Detective of the Dead

Detective of the Dead is a narrative noir adventure game in which you are a detective in the colorful Mexican underworld and must solve cases using your wit, your unlockable abilities, puzzles and mini-games to prevent a conspiracy to ruin the famous Día de los Muertos forever. You and your magic companion dog Xolo can't let that happen!

You are in an 3D semi-open world in top-down view. From the street level to the roofs to the interior of houses or bars - you can explore the underworld. When it comes to mechanics it´s an adventure with some special ingredients: Be prepared to do some classic talking, interrogation & investigation and gladly: no pixel hunting, because for that we have our magic companion dog Xolo and its abilities to track and find things. We also added some Metroidvania and RPG spice. About ingredients, Mexican food is arguably among the best in the world. And doing the best original Mexican food in the afterworld can help you far sometimes...

Things in the underworld are a bit different than in the world of the living. Some things might seem funny, some weird or absurd to you. And some ancient god's powers are mysterious for sure. But it's all under control in the Mexican underworld. Well, actually it is not, that´s why we need you.

Everyone in the underworld is counting on you on the big case - well maybe except the bandits you are after. But even for them the Day of the Dead is special. Because only on that day everyone hopes to be able to visit the world of the living. To meet your friends & relatives, taste your favorite food (spoiler alert: not that easy in the afterworld) and just have a good time. You know these basics from Coco, documentaries or even from James Bond. That´s where we start with our Detective work.

Be prepared for an underworld full of dead people, some of them you actually might know! That´s one of the reasons why our detective wants to stay unseen in the quarter of the Nearly Forgotten - his past is haunting him. Well - over the course of many hours of game play you can change his course back to happiness and glory. Some help of ancient gods might come in handy though at some points...

Apart from that - do you think the Dead in the Mexican underworld just have fun, play music, no need to work - so everything is great when you´re dead? Think again, most people don´t change, even when they are dead. And everyone wants this Marigold, the inofficial currency in the underworld, to travel longer to the world of the living when the Day of the Dead arrives. So there are a lot of cases to solve. Just concentrate on the one that is about saving the day for all, alright? Depending on your decisions the outcome will change for the better or worse. We hope you can solve the big case and make sure the Dead can go to the world of the Living on the Día de los Muertos.

Like in a classic adventure game you walk through the world and talk with witnesses, suspects and passer-bys to find clues in your investigation – which are marked and updated in your detective book to keep track of the cases and suspects. Also you need to find items, solve puzzles and play minigames to progress the case. You can also choose optional cases if you like. Among the minigames are a piñata shooting game, a lock-picking puzzle game and a Mexican food cooking game for which you need the correct recipes and ingredients (and there are many recipes!). Once you have clues you can try solve the case correctly. Your many unlockable abilities get boosted thanks your companion Xolo which comes in handy when you need to track footsteps, find small missing items or such – so you better make sure your Xolo trusts you to make them powerful – trust, which you need to earn.

The underworld consists of different quarters like our cities, from the quarter of the Nearly forgotten to the one of the Unforgettables. And to access certain quarters or shortcuts in the underworld you need to solve cases sometimes first. Some cases like the main case span over the whole underworld.