Risk of Rain 2
Risk of Rain 2
Game
Game2017
The Painscreek Killings
Developer EQ Studios
Investigate an infamous cold case in the eerie, abandoned town of Painscreek. Search for evidence, connect the dots and uncover who killed Vivian Roberts. Can you expose the truth behind this town’s dark secrets? From the Steam store page
337 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
83
LovedLoved
223 positive · 47 negative
95% range 78–87%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 223 | 47 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 30 | 0 | 32 |
| Lemmy * | 1 | 0 | 4 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
2,959 of 3,334 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
83% recommend · 194 yes, 41 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 235 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (5,851 of 6,444 positive).
Players praise the game for its immersive, hands-off detective experience. [1][2][3] Some reviewers find the game more of a scavenger hunt than true deduction. [4][5][6] The story and atmosphere are widely appreciated, despite some criticisms. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [5]
I genuinely cannot believe I see this game recommended with the likes of Obra Dinn, Golden Idol, and other deductive games. This is a glorified scavenger hunt. And not a particularly interesting or compelling one. The story is told through fragments of diaries left around the town, because I guess everyone in this town kept extensive diaries throughout their lives and tucked each of them away in separate places. I …
- [1]
This is one of my favorite detective games. What I love most is that the game trusts you to investigate on your own. There are no objective markers or constant hints telling you what to do next. During my first playthrough, I didn't use any guides—I kept my own notebook, wrote down names, dates, and clues, and slowly pieced everything together like I was investigating a real case. It's not a game for everyone. It …
- [11]
A very well balanced puzzle mystery game with extremely light horror elements. Almost all the puzzles in the game are logical and intuitive. The game is really engaging and you will be excited to take notes and cross off each clue and question as you solve it. Very fun! Only 3 puzzles I thought were unfair, and I'm writing them here to warn new players to avoid frustration: 1. The darts puzzle. It's very unfair. You …
- [2]
I love this game. It is truly a detective game. Would LOVE to see more like this! If looking in every drawer and crevice, and looking deeper into notes and recordings for clues excites you, this is for you! Love that it is difficult enough to make you think but not too difficult to make it impossible. Love how you are left alone to figure things out. Love finding pieces of the story to create the full picture. …
- [3]
I started playing this game because I was looking for a detective experience with a strong atmosphere, and honestly, it delivered something much different from most investigation games. Instead of giving you a clear objective every few minutes, the game forces you to actually pay attention, explore, and connect the information by yourself. At first, the game can feel a little slow and confusing. You arrive in the …
Summarised from 34 of the 300 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
The Painscreek Killings sits at 83% positive across 270 opinionated reactions from 3 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 337 · most liked firstI genuinely cannot believe I see this game recommended with the likes of Obra Dinn, Golden Idol, and other deductive games. This is a glorified scavenger hunt. And not a particularly interesting or compelling one. The story is told through fragments of diaries left around the town, because I guess everyone in this town kept extensive diaries throughout their lives and tucked each of them away in separate places. I was so excited when I heard people recommend you take notes. I began to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Let me begin by first saying, I'm a grandfather who is nearly 60 that very much enjoys "cozy" games where there is not a huge amount of pressure on me to have conflicts or quick-time events in games. I do love immersive 1st person games like Cyberpunk 2047, Starfield, and the Fallout series. I do, however, very much prefer games that are heavy with "story" and in which I get to slowly understand through discovery the entirety of what is going on. This is my second review on Steam and realize…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of my favorite detective games. What I love most is that the game trusts you to investigate on your own. There are no objective markers or constant hints telling you what to do next. During my first playthrough, I didn't use any guides—I kept my own notebook, wrote down names, dates, and clues, and slowly pieced everything together like I was investigating a real case. It's not a game for everyone. It requires patience, observation, and attention to detail. But if you enjoy…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Spending the weekend bouncing between showing hubs Vote4Holt's imcredible video series on The Painscreek Killings, and both of us reveling in About Oliver's astoundingly good Outer Wilds play through. (Don't worry, we've already played.) Good good mystery video game content to absorb 👌👌👌👌
neutral · AI labelView post →I enjoyed this game and its mystery, but I don't feel like it sets out what it wants to do. It doesn't feel like you are a detective piecing things together, it feels like you are a gremlin stealing keys and reading every note you come across. Like I said, it is still fun to unravel the mystery and see things in a new light as the story unfolds, but it isn't what I would recommend as a true "detective" game. You may have to figure out where a key goes, but usually the notes beside the key give…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game had an interesting story. Discovering it and seeing it through was the sole thing that kept me going by the end. That and the need to get the trophies. It boasted the idea of not holding your hand, so I had my notebook ready and wrote pages upon pages on everything I found. But then it started losing it's shine. The characters were a little flat, I could never emotionally connect to anyone. The music was the same couple of tracks, looped again and again until it drove me crazy. But…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So what's everyone getting in the Steam sale? I will likely buy: Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment Roottrees are Dead The Painscreek Killings & possibly the new Alex Hill game (not on sale though) and have them rot, unplayed, for months in my library 🎮🖥️🖱️
neutral · AI labelView post →Okay I'm done haha For those who didn't know, the characters I posted today are all from the game The Painscreek Killings. A super tense and interesting investigation game I finished recently and fell completely in love with its story and complex characters. I highly recommend it!
