I’ve been partial to murder mysteries from the moment I watched an episode of Case Closed, also known as Detective Conan. I was probably too young when I did, and the following episodes did spawn months if not years of nightmares full of evil, dark silhouettes, but I don’t regret it all. The trope can create beautiful marriages of puzzle solving and soap-opera drama, spinning tales that reveal more than one person’s secrets along the way. So when I was playing Atomfall and came across a dead body next to a panicking priest, I was ecstatic.

There’s a lot to like about Atomfall, but something that sticks out within minutes is how the waypoint-less approach to world exploration encourages an intentional look at your surroundings. Without a white dot above every Key Item or Door to Important Destination, I can’t just glance over aroom to progress the game’s quests, fittingly called Leads. Nothing is ever too hidden, but just enough work is required that finding Key Items is rewarding. Why this formula works so well was highlighted during my time playing detective in Wyndham Village. 

Wyndham Village is one of the few places where you’re not on edge because a fight could start any moment. Instead, you’ll be anxious because any confrontation here would likely mean a quick death by its occupying soldiers. Calling themselves the Protocol, these soldiers use their guns and numbers to rule the village with an iron fist, gaoling (jailing) any dissenters if not worse. However, this doesn’t stop the village folk from loudly complaining, quietly comparing the military outfit to Nazis, and creating an economy of secrets. Several deals are taking place behind closed doors, including my relationship with the Vicar after I came across the sickle-stricken Maisie on his holy grounds.

After doing a barely decent job at convincing me it wasn’t his doing, begging me not to tell the Protocol, and telling me to mind my business, I made this murder my only business. Following a bloody note on the corpse’s Lead, I searched Wyndham Village, learning about its places and people, for evidence that would reveal the killer. While the no-hand-holding approach made piecing the clues together satisfying, fulfilling my dream of being Batman with amnesia, what this investigation also revealed was the oppressive feeling these villagers were experiencing. It’s one thing to hear about it, another to see it, and something even more to tense at the threat level bar popping up every time I got close to a soldier. They hate me, they hate the villagers, and they hate their self-inflicted predicament. They are gleeful to take that hate out on everyone else and have the power to do so. While Vicar McHenry isn’t exactly clean, it wasn’t hard to understand why he didn’t want to report a murder under his roof. It could interfere with his own stake in the village of course, but evidently Protocol would use any excuse to tighten the populace’s leash, with decisions made prior to the facts and all reasons crafted thereafter. 

I was also pleasantly surprised by how this mystery resolves, mostly because I got to choose how it wrapped up. I won’t spoil who did the deed, but the situation is not just an out-of-hand spat — it is reflective of the reality inside Wyndham Village, as people search for the most comfortable spot underneath a boot. It puts the Protocol’s intolerance on full display, as well as how villagers navigate under such a claustrophobic space. Also, while each route promises some kind of material benefit for the player, you don’t actually know the specifics. So my choice primarily came from a mix of what I witnessed and participated in, not meta-knowledge of the potential rewards.

This short adventure leverages the ability for video game murder mysteries to be opportunities of gray decision-making, not only testing your comprehension of what’s happening in the game but also creating consequences from your choice. You can be the detective, jury, judge, and executioner if you so choose. This should never be the case in reality, but that’s what make games a great place to explore that kind of power and how one feels about its effects. While my choice at the end of Wyndham Village’s brief whodunit didn’t end with more bodies (that I know of), it left me feeling responsible for whatever happens to to its people. Their future wasn’t entirely on me, but there is no doubt I played a part.