It doesn’t tell you what to do, but it isn’t too hard to figure out.
I Hope You’re Ready For Puzzle Solving
Placing the painting on the wall will reveal that it has three strange red marbles on one side. Whenever you place the painting and press the plaque, one marble is used, and the plaque changes. Plaques will only change if there is a marble left in the painting. Once you change the plaque to read “key,” a door and a spare marble on a pedestal will appear. Across from the pedestal is a table. On this table, you can place paintings to recycle the marbles or restore paintings with extra marbles that you have. You must keep track of how many marbles you have. You can only switch painting tags by hanging paintings with marbles remaining in their frames.
Once you complete the tutorial puzzle, a key will appear, and you can leave the room. Things will appear the same, but press J.A.M.I.E.’s button to discover that the voice yelling at you to wake up has replaced her. This is Higgins, and he was the full-time night guard before you. Repeat your gallery tour and press the buttons again to hear Higgins’s alternative and considerably more sinister history.
Barely a fraction of the truth can be found on your first playthrough. Not only must you uncover the lore of Mirlhaven, but you also have to collect vases to unveil an even deeper story. Once you collect one, find the room of empty pedestals. Each vase has a Roman numeral on its base. Place it on the corresponding pedestal to unlock a lore video.
This is all secondary to your main objective: who killed Mordechai Grey? The main quest involves utilizing six portraits, known as the Murderous Muses. Before you hang anything, find the wall with each character displayed. Beneath each character is a list of three words. These words correspond to painting titles. Hang each portrait above the titles to reveal portions of the story.
Each time you hang one of the paintings of the six characters, it will reveal a video of them talking to Mordechai. Completing the puzzles on the three nights will unlock police interviews with each suspect. It will also change the title beneath the painting. Herein lies the real challenge of the game. Conserve your marbles so that each path for the portraits can be unlocked.
You Learn As You Go in Murderous Muses
Initially, I didn’t realize that only a few marbles were available on a given night. This meant I just hung every portrait everywhere and got a load of videos without completing many of the suspect branches. Whoops. This is generally how I play story-rich games. I blunder forward to learn EVERYTHING possible immediately. I must know the secrets! You can do this, but you will almost certainly not accuse the right person.
I definitely did not get enough information to guess the killer the first time around. However, I had a lot of fun doing it. There is a retro and nostalgic charm to FMV games that always draws me in. Add the wealth of lore and unlockables to the mix, and this is my kind of game. I must collect everything. I must know every grain of lore, and I must know the truth.
Besides being fascinating and genuinely enjoyable the whole time, Murderous Muses has tons of replay value. After I finished my first playthrough, I jumped back in. The killer is randomized every time, as are the locations of the paintings in the gallery. Not only that, but you won’t get all the same lore paintings. In my second playthrough, I uncrated three new paintings on night one, each with new lore attached. Any vases you collect will also carry over to new playthroughs.
Wrapping Up
The best thing about Murderous Muses is that it’s just fun. I didn’t find myself getting frustrated at being unable to complete puzzles due to my lack of marbles. Instead, I just enjoyed wandering around and finding out about the weirdness of Mirlhaven. My only issues stem from a slight lack of explanation regarding the marbles and their scarcity, and perhaps some of the actors are going a little too ham.
Those complaints barely make an impact. When it comes to puzzle mechanics, you learn as you go. Considering that it is designed to be replayed multiple times, not unlocking everything the first time around really isn’t an issue. I know I will be diving right back into the world of Mirlhaven at the earliest opportunity.
Murderous Muses is out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch.
