Follow veteran homicide detective Thomas H. Bennett, just a week from retirement, as he investigates the mysterious death of tycoon Arthur Blackthorn and the disappearance of his daughter Emily. What begins as a routine case soon turns into a surreal descent through the twisting corridors of Blackthorn & Co, where time, space, and sanity collapse...

Your first challenge is to chose the correct lift to start you on your quest

Immerse yourself in a psychological thriller with narrative adventure elements and unsettling details. Join Detective Bennett on his final case and uncover dark secrets in a world where reality bends and sanity wavers. The Empty Desk is the first chapter of Detective Bennett: Solved Cases a psychological thriller blending narrative adventure and horror. The game tackles themes of mental health, emotional burnout, and workplace alienation through Bennett’s experiences and the dark mysteries of Blackthorn.

The game takes place in the Blackthorn & Co offices, which are a changing, disorienting environment where reality distorts, and every step reveals new threats and secrets.

Your first challenge is to find which of the numerous lifts is the one that will take you up to the correct floor in the huge office building. This isn't really much of a challenge as once you've wandered around, and examined a few things, the correct lift automatically opens for you. The next element of the game sees you walking through one of the office floors, picking up clues. When you get to the end, you loop around back to the start of that level, but things have changed.

It's a simple, yet effective, mechanic that leaves the player a little disoriented as they wonder through time and space to uncover the mystery at the centre of the game. It's not an original mechanic, and some might even say it's a little lazy as it allows the developers to reuse the same old environments over and over again. But for this game the time shifts help to add a little more credibility to its use.

It's a fun little game and though whilst not groundbreaking, is entertaining for the duration.

6

Nick Smithson