The narrative is told in comic book-style cutscenes that give the game a pulpy, serial vibe. Daemon Masquerade was largely made by one developer, Callum Page, so it was a clever decision to choose a style that kept costs low while also suiting the themes and tone of the game perfectly. I’m a fan of the way the plot doesn’t bother to over-explain itself; rather than stretching believability by making sure the player character is brought up to speed on every small detail and character name, it is content to let characters talk past you as if they don’t care if you understand what’s going on or not, and trusts you to pick up the important parts through context clues. This sounds pretty obvious to say, yet I can all too easily imagine a version of this game that copies the over-expository storytelling style of its inspirations and wastes time by having the secret society members over-explaining their whole backstory. Less is sometimes more.

No, Daemon Masquerade is content to tell you only as much as is absolutely necessary to tell its tale and to explain the Deamons’ abilities, which is important to the gameplay. Your daemon, Biblio, can create a copy of any  written record your rivals create or keep, such as letters, reports, receipts, or even drawings and display them on a corkboard. If those records are then changed or edited, Biblio can copy those changes too. Over the multiple days of the Masquerade, you must find the threads of logic that tie the evidence together and present your theories to Bilblios, who will accept or challenge your conclusion.

This is a simple yet intuitive investigative mechanic that puts the deduction into your own hands, making it easy to become engrossed in each new fragment of evidence. How you organise the corkboard is up to you, and you can also scribble on the evidence in red pen to outline any important clues or make notes. Even though I personally didn’t need to scribble to think things through, I found myself making notes purely for the fun of it. I even brought out my drawing tablet and pen just to replicate the feeling of writing notes in my own hand; I got pretty into character. Sometimes it’s the little things, y’know?

When it comes to presenting your theory to Biblios, it’s time to break out the red string and connect the evidence. As long as you’ve picked out what the game considers to be the correct evidence, it doesn’t matter if you’ve selected some “unrelated” evidence along with it: the game still gives it to you. There were still some times when I got that classic detective game moment of thinking I’ve sufficiently proven my case, only to be told “I don’t see how this evidence proves your point,” but I’ve yet to play a detective game that didn’t have one or two of those instances, so that’s hardly a blackmark against Daemon Masquerade.