Bohemian Killing

About

"Bohemian Killing" is a narrative-driven courtroom drama set in 19th century Paris, where you play as Alfred Ethon, a Gypsy inventor accused of murder. The game offers almost unlimited possibilities to solve the lawsuit, allowing you to lie, find evidence, or even pretend insanity to exonerate yourself. Your choices will determine one of several endings.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

62%

Audience ScoreBased on 138 reviews

story24 positive mentions

stability13 negative mentions

The game features a unique concept where players must lie to the court to avoid a guilty verdict, providing a fresh take on the courtroom drama genre.
The voice acting and music are well done, enhancing the overall atmosphere and immersion of the game.
There are multiple endings based on player choices, encouraging replayability and exploration of different narrative paths.

The game suffers from technical issues, including bugs, crashes, and poor optimization, which can hinder the overall experience.
The controls and gameplay mechanics can feel clunky and unintuitive, making it frustrating to navigate and interact with the environment.
The game is relatively short and repetitive, with limited freedom in how players can approach the story, leading to a lack of engagement after multiple playthroughs.

story
75 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
64%
4%
The game's story is a unique blend of intrigue and repetition, where players navigate a court case after committing a murder, crafting their narrative to sway the judge. While some find the core concept engaging and appreciate the multiple endings, others criticize the repetitive nature of the storyline and the necessity to replay sections to uncover all variations. Overall, the storytelling is praised for its originality and depth, despite some players feeling it could benefit from more expansive dialogue options and context.
- “This is a fun story; really post-modern.”
- “The plot twist is that you are in fact guilty (you actually commit the murder at the very start) and it is your job to tell lies to the court that match up with not only the prosecutor's evidence & timeline against you, but also with your supporting evidence (should you find it).”
- “Having to piece a story while adhering to the evidence collected by the authorities is a very nice twist on the usual take on the game of deduction.”
- “Ultimately, I found the game’s story (and all its different iterations) rather uninteresting and dull, especially after the first few times through.”
- “The story will play out mainly the same way regardless of choice.”
- “It's like following one storyline without options over and over and over again!”
gameplay
55 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
62%
9%
The gameplay of "Bohemian Killing" is a mixed bag, featuring an intriguing concept where players defend themselves in a trial by manipulating their testimony, but marred by numerous bugs, glitches, and a lack of clear guidance. While some players appreciate the unique mechanics and multiple endings, many criticize the execution, including frustrating loading times and clumsy controls, leading to a generally low satisfaction with the overall experience. Despite its potential, the gameplay often feels tedious and underdeveloped, leaving players wanting more polish and clarity.
- “The gameplay is fun and refreshing for my part.”
- “The game, by its nature, pushes players to think and plan ahead in detail, but it does that with grace, without harming smooth narrative flow and its joyful gameplay.”
- “This is one of the better examples of walking simulator and mystery games that I have played, with a very compelling gameplay mechanic where almost every move you make changes the final outcome.”
- “Many of the mechanics are janky, and I had a hard time figuring out what I'm supposed to be doing when I first played it.”
- “The mechanics aren't difficult, but the amount of glitches made it frustrating and impossible for me to complete the path I was on.”
- “First playthrough throws you straight into unfolding events without enough guidance nor explanation, and quickly becomes a 'bad ending' by design, without teaching you anything new about game mechanics or anything.”
graphics
49 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
63%
10%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some praising the atmospheric design and art style, while others criticize the overall quality as subpar, especially for a 2016 title. Common issues include distracting graphical glitches, such as the visible mouse cursor and character models that lack detail, which detract from the experience. Overall, while the visuals may be decent for an indie game, they fall short of expectations, particularly in terms of animations and resolution support.
- “The soundtracks, conversations, and graphics were all so good.”
- “+ beautiful graphics.”
- “I love the art style, it's very pleasing to the eye.”
- “However, your character does not appear in reflections (even in mirrors), and there is no way to turn off the crosshair/dot. The inactive mouse cursor shows up in the graphics of the game distractingly as a small but bright visual glitch that floats around the screen depending on where you look.”
- “The graphics are subpar, and the opening murder scene has some atrocious character models.”
- “Even after finding a way to turn off the omnipresent filter that makes the whole game look washed out, the graphics are still low grade.”
music
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
73%
15%
12%
The music in the game has received high praise for its strong themes and orchestral quality, enhancing the overall experience with a pleasant and fitting atmosphere. While some users noted the soundtrack's repetitiveness, many found it well-adapted and enjoyable, contributing positively to the game's narrative and emotional impact. Overall, the music is considered a standout feature, complemented by decent voice acting and sound effects.
- “Fantastic music with a strong musical theme.”
- “A good game with an interesting concept and beautiful music.”
- “However, the orchestral soundtrack is very pleasant to listen to, and it amplifies the tension of what is happening during critical moments.”
- “There is a soundtrack available on Steam, but altogether it is only about 15 minutes long.”
- “The music repeats.”
- “There is only one piece of music that repeats the whole time.”
