A new game on Steam locks up 24 people in a huge castle – many of them with the goal of taking out the others. What could go wrong? MeinMMO author Ody tried it.
The game is called Killer Inn and is being developed by Square Enix in collaboration with TBS GAMES, the gaming brand of the Japanese television channel TBS Television. And you can tell. Killer Inn strongly resembles a game show in its presentation – think of Takeshi’s Castle, but with fewer fun challenges and more murder and mayhem.
The events are commented on by an off-screen voice, and overall, everything is structured like a game within the world. The rules are quite simple and again remind one of Among Us (or its quasi-predecessor: “The Werewolves of Düsterwald”):
- 24 players wake up in a fancy, remote castle and are trapped there.
- These players are divided into two groups – sheep and wolves.
- The goal of the wolves is to eliminate all the sheep. The sheep work to uncover and eliminate the wolves.
- Throughout the map, you will find keys that open the gate to a ship. The sheep can escape on this ship as well.
However, detective games are completely new territory for him – aside from a few rounds of “The Werewolves of Düsterwald” that he played during school. This is partly because he couldn’t even lie to save his own skin.
Here you can see the announcement trailer for Killer Inn:
Just going wild is not an option
But before you get the idea of just mindlessly slaughtering: In some areas, killing other players is prohibited. If you try it anyway, you will be punished. Moreover, you do not want to be seen by the castle staff while committing a murder. They might then rat you out to the other players.
If you randomly attack people as a sheep, hoping that they are wolves among them, that will also not be tolerated. If you hit another sheep, you are out of the game. These rules are in place to ensure that rounds don’t immediately devolve into massacres, and that’s a good thing.
At the beginning, most participants are busy collecting items and completing quests. You get the quests from the staff. Completing these will earn you money. With that, you can buy weapons and special items, among other things. But sooner or later, the first player will meet a sad fate.
At the crime scene, you look for clues. Every murder leaves traces – whether it’s hair, a piece of clothing, or something similar. You can narrow down the suspects based on those clues. You can also exchange information with other players – using voice chat in the game is recommended.
Eventually, one player after another will fall, and it becomes increasingly clear who is a wolf and who is a sheep. From here, the detective game turns into a third-person shooter. The gunplay already feels quite good, but I had problems with melee weapons. With those, it’s quite difficult to hit opponents.
But there are also ways to take out your enemies with just one attack. I learned this when I let a player – whom I was pretty sure was a wolf – get a bit too close to me, and then I got knocked out with a cloth soaked in chloroform.
Atmospheric detective game with explosive action
Even though none of the rounds went particularly well for me, I had fun. The distinct characters fit the setting, and the “commentator” enhances the atmosphere significantly. Moreover, each game felt different. I played three of them, two as a sheep and one as a wolf. Both times I had plenty to do and enjoyed moving through the castle.
Especially towards the end of a match, there are really epic battles, such as when the last sheep must withstand a rush of wolves – and survives. But it’s not only about how well you can aim, as there are also other ways to eliminate opponents. So you don’t need to be a shooter pro to succeed here.
If that sounds exciting to you, you can sign up on Steam for upcoming beta tests.
Just as there are countless ways for you to send other players to the afterlife in Killer Inn, the legendary developer Hideo Kojima believes he knows countless such ways as well. That other studios have less expertise makes him sad too. What this is about, you can find out in this article: Hideo Kojima knows countless ways to kill people because he has “trained” for his job as a developer.
