Developer: Square Enix, Tactic Studios
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
KILLER INN – Preview
Online social deduction games have been popular for quite some time now, with games like Town of Salem being one of the frontrunners and Among Us putting the genre on the map for a mainstream audience. Over the years, many developers have tried putting their own original spin on the formula, with some of them gaining a huge playerbase while many others fail to lift off. Square Enix is now also developing their own action-packed variation with KILLER INN, which was recently released on Steam in Early Access.
The premise is that 24 people are staying at the same ‘inn’, which is more akin to a luxury resort, and eight guests are so-called wolves, while the rest are lambs. The wolves need to murder the lambs, while the lambs will either need to dispose of the wolves or escape successfully. It’s a fairly straightforward concept, but the game does make things a bit more complex with items you can scavenge, weapons you can upgrade, quests you can complete, and investigations you can conduct.
Everyone starts the match at level one, and you’ll gain experience by completing quests, conducting investigations, etc, which will make you more powerful regardless of whether you are a wolf or a lamb. The game does make it so you have to keep track of several things at once, while other players also move around freely. As the game supports voice chat, we expected to deceive other players or at least talk to other players to find out their true intentions. At the time of writing, everyone just runs around frantically, treating the game like a generic shooter rather than a social deduction game, which disappointed us. The general gameplay loop is not bad, and the game is well crafted, but the current playerbase is clearly not interested in the ‘social’ aspect. We also noticed quite a few balancing issues, lag spikes due to many international players, and recognizing exposed killers was not always that easy when multiple players had similar-looking kanji in their names. There is currently already a battle pass embedded into the experience, with quite a few microtransactions also available. Luckily, there is quite a bit of free content to unlock, which does give you some incentive to keep coming back, even if you don’t opt for the premium microtransactions. Currently, all the items in the store are of a cosmetic nature, so there is no pay-to-win element at this time.
Credit should be given where it’s due, and we have to say that this is a really good-looking game. The environments of the two maps were well crafted, and it was a joy to explore the different nooks and crannies of the so-called inns and their surroundings. There is a lot of attention to detail, and the very diverse cast of characters does add a lot of charm to the mix. Each of these characters also has different perks, allowing you to tailor the experience to your playstyle. We would argue that, in the future, it would be interesting to restrict character picks (skins) and offer perks as a separate option, as this would make it easier to find exposed killers. The sound design is also quite nice, and there are even different background tracks for the different characters, which you can unlock by playing them in several matches.
Conclusion
KILLER INN has a lot of potential, and we quite enjoyed the fast-paced nature of the matches. We did notice some balancing issues, and the social component feels a bit undercooked at the time of writing this preview. Even so, the concept is an original spin on a genre that is slowly being overdone, and with the right attention to detail, the developers could easily make this a hit. We did feel that the battle pass progression felt too slow and that Square Enix is sadly already focusing too much on microtransactions. With a store page and an in-game warning telling us the game might be closed in the future, we hope this one doesn’t suffer the same fate as Babylon’s Fall, another Square Enix live service game.
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