Use your texting skills to catch a serial killer in this detective game

Nothing to Remember detective game
(Image credit: Guts United)

I never really liked talking on the phone, so I'm quite happy that texting has almost completely replaced phone calls as the go-to option for communicating with other human beings. Hopefully you agree, because there's a serial killer on the loose and if you're going to catch them, texting is the only way to do it.

Nothing to Remember is an interactive fiction game that gives off a bit of the same vibe as Her Story. But instead of typing search terms into a fragmented database, you're texting to solve the mystery. Several mysteries, in fact, as there's both a cold case to investigate and a fresh murder to solve. Luckily, there are plenty of suspects, too.

You play a police detective who's been transferred out of her department after being accused of illegally hacking a database while trying to prove an accidental death was really a murder. And now you're on the trail of a serial killer who, incidentally, is taunting you with texts. Communication with your boyfriend, your new partner, your boss, your parents, and other characters is all handled through texting and sometimes the sending of an eerie video clip or photograph. You don't type your own messages, but as the conversations scroll up your screen you can choose from different options to respond.

(Image credit: Guts United)

I've played it for a bit today and it's all handled really well—the entire game looks like a text chat pane on your desktop with your various contacts and conversations in different tabs. We all know the ominous feeling of staring at the three dots on your screen that indicate someone is typing a message but not knowing what they're going to say. Nothing to Remember captures that feeling well, especially since you're dealing with a bizarre series of murders.

It's a bit of a slow burn: I'm a couple hours in but I don't feel like I've gotten all that far in the investigation yet. (One of the Steam reviews says it took the player about 20 hours to reach an ending.) But most of the writing is well done and the various mysteries have remained pretty engaging. Nothing to Remember is $9 on Steam, and is 10% off at the moment. 

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Read more
Close up of three people at a Christmas party in The Roottrees are Dead, with picture in picture close ups of each individual's head.
The Roottrees are Dead review
A newspaper front page showing the headline "The Roottrees are Dead" with a photo of three sisters.
The best part of this brilliant detective game is going back to a time when searching the internet was a huge pain... uh, for different reasons than it is now
Blood Typers
Blood Typers is a budget-priced fusion of Typing of the Dead and co-op survival horror
An ominous man holds his finger over a book, eyes closed, while an eye floats above a pyramid behind him.
If you've ever wished Phoenix Wright was a witcher then do I have the game for you
A man turns away from an open window while monsters gather in the dark
Look Outside is a survival horror RPG where you absolutely should not look outside
Facing an enemy in No-Skin
No-Skin is an incredibly simple horror roguelike about the worst party ever, full of strong booze, bad conversation and eldritch violence
Latest in Adventure
Image of illuminated manuscript-style drawings from the game Pentiment.
Random characters kept swearing in Obsidian's font-obsessed murder-mystery when its procedural error system ran amok: 'Naughtiness abounded'
An image of a corpse with the text "You've been re-educated."
I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999
Rosella encounters a satyr in a forest in King's Quest 4
Eagle-eyed streamer spots that Roberta Williams' portrait in King's Quest 4 is based on her author photo on the back of the game box: 'I never noticed it before.'
Myst puzzle game
'You’ve been asking, and we’ve been listening': Myst remake adds a whole new world to the classic adventure, one originally introduced in another overhaul from 25 years ago
The character takes a test in a school room.
Expelled! review
Max, protagonist of Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Double Exposure, stares with trepidation at something off-screen with her friend.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure reportedly a 'large loss' for Square Enix, says analyst, who adds: 'The company's IP fundamentally varies too much between good and bad'
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened