Weaponized Language

Home of CreepyPodsta and Hack the Net

  • Home
  • Podcasts
    • CreepyPodsta
    • Seeing Red(dit)
    • Someone’s PC: A Pokémon Podcast
    • Frank Ecto
  • Stories
    • Short Fiction
    • Long Fiction
    • Unknowing
  • Tanoshi Quest
  • Burnt Crunchy Bits

Fast Casual Gaming – The Sexy Brutale

Posted by Matt Herron on July 2, 2017
Posted in: Fast Casual Gaming.

The Sexy Brutale

Review by Matt Herron

Classic Adventure Game Feel with Fresh New Mechanics Makes for a Great Game Experience

In recent days Rime has been getting a lot of headlines with its bizarre DRM information, but Spanish developer Tequila Works has another game out recently that deserves to be talked about for anyone with a nostalgia for the classic adventure games of Lucasarts and Sierra – The Sexy Brutale. In a lot of ways The Sexy Brutale manages to recapture that classic adventure game style without sacrificing on having fresh-feeling mechanics and aesthetics, making it less of an homage to the old school and more of a recapturing of how those games felt the first time you played them.

The premise of the game is what originally reeled me in – it takes place over the course of 12 hours in the titular high-class casino, during which time all the guests at the hotel are murdered. Your character, a much-liked priest with a mysterious past, is awoken from reliving his death endlessly by a bloody apparition tasking him with discovering the cause of all the deaths and ultimately preventing them, which he can do with the aid of a magical pocket watch that allows him to relive the final 12 hours of the casino over and over again.

This premise leads to a very cool game experience, where the player can voyeuristically observe gruesome (and very creative deaths) keeping an eye out for ways in which they can intervene next time. It’s the ultimate expression of a game’s writer having their cake and eating it too – all the scenes in which the hero fails to save his charge aren’t just in there as a fail state, they are sure to be seen by every player. No doubt this helped to inspire some of the best dialogue and character development I have ever seen in a video game.

In a lot of recent games that I’ve been playing I’ve noticed that the once-novel “detective mode” (named after the pioneering Batman: Arkham games) has become de rigueur for any game that involves the player picking up on clues – perhaps as a response to player dissatisfaction with pixel hunting. However, The Sexy Brutale provides a refreshing change of pace, where all character interactions are viewed through keyholes with no special magic that allows you to separate clues from flavor, heightening the player’s interaction with the setting in a way that a lot of mystery games fail to do. The fact that objects that can be interacted with are always highlighted with a circle around them certainly helps as well.

It’s not often that I feel compelled to get 100% of the achievements in a game – my typical gaming experience is focused on ingesting the story and any medals I achieve are incidental – but The Sexy Brutale presents such an intriguing mystery that the achievements are more than just scoring more points – they offer further insight into what is going on.

The game isn’t without its faults, including the frustratingly slow plodding of the player character through the halls that you have explored enough to know that they hold no new secrets. Necessary to the functionality of the time mechanic in the game is that it takes a predictable amount of time for you to get from one room to another, so a run or fast travel option isn’t available, but after your 40th trip from the Heaven and Hell Staircase to the Spider Room you really start to miss it. Still, it gives you the chance to admire the beautifully designed environments and sprites that lend to the overall turn-of-the-century aesthetic.

When the full truth of the story finally reveals itself, the twist is not terribly surprising, but it does present the player with a lot to think about concerning the nature of death and love, which I think is a triumph. It’s not often that a game can truly incite a player to ask themselves philosophical questions with a final-moments reveal.

For those like me with a love of old standards like Loom and Monkey Island, I cannot recommend The Sexy Brutale highly enough – the game isn’t a huge time commitment (I finished it in about 7 hours) and is certain to put a smile on your face. Even if you haven’t yet dipped your toe into mystery adventure games, The Sexy Brutale is a great example to start with.

Posts navigation

← Burnt Crunchy Bits – Steven Universe Cookie Cat
Episode 138 – Omanyte →
  • Recent Posts

    • Hack the Net 158 – How to… Cry
    • Hack the Net 157 – How to… Curriculum
    • Hack the Net 156 – How to… Revive
    • Seeing Red(dit) Fan Casting: Best Spice
    • Hack the Net 155 – How to… Sleep
  • Archives

    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • August 2015
    • March 2015
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • April 2014
Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Parament by Automattic.