positive · AI labelView post →I love the setup, but this game has issues. I can overlook some jank, like poorly implemented audio loops and samples resulting in obvious popping, or the very rudimentary quality of pretty much all of the audio/visuals/controls, or weird little control foibles like having an "unlock" action prompt that doesn't actually work and tells you to separately open your inventory and "use" a key instead of just having the prompt check if the key is in your inventory. What I can't overlook is the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →35) The Painscreek Killings A detective game that REALLY doesn't hold your hand. Vote 4 Holt has a really interesting youtube series that analyzes how effective its mystery design is.
neutral · AI labelView post →I love this game. It is truly a detective game. Would LOVE to see more like this! If looking in every drawer and crevice, and looking deeper into notes and recordings for clues excites you, this is for you! Love that it is difficult enough to make you think but not too difficult to make it impossible. Love how you are left alone to figure things out. Love finding pieces of the story to create the full picture. Satisfies my need for discovery, mystery, storyline while being relaxing and allowing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Me frantically writing notes and making connections as I play through "The Painscreek Killings" (this is the most fun I've ever had in a detective game)
positive · AI labelView post →Fully editing my review because I have fully changed my mind about this game. I will censor anything I think could spoil the game if you're interested in playing it. 100% honest review. Things I liked: 1. The story was interesting to begin with. 2. Slow-paced so you can explore without fear of somehow progressing without meaning to. 3. Character stories are interesting to find out. Now for what I DON'T like. Buckle up! 1. You are playing run-back-and-forth-a-million-times simulator the whole…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a unique form of torture to play this game when you've figured out the "big twist" three hours in. I spent a majority of the remainder of the campaign digging around for keys to open drawers to read diaries that were just confirming things I'd already figured out. There was absolutely zero room left for subtlety when every single remark on Sofia, her life, and death was meticulously journaled by just about the entire cast. It almost had to be parodying itself at the end of Scott's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a *huge* puzzle/mystery/detective game fan, I'm going to put this in a way that my fellow fans would understand best: the puzzles are fun enough to feel satisfying when solved, but never obscure enough to induce eye rolling aka "How would anyone get that" or "I would have NEVER figured that out" after having to look it up online. With that said, there ARE some very mild horror/scary moments. Granted, I'm a big wimp, I just wish I was warned. I enjoyed it so much, though, I pushed through…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very well balanced puzzle mystery game with extremely light horror elements. Almost all the puzzles in the game are logical and intuitive. The game is really engaging and you will be excited to take notes and cross off each clue and question as you solve it. Very fun! Only 3 puzzles I thought were unfair, and I'm writing them here to warn new players to avoid frustration: 1. The darts puzzle. It's very unfair. You are given a very complex, strangely written mathematical formula and need a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Painscreek Killings is my ideal video game. A big ol mystery to solve, very spooky and atmospheric, and Nothing Chases Me (so far) this last part is very important, i guess i have some kind of phobia about being hunted (tried to play laser tag once and had a panic attack 30 seconds in)
positive · AI labelView post →I adore this game. You have to like challenging investigations, and the game is not going to hold your hand. In the beginning I thought the town map was just for the atmosphere and you would stay in the mansion, but once I realized the extend of the clues and stories, I started to do what the game recommends at the beginning, which is taking your own, physical notes. By the end of the game, I had several pages including a table with all characters and related dates and relationships, a timeline…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think we're going to finish the main storyline of The Painscreek Killings tonight and this was a really well done game. It's a murder mystery with paranormal elements and light horror...so far. The premise is clever. An entire small town is abandoned because of economic and deadly misfortune.
