This past weekend, I participated in MinnMax’s Give to the Max stream. It was a huge success, partially due to the “Gammage” (a twist on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Gommage), where games were put on a list, and the game with the fewest donations would be eliminated. It was shocking to see then that, between beloved games like Hades 2, Blue Prince, and even Clair Obscur itself, the winner was the indie investigation game The Roottrees Are Dead.
I was aware of this game, but this was the push that actually got me to check it out, and man, am I glad I played it before the end of the year. If you haven’t read Marcus Stewart’s great review here on Game Informer, here’s the breakdown. Set in 1998, you’re a private investigator tasked with filling out the long, complex family tree of the Roottrees, a family made wealthy due to their powerful candy dynasty. To do so, you’re given an era-appropriate computer and search engine, which you can use to track down leads, find names, and put together the truth. Much like Blue Prince or one of Half Mermaid’s games like Immortality, this game’s mystery had such a hold on me that I’ve had a genuinely hard time getting other work done this week. It’s incredibly enthralling. And after you finish that first mystery, you unlock a second, more difficult one, and I’ve been devouring it just the same. The Roottrees are Dead slipped past me when it launched last January – don’t let it slip past you now.
