Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders

A game doesn't have to feature AAA graphics, or even basic 3D graphics to be relevant, as long as the gameplay and the story more than rise up for the occasion. Since the most compelling and engaging stories available are the ones where you interact with your environment and make choices that have a deep impact over the flow of the game, detective titles are usually the go-to genre. That would be the case with Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders, a 2D 8-bit mystery game where you play as the eponymous hero detective DI and take part in an immersive story-driven experience dripping with historical atmosphere.

When you think to yourself "mystery solving game" where you have to put your detective skills to good use, you'll most likely think of something European, such as the British Sherlock Holmes, or the French Hercules Poirot. Well, Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders throws all that out the window and instead chooses a story set in ancient China, which lets the game engage in a story that is fresh and interesting at the same time.

You play as you the eponymous hero detective DI, and your job is to unravel the various mysteries that plague China. You will have to find clues, sometimes even having to look at them a second time to find clues you may have missed the first time. Then you will have to speak with everyone around, since anyone is eligible to be a suspect, and you will have to piece the clues and the answers you got together in the game's "Deduction Board" in order to come up with the most likely scenario, and the identity of the culprit.

Rarely have I ever had the chance to play a game that engaged my mind the way that Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders did, and despite the fact that detective games have no replay value since you already know who did what, I would most definitely try it again just for the sake of the atmosphere. More so, if you're a native Chinese or are just infatuated with the culture, then the unique Chinese cultural and historical reference and the fantastic soundtrack with 13 original songs will keep you in the game for good.

Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders is a great way to showcase one of China's greatest detective minds, and bring him into the spotlight along with other giants of the Mystery genre, like Sherlock and Poirot.