The Sexy Brutale (PlayStation 4) Review

It's difficult to know what to expect when you enter the walls of The Sexy Brutale for the first time. There is mystery and intrigue here but more importantly there is murder, and a lot of it. The Hotel literally crashes, bangs and screams with death happening all around as over the course of the day each and every guest is being bumped off in increasingly lavish and creative ways.

Upon waking in a chapel by a woman covered in blood the game makes its mark early on. It's difficult to ignore instruction from such a dripping red mess so it is without hesitation that the mask wearing protagonist steps into the first of many days within the hotel to try and rescue each of the patrons from imminent death.

What soon becomes immovably obvious is that to save each and every one of the paying guests is a monumental task, especially as there are not enough hours in the day to attend to each grizzly scene taking place across the sprawling map. In order to prevent such depravity it will take observation, exploration, experimentation, and most importantly time. There's a power, though, within The Sexy Brutale that emboldens the player to forever rewind time. Bringing everything back to the start of the day before a bullet is fired or a furnace is lit. One more chance to make what is wrong right again.

There's a lot here that The Sexy Brutale is trying to achieve with its chronological conundrum but waking up into the world of The Sexy Brutale for the first time is worth it just to feel the weight of expectations drip away as the perfectly balanced mechanics of this time melding puzzle game slowly emerge from the delicious animation and design. The task at hand initially appears unsurmountable but as everything in the game dances around the premise that the player exists within this time loop there literally is the time to let each murder mystery root itself within the psyche before finding out the solution.

What The Sexy Brutale does that is truly exceptional is not to make the player overtly the hero, which goes against much of modern day video game logic. They are instead a passive element in each of the crimes taking place. Challenged to put enough roadblocks in place in order to make sure the slaughter never goes ahead. Due to some mystic benevolence the protagonist can never be in the same room as any other character, which initially feels limiting, but consequently it means that the emphasis here is to really engage with each mystery from afar as there is no option to intervene directly and stop the crime.

Each death that the player is tasked to prevent starts as simple discovery but grows into a detailed investigation in which you have to carefully follow the cast of characters around the hotel, peering through keyholes, hiding in cupboards and eavesdropping on conversations. Exploration is thoroughly encouraged and each death is limited somewhat to a specific area of the hotel so picking a part a murder never becomes an overwhelming task.

There is no penalty for rewinding time other than potentially losing some of the items you've discovered along the way but armed with a detailed map and an ever increasing knowledge of the nooks and crannies within the hotel this isn't a punishment by any other name. Instead it helps impress on the player the importance of planning out their approach to finally solving the mystery and spoiling the murder.

 Quite typically to fit in with the mystique of the game, masks feature heavily and each member of the cast has their own unique visage. The killers, for example, ominously stalk their pray in gas mask, hiding in back rooms as they plan their next kill. The masks perform an important role in not only being the aforementioned 'mystic benevolence' that stops the player from occupying the same room as any other character but also they bestow upon the holder specific powers. These abilities open up new areas of the map, aid in navigation or puzzle solving. Locked behind the mask, these elements of progression could come across as crass and needless but they often add such depth and complexity to the game that it's a measure of brilliance not banality.

Due to the open nature of the game there can be a few occasions when it's possible to stumble across the solution to a murder before there has been much of an opportunity to investigate further but it pays testament to the world that exists within the Hotel that even after a successful rescue there is still some joy in going back and filling out the rest of the puzzle. Watching the colour and life of the cast from afar knowing that in some other timeline their bacon was saved is a wonder. Time spent in the company of these folks is never wasted and snooping in on their conversations at just the right moment is when the game is at its best.

The Sexy Brutale is a puzzle game that is a progeny of all the brilliance within Gregory Horror Show, Flower, Sun and Rain and Ghost Trick but even with such a rich heritage it manages to stand apart as a title of drama and performance. The controls are simple and enhance investigation by not getting in the way. Animations are sharp and full of detail within their design and the whole package is neatly finished off with a soundtrack that is perfectly in tune with the ever increasing tension in each passing second.

There is not much more to mention without the risk of spoiling the details of a certain mystery or giving away any twists in the plot but be assured that The Sexy Brutale is a confident and charismatic release. Having the opportunity to be such an effective sleuth and to have an unseen effect on the path of history is a powerful drug. There is an argument to say that the game could have been shoved to the brim with increasingly complex murders to solve and bigger plans to spoil. However, The Sexy Brutale straddles the line between need and want beautifully leaving the player ultimately satisfied with the conclusion of the story but utterly desperate for more.