The Sexy Brutale

 PC
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 94 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 69 out of 94
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 94
  3. Negative: 10 out of 94

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  1. TitaniumDragon
    Dec 16, 2017
    5
    The Sexy Brutale isn’t sexy, but there’s certainly some brutality in it.

    The Sexy Brutale is a puzzle game in which the player place the role of Lafcario, a guest at the titular Sexy Brutale casino and mansion who is trying to prevent the guests from dying gruesome deaths. The major mechanic of the game is time travel – the player is trapped in a 12 hour long time loop, at the end of    The Sexy Brutale isn’t sexy, but there’s certainly some brutality in it.

    The Sexy Brutale is a puzzle game in which the player place the role of Lafcario, a guest at the titular Sexy Brutale casino and mansion who is trying to prevent the guests from dying gruesome deaths. The major mechanic of the game is time travel – the player is trapped in a 12 hour long time loop, at the end of which all items that the player has picked up during the loop will be reset to their starting locations, and all of the characters will return to their starting locations, in order to run through the loop yet another time. Played from a third-person perspective, the player navigates the mansion, spying on the guests and staff, with the intent of preventing the murders of ten guests by the staff and various other hazards within the mansion. The player must avoid being seen by the guests and staff, and as such, ends up watching people and listening to a lot of conversations by leaning against doors or looking through one-way glass.

    Time travel is key to solving the puzzles; events in the game happen at the rate of 1 hour of in game time equals 1 minute of real life time, and very few events don’t occur in real time. The player walks around the mansion, watching the various staff and guests move around, then makes use of the knowledge they gain by doing so in the next loop to try and solve the various puzzles. Oftentimes, the player will end up having to stalk the guests for a loop, the staff for a loop, and explore the environment for a loop in order to solve the various puzzles. The various characters will often drop clues as to what the player is supposed to be doing, resulting in a lot of characters having a tendency to talk to themselves in order to drop plot information and puzzle hints.

    The mansion contains a large number of examinable objects, each of which pop up flavor text when examined. There are also a number of items found lying around the mansion, all of which are used to solve various puzzles.

    The last major game mechanic is the mask abilities. As the player saves each guest, they gain some ability related to that character, such as keen hearing that allows the player to overhear whispered conversations or the ability to pick locks. These allow the player to gain access to new areas of the mansion.

    While there are ten guests that the player saves, the story is strictly linear; the player must save each guest or pair of guests in turn before moving on to the next. And while the player saves ten guests in total, three of those are actually pairs of people, so there are ultimately seven murder mysteries that the player must solve, though there are a couple other mysteries that the player must go through.

    The mysteries are, on the whole, pretty straightforward, though the game is not always terribly explicit about the solutions; in some of the puzzles, the player is essentially outright told the solution to the puzzle by some character, while in others, the player must piece together a way to stop the death based on various environmental objects that they might find or manipulate in their favor, or defusing potential hazards. The puzzles don’t get particularly more difficult over the course of the game; indeed, a few of the later puzzles feel a lot more straightforward than some of the earlier ones, as the solutions to them are outright told to the player if they listen to the right character. On the other hand, many of the puzzles simply cannot be solved unless you take the time to stalk the right people for essentially the whole loop, which can in some cases lead to following three characters around – and you might not be able to find where said characters start out without resetting the loop several times and hustling around trying to find them.

    However, despite the relative ease of the puzzles, there is somehow a sense of satisfaction in preventing most of the various murders. I certainly wanted to solve the various puzzles in the game, and wanted to unravel the mystery of why the staff were so intent on murdering the guests.

