Murder by Numbers Reviews
Murder by Numbers is an exquisite detective puzzler with wonderful writing, gorgeous graphics, and masterful music.
Whether you’re a fan of Picross, or whether you enjoy a good murder mystery, I can’t recommend Murder By Numbers enough.
Murder By Numbers is a satisfying adventure that will delight any fan of Picross. The visual novel aspect gives the game a unique angle for the genre, and the personable art design leaves a great impression. If you're looking for a way to test the waters on Picross, this is a great way to do so.
Despite some awkward difficulty spikes, cheap reference humour, and some characters being hit or miss with me, I have had a good time with Murder by Numbers. It was a huge learning curve to solve these puzzles and I'm certain that fans of Ace Attorney and similar titles who also happen to be skilled at Picross will have a fantastic time with the story and the cast of colourful and wacky characters.
I'm pleased to not be let down by my cascading hype as it turns out that Mediatonic has a firm grasp on the distinctive appeal of Ace Attorney's world and characters, putting together a flashy and bright '90s world that wouldn't feel out of place if it was actually across town from Phoenix and the gang. Throw in the well-executed Picross puzzles and you have yourself one of the best surprises of 2020. Here's hoping we can see more of this enjoyable cast of characters and welcome visual novel twist.
Murder by Numbers masterfully combines visual novel with puzzle aspects. With a interesting story and charismatic and well-developed characters, the game also offers fun for picross fans with a good dose of puzzles along the way.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
90’s fashions! Upbeat jams! Sass dialled up to 100! Questionable jokes! Drag queens! All that and more awaits… in Murder by Numbers! According to my investigation on the game, the website set the bar high. What you just read was not only the start of my review for the Picross puzzle adventure game from Mediatonic but also a quote of the official website.
As a visual novel and nonogram game, it has no waste. The characters are very well defined personalities, although they can fall into the clichés (the mannered gay, the conceited blonde, the muscled flirt, etc). The script is entertaining and humorous and we can forgive its many clichés.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
For $14.99 Murder By Numbers is a game I really hesitate to recommend. It is a relatively lengthy experience as it took me about 28 hours to complete, with a lot of that time spent solving the puzzles. It’s a competent Picross game that will give you a large amount of puzzles to solve, but the story really didn’t leave much of a lasting impression on me. It showed a lot of promise at first, but ultimately falls short of reaching its full potential. I think the developers really wanted to make Murder By Numbers something special and I would like to see them improve on the formula and expand on the narrative in a sequel.
Murder By Numbers is definitely your game if you love picross and Phoenix Wright — heavy emphasis on that order. With a seemingly unending amount of picross puzzles at your disposal and plenty of murders to solve, Murder By Numbers accomplishes everything it sets out to do (and then some).
A fun and clever game that mixes Picross-style puzzles with engaging mysteries, more interesting as the game goes on.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Murder by Numbers was a fun game for me to play. It was a nice change of pace to a lot of the current games and the puzzle aspect got my brain working well towards the end of the game. I would definitely recommend Murder by Numbers to puzzle, point and click, and visual novel fans. Take a break and enjoy something different!
Murder by Numbers is a video game that knows how to combine its two aspects in an excellent way, inciting the player, either due to the plot or the challenge offered by their puzzles, to continue playing.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
If you like picross, Murder by Numbers has some entertaining dialogue and colorful characters to go along with your puzzles. If you aren’t going into this for picross first and foremost, however, the rest of the game isn’t going to carry it.
"Unordinary genre fusion works."
Review in Finnish | Read full review
Mediatonic's Murder By Numbers combines visual novel storytelling with picross puzzling, and it makes the pairing feel just right.
OUTSTANDING - Murder By Numbers combines Picross puzzle solving with graphic novel gameplay and completely nails the experience thanks to its hilarious writing, endearing characters, awesome visuals, and stellar soundtrack. Fans of either genre should fall in love with this game, and newcomers will find a game that’s approachable and addicting.