Nexus: The Jupiter Incident (Windows)

My most favorite game in the 2005 IF Competition in which it tied for second place, Beyond is a great murder mystery that has it all: interesting plot and cast of characters, charming atmosphere (small present-day Italian town), captivating plot twists and turns, solid writing, and even a clever conversation system to boot.

As usual, Dan Shiovitz's nice review of this game explains its appeal: "Just to get it out of the way, Beyond is clearly written by someone for whom English isn't a first language, but the writing is never so awkward as to make it unclear what's going on. This is good, since the actual plot is reasonably complicated even without the language barrier.

The deal is that it's a two-strand mystery: one from the perspective of the detective (mostly) and some other characters in the drama, and the other from the perspective of the unborn baby of the murder victim and her magical blob companion. Yeah. But this isn't quite as incongruous as it sounds — the latter thread has kind of a magical-realism vibe that keeps it from getting too silly (at least, if you're willing to buy it at all), and the former thread is actually pretty out there too once you get into it, with cults and plot twists and other thriller elements."

Highly recommended.

Review By HOTUD