The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart is a short but very well crafted first person murder mystery game in which you will have to make sure you get away with murder. The cops will search every square inch of the house you live in so you need to make sure you hide all the evidence.

A nicely done film noir reenactment of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart

If you’ve read the The Tell-Tale Heart, then what you have to do in the game will not be much of a mystery but it will still be a good challenge. If however the short story is not something familiar to you, then it’s best to just play the game and try to make sense of what’s going on and afterwards go read the story.
The Tell-Tale Heart starts off with you in a room, unaware of what has or is happening and as you look around, you hear the voice of an old man, which is kind of creepy since there is no one there with you. You make your way into the rest of the house, you see a bottle of wine and a note which tells of someone’s discomfort with a new tenant. Shortly after that, you hear the police knocking on your door and the story takes off.
A really nice thing about the game is that for those who don’t know the story, they have to get away with murder while trying to figure out how they did in the first place.

You feel the pressure of your conscience and insanity

A nice feature of the game is that as you do your best to hide the evidence and make sure that the police have no reason to be more suspicious, the walls, furniture and even the entire house starts to sway and ripple uncontrollably. The more pressure you feel from the cops interrogating you, the worse things become.
It’s a great little effect that puts emphasis on the tense atmosphere and makes finding some of the clues a bit tougher. That and the fact that you constantly hear the heartbeat of the deceased man which slowly makes you go mad.

See if your victim’s heartbeat can make you go mad

All in all, The Tell-Tale Heart does need a bit of polishing here and there but it’s a really good indie product. Also, expect a bit of a crazy mouse sensitivity which makes clicking a bit tougher but not impossible.