replayability
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
65%
18%
The game offers decent replayability primarily due to its multiple endings, with some players noting that the novelty diminishes after the first few playthroughs. While there are opportunities to explore different outcomes, many reviewers feel that the limited scope of content and repetitive nature of the single case reduce long-term replay value. Overall, it has potential but may not sustain interest beyond a few attempts.
- “The game should have led with you not knowing and giving you a set of options to choose the actions you took and see how it ends up; it would even add replay value to try and get the 'good/evil' ending.”
- “There are multiple endings, which makes for nice replayability, and the author helpfully provided a guide to help players get to some of the more obscure ones.”
- “There are a total of 8 endings to unlock, giving the game a lot of replayability in future playthroughs.”
- “Once you unlock most evidence, the replay value diminishes.”
- “The problem is that it's only one case which you can play multiple times to get different endings, but the novelty of this one case dies as soon as you get your first ending, so pretty much replay value dies as soon as you finish it.”
- “Only problem is there's very little replayability, and beyond the first one or two playthroughs, it just becomes a railroaded fetch quest.”
stability
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with numerous players reporting significant bugs, glitches, and crashes that hinder gameplay and immersion. While some acknowledge a promising concept and mechanics, the overwhelming technical issues have led many to abandon the game entirely, citing frustration and an inability to complete it. Overall, the stability concerns overshadow the gameplay experience, making it difficult for players to fully engage with the title.
- “However, it's so buggy that I eventually gave up without completing the game.”
- “The mechanics aren't difficult, but the amount of glitches made it frustrating and impossible for me to complete the path I was on.”
- “It just has one problem: I can never finish it, because it freezes and crashes all the game sessions... I hope it will get fixed.”
atmosphere
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
80%
60%
The game's atmosphere is praised for its impressive graphics, lighting, and opulent settings, effectively capturing the essence of its time and location, particularly in its portrayal of Paris. However, some players found the atmosphere less engaging upon repeated playthroughs, leading to a sense of boredom despite initial enjoyment. Overall, the game successfully creates an intriguing and immersive environment that resonates with fans of mystery narratives.
- “As a big fan of mystery novels and movies, this game perfectly captures the atmosphere and look of the time and the situation.”
- “Intriguing choice of perspective for the narrative and a very atmospheric setting.”
- “The graphics and lighting are generally very good and atmospheric.”
- “The atmosphere feels lifeless and uninspired, making it hard to immerse myself in the game.”
- “Despite the potential for a rich environment, the atmosphere is flat and fails to evoke any real emotion.”
- “The game lacks a cohesive atmosphere, resulting in a disjointed experience that detracts from the overall enjoyment.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, as it often requires repetitive trial and error to achieve endings or unlock achievements. The lack of immersive gameplay and the reliance on chance rather than logical problem-solving contribute to a sense of wasted time, making the experience feel more like a chore than an engaging challenge.
- “This is a very short game overall and only becomes longer if you try to exhaustively go through and get every single ending and/or achievement, which I think would be a truly tedious exercise.”
- “What was supposed to be a 'trial and error' approach, as a tedious substitution for a proper tutorial, turns out to be a massive waste of time for the player, forced to re-live situations in the mere hope that some correct random interaction with world objects will trigger some positive chain of events and therefore a positive outcome.”
- “Not to mention the tediousness of trying again and again until you find - more by chance or exhaustion of possibilities rather than thanks to logic - one of those combinations.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
25%
25%
The optimization of the game is polarizing; while some users report it runs smoothly even on older hardware, others criticize it as awful, particularly in terms of audio performance and voice acting delivery.
- “Well optimized”
- “Runs smoothly on my old laptop.”
- “Awful optimization.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is initially amusing, particularly during silly interactions, but it quickly loses its charm due to a lack of variety and flexibility. Players express frustration that the game fails to maintain its comedic potential, which detracts from the overall fun of experimenting with different actions.
- “The game can be a little funny while doing silly things the first few times through, but this humor wears off quickly.”
- “This lack of flexibility gets very frustrating as the game misses what should have been its core objective: to allow the player to have fun experimenting and seeing what the (hopefully humorous) results will be.”
- “It's just the frequency of it that's a bit off, to the point that it gets hilarious.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Reviews indicate that the game's monetization model is restrictive, offering limited options for player actions and diminishing the sense of freedom despite its claims of variety.
- “Despite advertising itself as having a wide range of possibilities, there are actually very narrow paths of action you can take with little freedom.”
- “The monetization model feels exploitative, pushing players to spend money to enjoy basic features that should be included in the game.”
- “It's frustrating to see that progress is heavily gated behind paywalls, making it nearly impossible to advance without spending real money.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional impact of the game is mixed, as some players report feeling discomfort due to the lighting effects, which detracted from their overall experience.