Blood On The Thames – A Bizarre, Twisted Adventure in the 1880s

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• DEVELOPER: Team Firestorm
• PUBLISHER: Team Firestorm
• PLATFORMS: PC
• GENRE: Mystery / Point & Click
• RELEASE DATE: October 31, 2024
• STARTING PRICE: 14.79€
• REVIEWED VERSION: PC

One thing I love about visual novels is that they can serve as a substitute for a book, after all, there’s plenty to read, and many fascinating stories waiting to be discovered. In fact, video games make the whole experience even more exciting, because we, the players, are the ones taking action and driving the story forward, especially in point & click and mystery titles.

Blood On The Thames uses that sense of involvement to create an adventure that goes beyond the boundaries of books, interactive games, or perhaps any type of game you’ve encountered so far. Because nothing can really prepare you for the sheer madness that awaits in this seemingly unremarkable title.

Since it’s difficult to talk about this game without mentioning key revelations and twists, I decided to split this review into two parts: in the first part, I’ll refrain from mentioning any important story-related elements, while they will be included in the second part of the review. I added a note to mark where the spoiler section begins.

If H.P. Lovecraft Were a Danganronpa Fan

The year is 1888. Somewhere in London, Quincy Ernest, the owner of a shipping company, is found dead and although drowning in the River Thames appears to be the cause of death, a strange spiral cut on his leg does not go unnoticed. A month after the incident, the deceased man’s wife, Minerva “Mini” Ernest, is informed of another death under similar circumstances. Soon, unusual events begin to plague the capital of England, and Mini must take matters into her own hands to protect those closest to her.

“The game should be played the way you would read a book” – these words from Matt Thompson, director of the project and founder of Team Firestorm, best describe the experience Blood On The Thames provides. The story unfolds across 11 chapters, each of them sharing similar elements: dreamlike sequences offering players multiple choices, an investigation segment focused on collecting evidence and solving puzzles, and confrontations with characters at the end of each chapter. Thanks to its diverse gameplay, the game blends several different genres and ideas, for example, the confrontations based on finding contradictions in other characters’ statements feel like something lifted straight out of Ace Attorney or Danganronpa.

Another element that fans of detective titles will immediately recognize is uncovering the truth through various puzzles and brainteasers. The game presents challenges that require memorizing sequences, finding the right combinations, connecting facts and clues, as well as revisiting certain places and moments. While I appreciate the creativity and complexity of these sections, in my opinion many of them lacked proper explanation at the start, either I wasn’t sure what exactly I was supposed to do, or I knew the solution but couldn’t figure out how to apply it.

Although you always had the option to use hints or skip a puzzle entirely, which was a great feature considering the difficulty of some challenges, clearer instructions would have removed a lot of confusion and improved the overall flow of the game. While these puzzles were essential for gathering key evidence, players could also discover additional details and secrets by conducting optional investigations – reading letters or daily newspapers provided extra content that allowed for deeper immersion in the story.

A Very “Sketchy” Gothic London

While I’ve mentioned inspiration drawn from various video game genres, it’s also quite obvious that Blood On The Thames heavily relies on tropes and themes from literature: chilling concepts from H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, unconventional plots reminiscent of Agatha Christie novels, and even the dramatic, tension-filled atmosphere of gothic romance tales. Combined, these elements form the perfect framework for an authentic depiction of a mysterious and unpredictable Victorian world and its society.

Another element that helped players better understand and experience this historical period was the game’s intriguing visual direction. On one hand, the environment appears in all shades of grey, with locations and people resembling pencil sketches in a sketchbook. On the other hand, there are photographs and scenes with real actors, which for me were the highlight of the entire experience: I kept wondering how much fun they had during filming (that’s the impression I got from observing their facial expressions and poses in the game), while still delivering a professional performance.

In addition to that, every character had their own musical theme used appropriately depending on the situation. In fact, it’s incredible how well the entire soundtrack is crafted and cleverly executed – even the slightest change in the violin melody or a shift in the trumpet’s tempo gives signals to the player. The use of the main theme in the final moments – chapeau bas!

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING TEXT CONTAINS SPOILERS!

When murder becomes the least of your problems

Now that we can discuss the plot freely, I’ll share my first thought after finishing the game: “what the hell.” Maybe I haven’t played enough video games to be completely certain, but I doubt you’ll find another title that includes ALL of these elements:

• A murder mystery
• Bloody monstrous creations
• Horrors beyond comprehension
• An ancient cult
• Ritual sacrifices
• Jack the Ripper
• Time travel
• A God of Fate
• A warped universe
• A simulation reveal

Well, after a list of key themes like that, solving a murder ironically sounds like child’s play. Of course, none of this is thrown at the player right from the start – what initially seemed like a detective story gradually turned into a supernatural narrative, eventually ending with science-fiction elements. Sometimes the shocking revelations were presented directly, but most of the time it was up to the players to figure out what was happening.

When will they notice that those strange “dream sequences” aren’t directed at Mini, but at them directly? Will they realize they possess the ability to travel through time thanks to save files created in different chapters? Will they seek the truth by unlocking all six endings? And that, too, is something that’s hard to predict.

Although the story contains numerous motifs and outcomes, it’s worth pointing out that it’s still excellently constructed, which is also thanks to the well-written characters. The protagonist, Mini, represents the so-called “final girl”: strong, intelligent, and willing to help, but thankfully she never turns into a “Mary Sue.”

Although she ultimately manages to save her friends from a distorted fate, the betrayal by her closest companions and the revelation of their connection to the cult adds depth to her entire character arc. I also appreciated that even seemingly unimportant characters, such as the local policeman or the match girl, played important roles in the unfolding events, each given the chance to either be condemned or redeemed.

Error: your save file and mind are now corrupted

Now we come to the part that made my experience both exceptional and frustrating: the breaking of the simulation. Unfortunately, I’m not referring to the “true” ending in which we discover that Blood On The Thames is just one of many experiments dedicated to creating an artificial universe. While the game does contain signs that the simulation is falling apart, my game began breaking in moments where it definitely wasn’t supposed to.

Normally, I wouldn’t mind encountering some bugs as long as they don’t affect gameplay, but in this case the technical issues were so severe that every time I launched the game, I had to delete my save file. So, I was essentially playing without saving. Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds — since the game is divided into chapters, I would play until the start of the next chapter, then restart that chapter to continue where I left off.

However, imagine how fast my heart was racing when bugs occurred in the middle of a chapter or, even worse, at the very end, when I couldn’t open evidence during a confrontation, when the screen turned black, or when the map became distorted. Or when I got stuck because I had to talk to all NPCs but one of them simply didn’t appear, blocking all progress…

To clarify: I checked and saw that issues of this scale hadn’t been reported before, which leads me to believe I was simply unlucky with my copy of the game. I also appreciated the quick and solution-oriented response from the developers when I reached out. In the end, I managed to finish the game, but those problems took away a lot of the fun and significantly slowed my progress. But who knows — maybe it was all part of His game?

Review copy provided by the publisher