A totally new gaming experience in the deduction sub-genre, TR-49 is Inkle Studio's lastest mysterious puzzler. I'll only be posting once about this title, because, well, the entire game pretty much looks the same throughout, and truthfully it's not a traditional adventure game at all. It's more of a narrative puzzle game. This is the first game by Inkle Studios I've actually finished, after giving up on Overboard! after two hours of trying to get a good ending; and I haven't dared touch another one of their games since.
The machine...
I'm Abbi, and I wake up in a basement in front of a strange machine. Turns out it contains a database of books, authored by a group of people and commented on by a handful of others who at one time controlled this database like a type of librarians, you might say. Each book has a four digit code: two letters followed by two numbers. I'm suddenly contacted by a guy named Liam, who wants me to locate one particular book in this database and destroy it for reasons you will have to find out on your own if you decide to play it. To find this book, I need to dig my way through the maze of entries and correctly identify 50 books by matching the titles with their codes.
Searching through the database...
There's a lot of clicking and reading involved. Sometimes the job is easy, sometimes you have to do some deduction. There are many references to other books and to important dates, and often you have to resort to some basic math to figure things out. Thankfully Abbi keeps track of everything in a notebook with lists, which is very handy if you get lost for a bit. But there's also lots to hear. Abbi and Liam are almost in constant conversation. I don't think you really have to listen to everything, because you have to acknowledge one hailing the other by clicking on the blinking sender/receiver, and only then do they start or continue talking to each other.
Flipping through the notes...
I must admit I was scared to play this game, because I assumed it would be very difficult. And it is, but still quite manageable. In order not to lose my marbles, though, I limited myself to identifying 10 books at a time, which usually took a playing session of roughly one hour to 90 minutes. After 4 hours of playing time and 33 books out of 50 identified, I got the feeling this game would take me many more hours to get a grip on those last ten titles, since it was starting to get harder and harder to make progress. I wanted to move on, perhaps keep TR-49 as a puzzle to return to in between other games.
Got 'm all!
But suddenly, I started to make more connections and discovered new leads. I was suddenly able to raise my total to 40 books, then 43, then suddenly 47, went to 48 almost by accident you might say, and with only two books left - one I needed a code for, another I needed the title of - I dug into all the additional log notes. And yes, there was the final title! But that final code, that took a while longer. Then in a leap of logic, I might say, I happened to find that last code, and after almost 7,5 hours of puzzling I was finally able to go ahead and erase the book Liam told me about. And what happened next, well, that's history...
I'll NEVER be too old for fairy tales!
TR-49 definitely isn't for everyone. It's certainly no classic point 'n click adventure game. It's a narrative, mouse-controlled puzzle game that offers quite the challenge and has a very intricate storyline I must admit haven't completely figured out yet. There's an expansive lore behind this game and I would very much like to talk to Jon Ingold about it all now. Who knows, perhaps at the next AdventureX?
Before taking on another classic game from the 90s, my next blog will be about a new release as well, but a more classic style point 'n click adventure game about ghosts and possessing people that I'm sure will appeal to more people...
So, last year I wrote an anticipation post of all the adventure games I was looking forward to in 2025. But aw shucks, that didn't quite turn out so well, with several of the titles I mentioned back then still being in production as I write this. Of course, that's game development for you!
I'm still looking forward to their eventual releases, though I'm not quite sure when those will be. So I've taken a long, hard look at the 2026 release calendar and made a list of entirely new games that we should be able to play some time in the next twelve months.
TR-49 is the new game by Jon Ingold's production company inkle. Not much is known about this title; it's all cloaked in secrecy, since the game itself is about secrecy, hidden codes, spies, etc. (well, most likely, I presume...) But after my two hour "fiasco" overplaying Overboard! I considered it time to finally play and complete an inkle game! I'm not sure I'm quite up to the task, but sometimes you just have to dive in headfirst!
Theropods by Lost Token intrigued me from the start. I mean, DINOSAURS! Gotta play that! Now, I must admit, my enthusiasm has been lowered somewhat after I found out it's a dialogue-free game. Not a requisite to have a good story, but I do enjoy talking to characters when I'm playing a game, discovering information I need to progress, learning about them and the world I'm in. I'm a book reader, what do you expect! But if Dionous Games believes in this game enough to publish it, there must be something good there. So I'll just let myself be surprised!
I got the chance to play The Tragedy at Deer Creek at AdventureX last November and I'm really looking forward to dive in the full game. So naturally, this is one of the games I'm looking forward to the most. The developers of Sparrowland Studios were also very appreciative of my feedback. You travel to an abandoned Alaskan settlement as a photographer, slowly uncovering the secrets of its former residents.
(Of course I played more games at AdventureX that I'm looking forward to; you can read about them on my blogpost about the event!)
I'm not sure what the current status is of The Mystery of Doomsday Valley by True Ascension or if it even will be released this year (it's planned for Q4), but it looks like the kind of traditional point 'n click adventure I truly still enjoy and adore. A remote town, a local mystery, lots of characters, a whimsical style, and a quirky female lead; just let me at it already! I just hope it'll be more of a challenge than their previous title, Champy the Useless Vampire...
After An English Haunting by Postmodern Adventures, I've been looking forward to their next title, The Dark Rites of Arkham. This time I'm going to make sure to play it in the year it's actually released, so it can count for my next top ten! I have high hopes for this one, a detective story about a ritual murder linked to the Salem witch trials, so I expect to get creeped out again!
Finally this list wouldn't be complete without mentioning Shadows of the Afterland by Aruma Studios. Their second game after Intruder in Antiquonia, I hope they've learned from that previous title and have made something more substantial, a story with appealing graphics you can really dig into. And a ghost set to investigate its own death, possessing humans to get the necessary information? That sounds like a blast!
I'm also still looking forward to The Adventures of Bryan Scott by Radio Silence Studios, Legends of Castile by Torrezno Entertainment and Whirlight: No Time To Trip by imaginarylab. I also hope that Ghost Haunting by Three Headed Monkey Studios will be released; I didn't play the demo at AdventureX because I was already convinced to play the full game, so fingers crossed for that one, too!