    Unfortunately, while I appreciated many of the individual mysteries and characters as units, it also felt very compartmentalized. The biggest problem was the lack of real interconnection between the various murders; they are all stand-alone events. Of the guests, only two guests who aren’t murdered at the same time (and thus, saved together) ever interact, and while solving one of those murders leads to the tools you need to solve the other one, the two murders are otherwise completely disconnected from each other. As a result, despite you solving the various murders in turn, there’s little sense that they are all part of a greater organic whole. And while you might expect that, at some point, you might need to go through and save all of the guests in a single loop, this never actually happens.    … Expand
  2. Klewer
    Jun 10, 2020
    6
    A great looking game and atmosphere. Enjoyed the premise but the gameplay isn't quite fleshed out enough to keep you enthralled. The story is interesting, but a lot of that only comes together at the end so felt a bit of a drag at times. Still worth a play.
  3. DaveTheJackal
    Apr 20, 2017
    7
    Slick production values, a cutesy gruesome aesthetic, the occasional laugh. i am all for bewildering plots which eventually kinda work out, and when it does eventually work out, the Sexy Brutale's tale is engaging enough, but there may be plenty of bemused wandering around before that, not really knowing what to do, never mind understanding what's going on and, importantly (for me) notSlick production values, a cutesy gruesome aesthetic, the occasional laugh. i am all for bewildering plots which eventually kinda work out, and when it does eventually work out, the Sexy Brutale's tale is engaging enough, but there may be plenty of bemused wandering around before that, not really knowing what to do, never mind understanding what's going on and, importantly (for me) not having fun. Still, it did work out in the end and I liked it overall. The puzzles could really do with more depth.… Expand
  4. curzon_dax
    Apr 24, 2017
    5
    Frankly the game is an anxiety simulator. It starts off with an extreme amount of unexplained story, unexplained gameplay, and unexplained character development. It throws the player immediately into a stopwatch-based countdown that demands certain actions to be done very fast or the entire level resets, it leaves almost no room for careful exploration and to top it off even the dialogueFrankly the game is an anxiety simulator. It starts off with an extreme amount of unexplained story, unexplained gameplay, and unexplained character development. It throws the player immediately into a stopwatch-based countdown that demands certain actions to be done very fast or the entire level resets, it leaves almost no room for careful exploration and to top it off even the dialogue text disappears automatically too fast without a proper chance to read all of it properly (and it doesn't even have voice acting)..

    Frankly, whoever created this game has to get some lessons from established adventure games, because you can not inflict to the player anxiety from the get go without leaving him any chance to explore in peace.

    I'm sure there is a minority that will enjoy this game because all kinds exist, but I'm fairly certain it will not be missed by most people, or at least when you do such an effort at least be top-notch on other venues.    … Expand
  5. psylife
    Nov 28, 2017
    5
    Some good ideas, if nothing truly new or refreshing. The puzzles lack depth and ultimately fail to satisfy. Running around the mansion becomes annoying and repetitive. Like many indie productions unfortunately, this is yet another case of style over substance. It is not a completely bad game, just a mediocre game, with solid mechanics, that never delivers on its potential.
  6. richp
    Apr 24, 2017
    6
    The premise and setting is fantastic, heaps of atmosphere and the story is cleverly told even if it's not that original.

    The biggest weakness is the core gameplay mechanic is woefully underdeveloped. You solve less than a dozen puzzles and they are all very simple with barely a handful of meaningful objects to interact with for each puzzle. It took less than 3 hours to see the    The premise and setting is fantastic, heaps of atmosphere and the story is cleverly told even if it's not that original.

    The biggest weakness is the core gameplay mechanic is woefully underdeveloped. You solve less than a dozen puzzles and they are all very simple with barely a handful of meaningful objects to interact with for each puzzle.

    It took less than 3 hours to see the ending, another hour to round up the missing cards and invitations that add only a little to the story other than a rather slight extra ending.

    I'd love to see the core mechanic fleshed out so there was a bit more game to get my teeth into.    … Expand
  7. bancandrei
    May 22, 2020
    5
    Weird look, not that exciting gameplay, not very engaging/stimulating "puzles", but it does have it's strengths. I like how it's paced and also how the ending ties into the mechanics and design.
  8. Avey123Avey
    Mar 19, 2023
    6
    Super charming little game. The presentation here is great and the story definitely surprises with how deep and subversive it is. Sadly the only thing holding it back is the mostly simplistic puzzles

Awards & Rankings

40
#40 Best PC Game of 2017
99
#99 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017
58
#58 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 28 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 28
  3. Negative: 0 out of 28
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jul 24, 2017
    80
    Time-shifting in a fascinating environment of a slightly fantasy world makes The Sexy Brutale a detective story for demanding players that they will remember for a long time. [Issue#274]
  2. CD-Action
    Jun 30, 2017
    75
    An adventure unlike any other I’ve experienced, brimming with creativity of former Lionhead employees. [07/2017, p.46]
  3. Games.cz
    Jun 27, 2017
    80
    An extravagant puzzle adventure combines gambling, carnival and detective story. From all this came an irresistible game full of tension, logical thinking and time shifting. A must-have for anyone who do not mind using a brain while playing.
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