It’s not been long since the original Murder Diaries released. It was okay, brought to us by the team behind the Life of Fly and Aery series’. I don’t however think I ever imagined that a sequel would turn up so soon after, but that’s where we are with Murder Diaries 2, as we continue the story of our killer writer. The first game took us on a journey of a man whose family was devastated by the death of his father at the hands of a gang leader. It told a tale of revenge and the plotting of his murder and at the end of the game (spoiler alert) he gets a taste of the killing. Now though he wants to do it again. Let the slaying begin.
Murder Diaries 2 starts as a direct lead from the first game. However this time the narrative is split between two different narrators. The first is the author of Murder Diaries, stalking another victim who this time is a leader of a sex trafficking ring in the city. The other narrator is a rookie detective hot on the trail of the serial killer, at the same time becoming embroiled in the sex trafficking case.
The game’s narrative tries something new with the plot here, taking in two different branching narratives, linking them in the process. After playing a few of these type of games over the years, it is now somewhat addictive as you wait for the next piece of narrative to drop, hitting another checkpoint in the process. The story becomes the focus and the writing here is pretty solid, even though at times it does feel like a holiday thriller novel.
The themes of what makes a murderer do what they do, and the perspective from the other side of the law, are interesting ones to explore. Alongside the notion of the vigilante and whether their cause is a noble one or just a demonic take, are all discussed in the narrative, interestingly dissected. But whilst it rolls out fine, the ending doesn’t feel like a proper conclusion to this narrative; I’d guess this may well allow the thread to continue forward. In fact, I got a little bit confused about where we were in the later levels, losing the plot a little. But overall the story does allow for the player to keep occupied in playing throughout, keeping things open to what happens next.
Gameplay is pretty much like that found in all the other games that have come out of the EpiXR Games stable. However, instead of playing as a bird or a fly, in Murder Diaries you are a sort of ghostly spirit, flying around the levels. Each level is set in an area connected to the story – like a street scene, a police station or some more abstract or symbolic scenes – and you are basically left to fly through them all, working multiple checkpoints which trigger a paragraph or sentence of narrative. When all checkpoints are completed then the scene ends. Most checkpoints are easy to find, but like in any game some are trickier, hidden out of the way behind objects or underneath things. If you hit anything like a wall, the ceiling or an object then you start again from the last checkpoint you collected. It’s neat too that you can spin left or right in the air, even if it doesn’t make any difference to the gameplay.
If you have played the original Murder Diaries, or Aery, or Life of Fly, then you are going to get more of the same here in Murder Diaries 2. And that means I’m going to have to focus on the same criticism as I have for all the others – the pacing on certain levels is much too slow. If you could just change the pace then it would make a lot of difference to proceedings, and that would be a good thing.
Visually I like how Murder Diaries 2 deals with some of the more symbolic scenes; those with strange environments. It’s an unusual place to fly around, but once again the developers have used old assets from other titles, which is a shame. It has a lot fewer pop-ins then before though, which is a blessing. You’re pretty much looking at a similar vibe for the soundtrack, and whilst the voice work is good and well-read by the main actor, both character voices do feel pretty similar; something which doesn’t help with the narrative strands.
Murder Diaries 2 takes a tiny step up from the original game, moves the narrative on by splitting it between two protagonists and asks some good questions on morality. The more abstract-level designs are appreciated, but once again it’s frustrating that old assets push things along. The gameplay needs to change up too, especially when you consider the pacing issues of some of the levels.
If you are a fan of what has come before it, then you’re going to like this experience. But I’m sure there will be many more pages of the Murder Diaries to unfold yet.
Murder Diaries 2 can be downloaded from the Xbox Store
