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Play Overview
The Roottrees Are Dead (2025) is a narrative game where you piece together a family tree from scraps of information you find during the early Internet era. You trawl through web pages, identify people in photographs, and pore over magazine excerpts to locate every member of the family. It stands out not only for its information parsing challenge but also for the dark secrets and long-lost truths you unearth in your search.
The game is set in 1988. The Roottrees, a wealthy and powerful family, are dead. With no heir, their great-great-grandfather set up a trust which means that all of their inheritance must now be split between all their blood relatives. The problem is that no one knows who they are. You're hired as an investigator to reconstruct the family tree and find all living relatives using whatever tools you can. Play involves using the early Internet, and other sources, to find the names of each relative, match them to a photo, and deduce the family genealogy.
Initially, you're able to find lots of information on different people, and the challenge is figuring out what relates to who. But as you find ever more people and information becomes scarce, you must comb through each web page, photo, and journal for any scrap of knowledge. Each new clue can then be used in the web search or a lead as to which magazines or newspapers you should leaf through.
The result is a dense, tightly crafted mystery where every thread you pull leads to new discoveries. It's intentionally tough, with little in the way of guidance, but that just serves to make your successful deductions all the more rewarding.
Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked The Roottrees Are Dead 2 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 9 days ago.
The game is set in 1988. The Roottrees, a wealthy and powerful family, are dead. With no heir, their great-great-grandfather set up a trust which means that all of their inheritance must now be split between all their blood relatives. The problem is that no one knows who they are. You're hired as an investigator to reconstruct the family tree and find all living relatives using whatever tools you can. Play involves using the early Internet, and other sources, to find the names of each relative, match them to a photo, and deduce the family genealogy.
Initially, you're able to find lots of information on different people, and the challenge is figuring out what relates to who. But as you find ever more people and information becomes scarce, you must comb through each web page, photo, and journal for any scrap of knowledge. Each new clue can then be used in the web search or a lead as to which magazines or newspapers you should leaf through.
The result is a dense, tightly crafted mystery where every thread you pull leads to new discoveries. It's intentionally tough, with little in the way of guidance, but that just serves to make your successful deductions all the more rewarding.
Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked The Roottrees Are Dead 2 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 9 days ago.
Kids not old enough for this yet? There are lots of games similar to The Roottrees Are Dead. Here are some similar younger-rated games:
Play Style
This is a Brain Game and Narrative game with Communication, Point-and-Click and Puzzle elements. This is a single-player game.
You can play this game in the following styles:
Duration
Play Time: This game will take between 8 hours and 10 hours to complete. Depending on how quickly you're able to figure out the different puzzles and identify all the relatives, the time to beat varies.
Benefits
This game is good if you want to:
Age Ratings
Skill Level
12+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game. You need excellent observational and critical thinking skills to play the game well, as well as the ability to persist with puzzles and come up with inventive solutions.
Game Details
Release Date: 15/01/2025
Out Now: Mac and PC
Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Brain Game, Narrative (Communication, Point-and-Click and Puzzle)
Accessibility: 0 features documented (Tweet Developer )
Components: 3D First-Person
Developer: Evil Trout (@EvilTrout)
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