At today's Summer Game Fest, Square Enix joined the celebration of Geoff Keighley's birthday [Editor's note: It's not his birthday] by revealing Killer Inn, a "murder mystery action game" of social deduction in the vein of Mafia, Town of Salem, and Among Us. Except, like, with a couple of e-girls in there.
The "asymmetrical team battle steeped in blood and suspicion" takes place in a secret castle that exists on no map, is detectable by no satellite, and can apparently only be visited by people who've been selected from around the world for a 24-person murder mystery party with real, actual deaths.
Based on the trailer, being conventionally attractive seems to help your odds of getting picked. Murder's more compelling when it's hot people, I guess. There's also a literal pirate in the mix, so. There's that.
In a match of Killer Inn, players are divided into two teams: The Lambs, whose goal is to survive the night, and the Wolves—murderers secretly sown amongst the survivors who are tasked with picking the Lambs off one by one. To survive, Lambs will either have to escape the castle, or eliminate their predators using a spooky mansion's worth of embellished knives, axes, and fancy sawn-off shotguns.
Whichever side wins earns prize money, and the prize increases with every contestant killed.
The complication, of course, is that the Lambs don't know who the Wolves are. Worse, it's forbidden for Lambs to kill each other. If you're a Lamb and you harm a fellow survivor, you'll be turned to stone and eliminated.
It's not a complete guessing game for Lambs, however. Whenever a Wolf kills a player, they'll leave behind a clue—hair, fingerprints, and the like—that helps Lambs narrow down their identity. Also, Lambs are all apparently Batman, capable of using detective vision to see the killer's footprints, bullet casings, and more.
Throughout a match, you can complete quests, gain gold, and purchase or open chests for weapons and armor to use against your competitors. Lambs can also just, you know, try to leave—but escaping a mansion isn't easy when someone's throwing knives at you.
Killer Inn looks like a vaguely absurd idea taken to elaborate extremes, which earns it an easy spot on my wishlist. Square Enix says developer Tactics Studios will be running a closed beta on Steam soon.
