It’s well beyond midnight, I’m chugging an ill-advised late-night espresso, and I’m intensely tapping my fingers, pondering what to kind right into a faux ‘90s-era search engine. I inform myself I’ll name it an evening after I discover another lead confirming one other relative’s place on their household tree. I might spend many evenings reciting the identical mislead myself. The Roottrees Are Useless is an investigative thriller sport that captivated, shocked, stumped, and, sometimes, infuriated me. It additionally grew to become my first obsession of 2025.
Set in 1998, the president of a profitable sweet and trend empire, his spouse, and his three movie star teenage daughters tragically perish in a aircraft crash. These are the Roottrees, they usually hail from a generationally rich household whose company empire dates again to the late nineteenth century. You management an investigator employed by a mysterious consumer to uncover each blood relative of the Roottrees to piece collectively their household tree for an unknown objective. The premise instantly hooked me, and the following thriller rewarded my curiosity.
The web is your major software to fill an expansive household tree with a relative’s delivery title, picture, and occupation. Much like video games like Her Story, punching search phrases into an web search engine, a library database, or varied journal/newspaper archives finds proof equivalent to diaries, pictures, and even music tracks, which yields new clues to go looking. It’s an engrossing train, not solely as a result of I really feel like an actual sleuth making an attempt to show the reality, however as a result of the knowledge revealed alongside the way in which is fascinating. The Roottree household is an eclectic mess of a clan whose relationships are mired in infidelities, betrayals, and different controversies. As a lot as I wished to study the reality about their heritage, I had as a lot enjoyable studying about every member of the family as a character, whether or not they’re an previous Hollywood starlet or a spirited televangelist.
The sport throws loads of enjoyable curveballs appearing as small puzzles in themselves, equivalent to discovering the true first title of somebody largely recognized by a nickname, discovering the identities of older kin with minimal on-line footprints, or studying the maiden title of a girl who’s endured a number of divorces. Occupations might be equally obscured because you want a Roottree’s most up-to-date job. Discovering solutions is a tough however rewarding train of uncovering obscure on-line assets and utilizing context clues to infer main discoveries. The writing shines right here, as options are cleverly hidden in plain sight, and seemingly unrelated supplies or folks can match collectively like good puzzle items. Even after I didn’t make a connection, studying the reply by no means made me really feel disgruntled as a result of it was too opaque; the reality was at all times proper in entrance of me. I simply failed to have a look at issues a sure method.
Doing sufficient considerate digging can excavate an actual reply outright; nevertheless, you usually have simply sufficient info to strategy the end line and should join the dots to take an informed leap of religion. It by no means seems like I’m blindly guessing after I do that, as I normally have loads of ammunition to again up my suspicions. That the sport requires you to fill a batch of identities at a time earlier than it “locks” them – confirming the proper entries and thus eliminating them from the pool – means I should be fairly assured about my theories, additional encouraging thorough investigation.
Initially mundane or irrelevant proof might turn into a goldmine of significant clues when reexamined with recent views. Each breakthrough regularly seems like a triumph in that sense, and I really like how the sport often makes previous proof really feel thrilling once more. With a lot info to juggle, the in-game notepad is a useful software. It permits gamers to jot down clues, copy and paste complete textual content passages from articles, create hyperlink shortcuts to earlier search outcomes for simple entry, and different quality-of-life options. And once you assume you have got all of the solutions, the sport adjustments the query with a good harder second marketing campaign that builds upon your preliminary investigation and is a superb last examination of your newly developed deductive expertise.
Getting caught is inevitable, however the giant household tree makes it simple to pause work on one difficult thread to sort out a number of others (supplied you’ll be able to hold your info straight, however that’s on you). I additionally admire how the sport encourages gamers to maintain wanting whereas stopping them from taking place the fallacious trains of thought for lengthy. Each bit of proof is accompanied by a quantity denoting the quantity of related clues it incorporates, and this quantity fluctuates primarily based in your discoveries. This retains me from needlessly analyzing supplies I’ve siphoned all usefulness from whereas holding me inspired after I hit a wall. I could not know what a World Battle 2 diary I’ve reviewed numerous instances has left to supply, however seeing it has one clue remaining ensures there’s nonetheless meat left on that bone. And in the event you’re actually stumped, a well-implemented trace system steadily nudges you in the suitable route with out giving an excessive amount of away instantly.
Moreover, many irrelevant search outcomes flat-out inform gamers the knowledge isn’t useful and to maneuver on, typically in humorous methods. The Roottrees Are Useless has loads of false useless ends, however the true ones are clearly communicated. Nonetheless, taking place unrelated rabbit holes can result in humorous, typically fourth-wall-breaking search outcomes. I received’t spoil them, however I at all times searched phrases I knew had no connection to the case simply to see how the sport would reply.
The very best factor a puzzle sport can do is make you’re feeling good; The Roottrees Are Useless made me really feel just like the second coming of Sherlock Holmes. Its distinctive thriller is bolstered by stimulating puzzle-solving, a satisfying ending, and a comfy nostalgia that makes it weirdly stress-free to mull over a cup of espresso. Don’t let this quirky seek for solutions move you by.