positive · AI labelView post →(Commenting on my lrp) Return of the Obra Dinn is an amazing game if you enjoy very interactive mystery games please play it!!! I recommend that and The Painscreek Killings, I've been chasing the high of both and never found one like them No puzzles really btw, they're just lots of detective work
neutral · AI labelView post →A 7/10 detective game with a good amount of genuinely memorable moments. I think everyone complaining about it being too hard might just be stupid, because I didn't find it difficult at all to find where the keys went or where the game obviously wanted me to go next. Honestly I was a little disappointed at how much signposting there was after hearing so much about how supposedly difficult it is to find where to go. Overall though, still very much worth a play.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →mkg friends i highly recommend playing The Painscreek Killings, it’s a super fun mystery game where you’re given a question and plopped down in an abandoned ghost town to solve it. you aren’t given any hints you have to just investigate and find ways to unlock doors and dig up info.
positive · AI labelView post →**Soma** - This is such an amazing game, but it made me so mad that I would never play it again. **The Painscreek Killings** - A really fun detective/mystery walking sim. You absolutely have to figure everything out yourself, as there is no hand-holding or hints given by the game. At all. But, like Return of the Obra Dinn, once you've figured out the mystery, there really is no sense in replaying it. I was going to add some others before realizing I had a theme of mystery walking sims. I…
positive · AI labelView post →I keep a spreadsheet literally called "games to play". Ive played about half of these so far, but they all meet your criteria, and all have overall good reviews, here's a selection from it, including my own notes: (pardon the lack of formatting coming from a spreadsheet) A Hand With Many Fingers - 3 hours - Puzzle - Difficult (use pen and paper for clues) CIA mystery A Wolf In Autumn - 1 hour - Walking Sim - Girls nightmare ADR1FT - 6 hours - Puzzle - Space station catastrophe Anna -…
neutral · AI labelView post →I have good things, bad things, and advice to share. The good first: The game leaves you to explore, uncover clues, and find items and codes, revealing the story as you go. I would absolutely recommend this to fans of The Outer Wilds. I was very eager to continue exploring and progressing, so if that's what you're looking for in a game, give this a try! Now the bad (NOTE THAT I PLAYED USING AN XBOX SERIES S CONTROLLER): The menu that records written records you've found is a little janky.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →very good *crime solving* game Scared the ♥♥♥♥ out of me at some places, i wish the controls weren't this clunky but this is what you get by making unity games i guess.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is good for the first half but very meh afterwards. There's no real deduction as all information is spoon-fed to you. The game felt more about finding the right keys and information via visual search rather than deducting them. The characters and writing is rather bland and everyone's diaries had similar writing style and tones. Overall, it didn't feel like a detective game compared to games like The Return of Obra Dinn. However it's still a good detective game compared to more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have filled 8 pages with notes, mindmaps and all sorts of brain-mumbo-jumbo. From beginning to end I was completely immersed and absolutely LOVED the worldbuilding. I appreciated not having to rush anything, and how clues and notes actually lead to progressing the story. The characters, their motives, their personalities, all aligned and made sense. The ending was a bit unusual from the general gameplay, but I liked it nonetheless. I need more of these kinds of games
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm not sure how successful it was, but there's a fun horror (mostly) walking sim called **[Apsulov: End of Gods](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpNCHJVtlVI)**. It's based on Norse mythology and has a refreshing take on Loki, especially if you're tired of everything Marvel has put out. The visuals are great too. There's another one called **[Close to the Sun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA88uHI1qfg)** that's essentially, "what would happen if Nikola Tesla built a giant fucking cruise ship…
neutral · AI labelView post →This is NOT a detective / deduction game. It is a linear adventure, where you freely walk in a big location while looking for keys and notes. Not worth it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think there was an hour or two of my playthrough where I found this game genuinely intriguing and it had me wondering what would happen next. Then it kind of went out of its way to tamp down the interesting path it could have taken and turned into a massively boring slog for the next four or five hours while I contended with obtuse puzzles, ridiculous amounts of backtracking, and an unwieldy UI. What's good about this: The built in camera, with the caveat that it puts sort of a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I love the murder mystery genre a lot, and have particularly enjoyed The Seance of Blake Manor recently, this game did not deliver on that front for me. The atmosphere is good, the case sounds intriguing when reading the synopsis, but I already knew who the killer was in the first hour of collecting clues. I found the gameplay tedious and at times boring, having to search for a single key in one room in a particular building, only to have to run through the entire town to insert said…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed the first couple hours of play. I had notes, a timeline, and felt like a real detective. Mid game however I lost all motivation, as the game instead just fully gives you the answers, rendering your notes a waste of paper. The story while interesting, is not particularly inventive. This was forgivable when I was putting the story together myself, but once the game decided to just give me all the answers, it became derivative and boring. I also hated the ending sequence. I picked…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There usually isn't much point in playing a mystery game more than once but I've played The Painscreek Killings three times now and it hits every time. It's not scary or shocking, just relentlessly sad. Feels like being drip-fed raw melancholia for a few hours. My heart hurts.
