The Roottrees Are Dead is a deductive reasoning puzzle game in a similar vein as the Golden Idol series or to a lesser extent, Obra Dinn.

At its center, this is Family Tree: The Game. You are given a screen-spanning network of empty boxes connected by lines and are asked, "Who is this?" on each little node. Within those nodes you need to select a photograph of the mystery person and their name, and to a lesser extent, their title (Lawyer, Housewife, etc). Naturally, in order to place these photos and name sin the right place, they need to be placed in relation to one another and their position within the Roottree's lineage. The interesting part comes with how you discover these photographs, names and roles.

You are given a computer straight out of the late 90's and asked to use an in-universe version of the internet to explore the mysteries of the Roottrees (truly annoying name to type btw). A search engine, a library look-up, and a periodicals look-up. The easiest way to explain this is to walk you through an example, so bear with me here.

You are given some basic information to start. There was a plane crash and the core of the Roottree family was killed. In reading the news paper article on the subject you see a photo of the three Roottree sisters, by right clicking the faces on the photo therein, you are given the three photos to use within the family tree. The only question is, who is who? In order to find their names you have to go to the computer and use the Spidersearch to look up the sisters. You find their names, but now you need to figure out which is which. While you were finding their names, you saw that an interview was mentioned in a magazine. When the magazine was mentioned you get a message saying that the Periodical search feature has been updated with that magazine, so now you can search the archives of that magazine. Now you enter the Periodicals and select that magazine then you type in the Roottree Sisters here and find that mentioned article. The article gives you some clues about one or two of the sisters, who is the eldest, who wears jewelery, things of that nature. These and a few more contexst clues allow you to make educated guesses as to which of the three sisters goes where on the tree, which of the three is Rhose, Rhiley or Carly, and you learn that they had a specific role within the Roottree empire. dYou enter these and with three completed, you get a confirmation screen that you got three right. Everything that you got correct is highlighted now, and you know you're on the right track.

That is the basic loop through the entire game, though it does get more and more complex as it goes on. It is an excellent puzzle experience that really only faulters when you do the "New Game+" mode, called Roottreemania, which is essentially a DLC-sized expansion of the formula, which sort of loses its way and becomes less interesting and more tedious. If you enjoy games like Golden Idol, this is a must play, to be honest.

WARNING: Updated - Originally thought that this game's assets were all AI generated. Apparently this was teh case in the Itch.IO version and then that changes for the Steam release. I'm pretty sure they had Midjourney listed in the credits when I first beat the game, but that's certainly not the case now, so maybe it was a Mandella situation. Either way, good game, review still stands.