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“We’ve been doing Buzz for a while,” says Relentless co-founder David Amor. “Let’s try and do something different.”
And so, Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle, the episodic, family-friendly, self-published PSN-exclusive murder mystery, was born. Relentless’ motivation is clear, and Amor is not afraid to reveal it. He describes his hugely popular quiz show game as “a blessing and a curse”, a game the team’s “spent longer than anticipated” working on. “We want to demonstrate we’re not a one trick pony,” he says.
You’d think, then, that Blue Toad, which we’re here at the Brighton developer’s headquarters to see for the first time, would be chalk to Buzz!’s cheese. Not so. If Buzz! is cheddar, then Blue Toad is Red Leicester – it might be a puzzle game with a healthy slice of logic solving on the side, but it shares striking similarities in tone and look with the studio’s bread and butter. Relentless, clearly, knows what it does best, despite wanting to try something different. Indeed you can feel Buzz! permeate from Blue Toad’s every virtual pore.
The game begins when the famous Blue Toad detectives (or four “outrageous stereotypes” as David describes them) arrive in the rural village of Little Riddle: Maple, the nosy grandma; Dakota, the Lois Lane sleuth; Dickens, the Enid Blyton lad and Vanderbosh, the Hercule Poirot gent. The next hour and a half reveals Blue Toad to be perhaps the most British game ever made (although Telltale’s episodic Wallace & Gromit series runs it close). Before you’ve had time to write a postcard, Little Riddle’s mayor is mysteriously shot dead. It’s your job it find out whodunit.
The game, like Buzz!, has an accessible, tongue in check art style that Relentless’ existing fans will find instantly recognisable. The village itself isn’t particularly detailed, but it’s warm, welcoming and picturesque: just how a small English village should look. The characters are more than regional stereotypes – they’re caricatures, with big heads and attire lifted straight from a Midsomer Murders episode. You can tell they’ve been drawn with the same hand that draws Buzz himself.
And the game, like Buzz!, has a dry, British humour that’s never afraid to mock itself. Much of this comes from the hilarious show stealing narrator. His flowery, ornate voice acting (“puffing conveyance” instead of departing train) is delivered with an accent similar to that of the posh bloke from the E4 adverts. He’s genuinely funny, especially when taking the piss out of your poor puzzle performances. Some of the locals stand out: the Basil Fawlty-inspired hotelier’s got some great lines, and the local barmaid induces the odd chuckle, too. You might not be listening to Jason Donovan’s over-the-top quiz show host, but you can tell his lines have been penned by the same creative force.
Crucially, however, Blue Toad differs from Buzz! in gameplay. Broken down, it’s a turn-based party game. Up to four players pass a single PS3 pad around as each character in turn interviews a local before attempting to solve an associated puzzle. Now, don’t expect any great control over the investigation. You’re able to decide what part of the village to head to next, be it the town hall, the pub or another building, but proceedings race along in a linear fashion. What it amounts to, really, is a choice: who do I fancy interviewing? There’s no way to know how hard the associated puzzle will be, so it’s horses for courses.
The interviews are basic sit back and absorb affairs. Your sleuth stands there and the local spews information – there are no role-playing elements at all. The idea is to listen intently, gathering facts and spotting holes in suspects’ alibis. Someone’s to blame, and the truth, as Mulder says, is out there.
The interviews are divided by the occasional multiplayer memory test, which tasks each player in turn to answer observation-based questions. Once all players have gone through the interviewing and puzzle-solving process and no stones are left unturned (after about 90 minutes), it’s time to decide who you reckon committed the dastardly deed, based on what you’ve been told in the interviews. Everyone, in turn, has a pop. It’s harder than it sounds.
As with all puzzle games, it’s the quality of the puzzles that determine whether it’s worth your hard-earned cash. Despite the family-friendly look, some of the puzzles are fiendish, and certainly too hard for younger kids. Things start off easy enough, but soon the game get’s pretty difficult. There are anagram puzzles, logic puzzles and a smattering of other types. Part of the fun is experiencing the puzzles fresh, so we won’t spoil them for you. Know this though: you feel a great deal of pressure racking your brain for solutions. You’re not battling against the clock, but you’re awarded medals for solving puzzles correctly within pre-set times. And you really do want gold: bronze is as bad as it gets and silver doesn’t amount to much. If you’re playing multiplayer with even a hint of competitiveness then golds are essential, because at the end the scores are tallied to determine a winner.
The only issue some might find with Blue Toads is price related. Each of the six episodes will set you back £6.49, which sounds a little expensive for what amounts to a 90 minute experience with almost zero replay value. Once you’ve solved the puzzles for the first time, it’s hard to see why you would do so again, unless you’re really obsessed with getting Trophies. Relentless is probably aware of this fact: the first two episodes will be bundled together for a tenner, a potentially attractive proposition for new PS3 Slim owners on Christmas Day.
Still, there’s much to look forward to. As a family-friendly party game for Christmas, it should live up to all expectations. While our hands-on was unusually competitive, friends and family should have a more relaxed experience, with much screen pointing and pad grabbing. Blue Toad might be Relentless’ attempt to do something different, but its commitment to accessible, social gaming remains.
Episode one of Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle will be available exclusively on PSN on December 17 priced £6.49. Episode one and two will be available on the same date as a bundle for £9.99.