positive · AI labelView post →I bought this game when it was on sale. (Best time to buy is when it's 75% off.) I thought this game was great for what it is. You play as a detective that must figure out an unsolved murder from years before. This is a limited open world type of game and the majority of what you learn is through reading. You are also the only one in this village... Though I don't know if this counts as a spoiler so I will cover it up.. There is a supernatural element that jump scared me a couple of times as I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love this game. Some might find it boring, but...there was just something about the setting and being able to wander around an entire town, piecing together the lives of those who left...absolutely loved it. Scene Investigators was way better in some regards, but I think I like Painscreek more just because of the intricate characters, seeing how their stories cross paths and unfold as new information is found, the setting, etc. If you're a fan of detective games and love a slow-paced…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Extremely fun game that requires detailed note taking, which in itself, adds to the sense of reward when you uncover the next clue in the journey of discovery. The game certainly challenges your persistence and ability to connect small details with important clues. Well constructed and detailed interwoven story that holds intruige right up until its conclusion.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This isn't a detective mystery game, its more like a puzzle game. You complete puzzles to unlock more puzzles which on the side unlock information that you may be fooled into thinking furthers your investigation. But in the end what really happens is that once you complete the last puzzle in the long series of puzzles, the game just hands you the answer to the question of who killed Vivian Roberts on a silver platter and nothing that came before mattered anymore at all. The game does ask you in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I started playing this game because I was looking for a detective experience with a strong atmosphere, and honestly, it delivered something much different from most investigation games. Instead of giving you a clear objective every few minutes, the game forces you to actually pay attention, explore, and connect the information by yourself. At first, the game can feel a little slow and confusing. You arrive in the abandoned town of Painscreek with almost no guidance, and your main goal is to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Probably the best "true" murder mystery I've ever played. I had fun playing, but this game for me has a stronger place in my heart for what it stands for rather than what it does. An open-world murder mystery that doesn't hold your hand is a terrifying idea executed really quite well! (Except for that one darts puzzle, I hate that thing with a burning passion)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →8/10 100% Achievements: 8 Hours Definitely an acquired taste for detective games. They throw you in with no guide, no quest markers, everything is from memory, handwritten notes, & your trusty camera that I used religiously. At times I felt like I was wandering aimlessly but eventually the narrative started to come together & suddenly I'm writing this at 3am because I got so hooked & needed to find out what happened next. Very spooky vibes overall, especially due to the music. You can always…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →95% of this game is an incredible mystery experience, and last 5% is the most laughably awful garbage I've ever played. I solved the mystery (CORRECTLY!) by putting the clues together, but because I skipped the part where the culprit plonks you in a room and TELLS YOU they did it before you can go off and report it, the game graded me as a fail. My mistake was going back and playing through the 'correct' ending, lol. Fun experience for an all-nighter with my brother, cannot in good…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This was basically just a game of keys and locks and thats it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played with two friends. Did not expect the ending. Creepy towards the end, but the story was good. 11/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thinking back to a documentary on the wonderful mystery game The Painscreek Killings (play it) and how if you look up a hint even once then.... You might go back again. The fruit is so sweet.
neutral · AI labelView post →And if you're in the mood for a more traditional mystery along with a level breakdown of video game structure and storytelling, Vote4Holt's series on The Painscreek Killings is fantastic. youtube.com/playlist?lis...
