Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big sucker for detective games. In fact, over the years I’ve become the resident mystery game reviewer, especially if it involves an anthropomorphic detective in a gritty noir setting (no offense to Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot). Hell, I still think about Backbone and The Chicken Police regularly. So when I heard about Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery from developer Nobody Crown, I was immediately intrigued. A murder mystery game? Check. A gritty, noir setting? Check. An anthropomorphic detective as the protagonist? Checkeroo (sorry, I’ll never say “checkeroo” again, I promise). So how does Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery compare to the other furry flatfoots who came before? Let’s bust out our notepads and magnifying lens and take a closer look.

I picked the wrong day to quit drinking… milk.

In Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery you play a feline sleuth referred to only as “The Detective”. His phone rings one day with news of an incident at the Kreinberg Museum, and it’s up to The Detective to uncover what happened. However, discovering the truth is going to be harder than he first realizes, as everyone in the museum has more to their story than first meets the eye. The Detective will need all of his cunning and knowhow to get to the bottom of the case… hopefully without losing one of his nine lives in the process.

Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery takes a lot of inspiration from The Duck Detective: The Secret Salami, which is immediately apparent. Both feature 2D sprites in an isometric view, both use a notebook where you have to fill in the blanks to solve parts of the case, and both use a magnifying glass to find clues. Unfortunately, the similarities to The Duck Detective also means that its shares many of its shortcomings as well.

I’m gonna need a stiff glass of milk when this is all over.

The Detective will have to interrogate every suspect in order to obtain their testimony and gain any potential clues or leads to follow up on. This is the vast majority of the gameplay, along with examining everything within the area around you to ensure you’re not missing any key details. Because of this, Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery takes a while to really get going, since most of the earlier parts of the game is just getting to know who everyone is. Thankfully, unlike The Duck Detective, there are actually reasons to go back and re-interview each suspect, as new information is constantly being revealed that will require you to check up on.

You can either confirm or challenge suspects’ testimonies by either using other suspect’s testimonies or evidence.

As more is uncovered, The Detective will keep track of what he’s learned in his notebook. Among the lists of suspects and their statements is a place where you can assemble a timeline of what transpired. You’ll need to enter in the correct person, object, place, or action into the blank spots in the timeline template. If everything you’ve entered is correct, then it will be underlined in green. If you have two or fewer answers incorrect, the section will be underlined in yellow, and two or more wrong guesses will be in red.

It’s not as difficult as it might seem, and will be made exponentially easier to solve if you wait to do the timeline sections until after you’ve talked to everyone and investigated everything. Who would’ve thought that having all the pieces to a puzzle would make it easier? That said, if you find yourself struggling with these parts, then you can turn on a help assist option in the settings menu for hints or even just outright providing the correct answers, if you so choose. Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery is not a difficult game by any means, but if you want to keep your experience more casual and laidback, then it might be a good option for you.

Honestly, as long as you listen to what each suspect has to say, these timeline sections aren’t difficult.

One of the highlights of Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery is its charm. As mentioned above, it features a striking art style, using hand-drawn 2D character sprites moving around 3D environments in an isometric angle. It also features a mostly monochromatic color palette, with occasional pops of bright colors for a dazzling contrast. In addition to the wide variety of animal characters, this game is full of puns, especially in the museum art exhibits. Many of them brought a smile to my face, being clever parody replications of famous works of art. 

The sound design is quite minimalist, but it works well enough. There’s no voice acting and not too many sound effects, but the music is what shines here. The soundtrack is a nice, meowllow jazzy affair, which sets the tone well for this noir setting. 

Wait, is the master Sword here too?!

All in all, I found myself a bit underwhelmed by Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery. It has some good ideas, and I do like that you actually have to pay attention to what the suspects say in order to make connections or to challenge testimony. However, it takes quite a while to fully get interesting, which I feel might turn off some players, especially a younger audience. It also suffers from a lack of any real challenge, as there’s no penalty for making incorrect deductions or timeline entries. I understand it’s supposed to be a casual experience, and that’s fine, especially with the additional hints options for better accessibility, but there’s honestly no challenge to be had here. Because of this, I fear that Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery might become another case that eventually grows cold.

Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery is available now on PC (Steam).

Reviewed on PC with i7-12700kf, RTX 5070, and 32gb DDR5 RAM.

A Copy of Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery was provided by the publisher.