Ring of Fire is a mature narrative-driven noir detective puzzle adventure that doesn’t hold your hand as you investigate grizzly murders on the hyper-stylized streets of the solarpunk utopia of New London.
In Ring of Fire you take on the role of a rather prickly and jaded Detective, who gets embroiled in investigating the brutal murders committed by the Ring of Fire serial killer. The current prototype sees you investigating the first killing, and although you don’t get to complete the case, it does offer a great introduction to the detective gameplay, the characters and the strange mask-wearing solarpunk city it’s set in.
Aside from the stylish visuals, the first thing you’ll notice about Ring of Fire is that you’ll have to do some actual detective work to solve the case. The game doesn’t save a list of clues you discover, highlight key words or offer much in the way of hints. You have to pay attention to your surroundings and (most importantly) pay attention to what people say, because much like in real life, conversations only happen once. This also means you need to keep a notepad and pen handy, so you can take notes of useful leads.
The leads often take the form of people and addresses which you can look up in your database, then travel to a location to gather more intel. The choices you make in conversations can have meaningful consequences too, with different approaches leading to different outcomes (though they’re fairly limited in the prototype).
It’s a very interesting take on the detective genre, with a dark story, well written dialogue, a great visual style and a very intriguing setting. It’s the approach to the investigative gameplay that’s perhaps the most impressive though, with a realistic approach that makes you feel like a real detective. In a real-life murder investigation clues aren’t highlighted in bold and neither are they here. You really have to pay attention as the devil is in the details.
Check Out a Gameplay Video Here
Download The Ring of Fire Prototype Here (Steam – For the Next 6 Days Only)