Now, You've Done It!

If you are familiar with mystery novels involving detectives and strange murders, then you pretty much expect things to go wrong once a dinner party is announced, or a ball of some sorts. This is actually a classic trope in the world of detective novels, because there is usually a very small number of suspects, and all the detectives have to do is gather the evidence and point their fingers at the culprit.

Now, You've Done It! is not much different from your average mystery story involving a murder, but it goes about it using humor instead. Thus, this is a visual novel at its roots, which means that you basically watch the story unfold in front of your eyes and make certain choices every now and again. Depending on these choices, you can pinpoint the true perpetrator at the end of the game.

The action starts when you receive an invitation to John B.P. Rockefeller’s dinner party as his fancy manor, but things go wrong in a matter of minutes. As such, someone gets murder right away, and you must hold everyone in the manor while you search for clues and find the one responsible. Anyone can be a murderer, so you have to move quickly to avoid getting more victims on your hands.

Dialog is your main tool most of the time, because you can extract information from other characters by simply speaking to them. Sometimes this provides you with clues regarding their motives or whereabouts, but other times you can just use the information to rule them out. There’s nothing too complicated to sort through along the way, so the whole experience can be finished quite rapidly.

The graphics are in tune with the overall atmosphere of the story, which means that the character design is fairly silly and sketchy at best. This is not an issue, however, because the puppet-like characters are much more expressive than regular humans. The backdrops are actually very enjoyable and detailed, which allows you to immerse yourself in the mystery.

Even if it’s not exactly a serious story, Now, You've Done It! can be pretty engaging under the right circumstances, especially if you have no quarrel with this kind of humor. The mystery remains intriguing all the way to the end.