This Bed We Made Review (PS5)

A maid simulator? Slightly interesting as there are house flipping, power washing, car fixing and who knows what other mundane task simulators. But if you combine the basic idea with a murder mystery, you get a premise worthy of an Agatha Christie novel and definitely interesting as a foundation for a video game. Let’s see how intriguing is going through strangers’ belongings while cleaning their rooms.

The comparison with one of the greatest writers, dubbed the “Queen of Crime” is no coincidence, since this indie title developed by the small team of Lowbirth Games in Montreal is a detective game. The only difference is that instead of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, you will control a nosy, gossip loving maid with no forensic training.

Sophie is a young lady with modest family conditions employed to clean the rooms of the guests in the Clarington hotel. This fictious hotel together with the entire story takes back the players to the Canada of the 50’s, sporting a visual style of the period. Even before stumbling on the web of criminal activities and being controlled by curious players, our hero has the nasty little habit of going through the belongings of the guests – as shown by some mysterious pictures taken of her.

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But next to the relatively harmless crimes of trying on expensive perfumes found in various luggage or gossiping about the travel arrangement of strangers, our hero soon stumbles on things more sinister. As such your usual day turns from making sure the fifth floor of the hotel is in top shape into figuring out who and why took some compromising photos of Sophie.

While solving the mystery the player can choose to also get involved in the personal lives and petty dramas of her coworkers, also having some limited options on who to rely as sidekicks. By the end of the game, the entire life of the hotel will be turned upside down for the better or the worse.

This Bed We Made is a story driven game, but it is much closer to an adventure game than it is to a walking simulator. The narrative is actually engaging, with well thought out twists and characters, with which you will form powerful relationships. Inspired by Life is Strange the developers focused on creating both characters that you will like or hate. And just as the case with the source material used for inspiration, in This Bed We Made the players’ choices carry a heavy weight.

By the end of the game the initially separate leads will converge into a logical structure, and you will be presented with the reasons that led to the ending that you received. There are multiple endings and many decisions that lead to them giving the game a high replay value. Each playthrough can last several hours, so overall you get plenty of content to enjoy.

The only downside in the developer’s approach is that although they included multiple endings, they are actually emphasizing each time the one they consider the best one. You do not have to choose that one, but it is hurled at you each time you finish the game, as kind of a moral compass showing true north.

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Still, this somewhat self-righteous approach does not take too much away from the satisfaction when we can see laid out in front of us the consequences of our choices and how they amounted to a certain outcome. These moments are even more satisfactory than the puzzles, some of which are quite entertaining.

Most of them are not very complicated and can be solved by carefully going through your surroundings, but the perceived pressure of not getting caught while snooping around makes things more interesting. Also, they are a refreshing addition to cleaning the rooms while searching through personal effects and reading various notes and letters.

If you get stuck or you are curious about Sophie’s perspective you can always tune in to her inner monologue, through which she will give hints about what should be done next or what she thinks about the situation in front of her. The system sounds good on paper, but in reality, it is quite limited and repetitive.  

The downfall of the game is the technical part, where you feel that despite all the good ideas, we are dealing with an indie project made with limited resources. The visual style is solid, but in many cases the decorum is very simple and functional, without too many details. Also, the animations are downright clumsy and limited. One of the best examples is the lip sync that does not match the voice acting.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion