Rating
Dry Drowning
Dry Drowning is a psychological investigative visual novel set in a futuristic dystopian city. Follow the story of Mordred Foley, an unscrupulous private detective haunted by his dark past, and look into a series of macabre serial killings inspired by Greek mythology.
Details
- Released
- August 1, 2019
- Developer
- Studio V
- Genres
- Puzzle · Adventure · Indie · Visual Novel
- Publisher
- Vigamus Leonardo, VLG Publishing, WhisperGames
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Dry Drowning Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Visual novels are a particularly tough genre to make an appealing game out of. Since there’s usually a lack of traditional gameplay elements, they need to have a solid story and striking art design in order to keep people interested. While the majority fade into obscurity, there are some like The Life and Suffering of Sir Bronte, Doki Doki Literature Club, and Chicken Police – Paint it RED! that manage to stand out, thanks to their intuitiveness and originality. Dry Drowning looked to ...
In spite of its spotty localization, Dry Drowning is a compelling blend of visual novel and adventure game, providing a gritty cyberpunk world to explore, a brutal case to uncover, and Orwellian politics to navigate.
When I previewed Dry Drowning three months ago I had a big issue, an almost game-breaking issue, the game simply wouldn't do as it expects people without means to do - stick to its place. Aspects of the game weren't showing on-screen, I was struggling to get things to simply work. Fortunately, developers Studio V have fixed any technical issues, allowing me to plough through a futuristic, dystopian, noir detective story where it's time to solve some crimes.
The writing is clichéd and the gameplay linear, but Dry Drowning provides enough quirks for fans of the visual novel genre to warrant a look.
Dry Drowning is surreal and silly; it draws you in with earnest and ludicrous writing, perhaps not in the way the game's developer intended.
Dry Drowning reminds me a little of another game that I went into with absolutely no expectations, and went on to become one of my favourite games of all time: Tokyo Dark: Remembrance. Both are heavily inspired by noir and horror elements, though Tokyo Dark is Lovecraftian and Dry Drowning is more cyberpunk. Both games share a bold willingness to discomfort the audience, an interest in social commentary relevant to the real world, and an unrelenting intensity and urgency in the storytelling. I very nearly missed Dry Drowning because it very much looks like the low-budget visual novel that many...