Tangle Tower – A Thrilling Murder Mystery in an Unusual Mansion

“The sun is up, the skies are blue, and murder is in the air.” – Richard Osman

Overview

Tangle Tower is the third instalment of the Detective Grimoire series by SFB Games. The first, simply entitled Detective Grimoire was a flash game released in 2007, followed by Secret of the Swamp in 2014. There is also a fourth upcoming adventure The Mermaid Mask currently in the making and due to be released later this year.

Narrative

Tangle Tower’s story is set in the titular mansion, a main house with a connected tower on either side, and its grounds. Within which, two families reside, the Pointers and the Fellows, brought together through marriage by the Remingtons, only one of whom still lives there. The two remaining families partake in light feuding based on money, relationships, and jealousy, and keep to their own sides of the building for the most part.

The narrative focuses on the murder of a young painter, Freya Fellow, who is killed whilst creating a portrait of the last remaining Remington, Flora. Subsequently, Detective Grimoire and his assistant Sally are invited to investigate what is, despite the death of an NPC, quite a lighthearted and casual murder mystery. The writing is intriguing but also humorous, especially the dialogue. The protagonist and Sally have some great back and forth, with Sally often being the voice of reason, and the cast of NPCs is diverse and unique. Each character has their own personality, interests and back story that are revealed through the gameplay.

Gameplay

The main aspects of Tangle Tower’s gameplay are investigating the various rooms and interrogating and taking statements from the different people within them. There are many clues to be found and these, along with the other suspects, can be discussed with the NPCs. Once certain facts are revealed Detective Grimoire can present his suspicions to each character and divulge further information, bringing him one step closer to solving the case.

Items and information are often locked behind small puzzles, these include jigsaws, combination locks and use things such as map coordinates and object profiles. Some amount of logic is required but these puzzles do not pose too much of a challenge. The main conundrum of discovering who killed Freya, and the why and how of it, are the main puzzle and require the most attention to detail and environmental deduction.

The game features a grid-style map on which each room is revealed as it is discovered. Movement is directed from the map itself and the player can fast travel to any location that is already available. The map, character details, clues and other information such as dialogue, and revelations can all be accessed at any time via the UI. This offers a comprehensive overview of the case and makes the story easy to follow and tracking player progress is very manageable.

Styling

Tangle Tower Each represents each room with a mostly static image. Animation is minimal but includes things such as dust particles floating or small birds hovering with flapping wings. The art style is quite painterly and soft, appearing almost as though it were drawn with pastels. It uses a largely cool colour palette with slightly muted colours and plenty of complimentary contrast and atmospheric lighting, The characters are depicted in a more cartoon-like style using solid colours and thick black linework. The overall visual effect is quite pleasing.

The soundtrack is varied and ranges from calm, to energetic and even quite dramatic at times. It features a range of instruments and sounds such as wooden chimes, xylophones, twinkling, strings and more. Each track is befitting of the room and scene it accompanies and adds emphasis to the narrative and characters. The sound effects such as birds chirping or footsteps are also somewhat minimal but well implemented, helping to fully create each scene. The dialogue is believable and entertaining, with an element of humour that is delivered brilliantly by the quality voice acting of those playing all the fun and distinct characters.

Summary

Tangle Tower is an entertaining and intriguing murder mystery adventure that will take around 5-7 hours to complete. It offers delightful, stylised artwork, a varied soundtrack that is both creepy and jovial, a gripping narrative full of diverse characters, and compelling twists and discoveries, as well as a host of entertaining puzzles. The game has a casual feel overall, with humorous elements, but manages to be engaging throughout and suitably dramatic when needed. This game will appeal to a wide range of players, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would highly recommend it to fans of murder mysteries, relaxing adventures, puzzle games and especially to anyone who likes all three!

For more light-hearted detective adventures, check out these reviews:
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami – A Quacking Detective Noir Investigation – Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island – Short, Silly, and Spooky! – Lord Winklebottom Investigates – A Twist on the Classic Murder Mystery!

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