Developer: Cavalier Game Studios & Tequila Works
Publisher: Tequila Works
ReleaseDate: 11th April 2017
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4
The Sexy Brutale is a bit of a hidden gem on Playstation 4. It initially released back in April 2017 to a pretty muted reaction. This certainly wasn’t a reflection on the quality of the game, but it just unfortunately flew under the radar for a lot of gamers. It may have had something to do with releasing so close to indie darling Little Nightmares, which is also another game very much worth your time.
You play as Lafcadio Boone, a preacher who wakes up in a mansion that houses a casino. A strange woman known as Bloody Girl. She gives Boone a mask which pulls him out of a never ending cycle that the rest of the other party members are stuck in, reliving their deaths over and over again. The aim of the game is to observe these deaths and then find a way to stop them happening. You do this with the aid of a watch which allows you to reset the time to noon. Grandfather clocks scattered around the mansion also give you new spawn locations when you reset the day and also allow you to skip to 4pm or 8pm if a certain trigger you need occurs later.
As always I don’t want to spoil the narrative, but early on you would be forgiven for thinking that the story may take a back seat to the interesting gameplay. This is far from the case though as the story comes full circle in a really interesting and thought provoking way. Coming back and playing the game again two years later I was still engrossed from beginning to end.
The gameplay really is novel. Often times I will avoid games altogether if there is a time limit element as I prefer to play at my own pace, but the mechanic really is superbly implemented here. No combat exists in The Sexy Brutale. In-fact you need to actively avoid contact with other characters, limiting yourself to peering at them through keyholes.
Graphically the game is beautiful, with characters in the world almost depicted as caricatures. Environments are colourful, vibrant and detailed. Pre-release screenshots are actually what initially drew me to the game as it immediately made me think of Theme Hospital, one of my favourite all-time games.
All trophies are relatively straight forward with nothing missable that would force a second run. The game also comes packing a platinum trophy and a second stack if you purchase the AU version. I would expect the game to take around 5-6 hours to platinum for most gamers and obviously less if you were to use a guide.
-Craig 🧐