neutral · AI labelView post →The Painscreek Killings sounds like the open ended deduction that you're describing. You play as a journalist who goes to an abandoned town to try to solve a cold case murder. The game doesn't tell you where or what to do next, or how to do it. I liked it because it was just me trying to figure the story out and what to do, not the game telling me "Put x and y together. Oh, look, it leads you to z!" (Also it's currently on sale on Steam for like 5 bucks.)
neutral · AI labelView post →WARNING: This game has unmarked horror/supernatural elements, including at least one jumpscare. Not what I wanted when I bought a "detective" game about solving a cold case in an "abandoned" town. Even if that kind of thing is your jam, you won't enjoy the janky interface, jarring soundtrack, counterintuitive controls and sluggish movement speed. You'll also never turn your flashlight off, because even the buildings with clear windows somehow don't have enough light for you to see while you're…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR ; Really good game worth the price if you're the kind of person to take time to read and understand the mystery. it has a little problem of having "missing one piece to further the story" but I've made it far without any help at all. Definitely a one of a kind experience, definitely for someone who barely runs horror/mystery games its amazing how the 0 help from anywhere instantly immerses you into the game like the first few minutes of you testing things out and seeing the map quickly…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In my opinion not really a deduction game, like many say and I really wished for. It feels like it first, but with ongoing progress you don't have to deduce the clues to the killer, the game just straight up tells you what happened in form of confessions etc. So if you want that in a game, maybe this is not for you, despite all the good reviews. The main game loop is: find keys and the right locked doors and find notes and read them, you don't really need to take notes of the events or…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is interesting if you like the genre, unfortunately I got very bad motion sickness and could not continue after 70 minutes.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is no intuitive way to get through the game. I don't even know what I am looking for anymore. So many locked doors and buildings.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →gotta be my favorite investigative game ever ngl. played it with my friends watching and taking notes, we had a lot of fun talking about what was going on and our theories etc, it was rly awesome!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of those times I wish there was a "neutral" review option, because this game isn't bad. Some might even really enjoy it. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people. I really enjoyed The Roottrees are Dead and that led me to Painscreek. I got far enough into the story to figure out a good deal of the plot, but some of the clues are just too obscure, complex or well-hidden that there's just no way to do it without the help of a walkthrough. What makes the Roottrees enjoyable is that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very fun logic puzzles, got a little turned around trying to remember which location had what thing to unlock with which key but that's half the fun. The only complaint is the movement speed, my left Shift key got a workout. Very much looking forward to a sequel?????
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool game, now that I finished I understand why some people hate the ending sequence. However, if you are not very timid it shouldn't be a problem. During the last 5-10 minutes if you find it scary just remove your headphones and don't do anything wait and see what it will be like before trying again next time. I'm also very nervous, but it's actually pretty chill when you calm down. The reveal is a little... silly though
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been playing for a bit until it clicked with me, this is a point-and-click adventure game disguised as a first person puzzler! Puzzles that requires you to find a specific item to be used on a specific lock which is both completely missable, while bumbling around picking up any item you can find like a kleptomaniac, and commiting crimes for the sake of the investigation. Sometimes, I feel similar to a Scotland Yard Detective ready to solve a murder mystery conspiracy while commiting…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A solid mystery game. The story lines up well and the majority of the secrets are both well-hidden and not too frustrating to dig up. Graphically it's definitely a ten year old indie game, but it doesn't ruin the mood on the first run. The ending is a little too forgiving as far as solving the mystery is concerned, and if I hadn't figured it out on my own I would have felt cheated. Just don't listen to that tape until you've figured out whodunit and you'll have a good time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Incredible game but frustrating ending As someone who grew up playing the Nancy Drew games and loved murder mysteries, this game was exactly what I was wishing for in a game. Little help, lots of characters, a really compelling story and with a map just large enough to make the whole game challenging to a satisfying degree. Unfortunately, it feels like my hours of really fun investigating, taking notes and maybe a hundred pictures was flushed down the toilet by ending that essentially spoon-fed…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is an older game but I was told to get it by Ingerdingus so I had to play it. I'm glad I did! It's a really fun detective game with a creepy feel. I'm pretty stupid so I had to look up a few things in my playthrough but It's so satisfying to spend time doing it for real, type a code in or try a key and hear that *click* of approval. There is a LOT to read, but it's interesting and keeps you wanting to learn more about the characters.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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